CANNIBAL CORPSE, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, THE FACELESS, PERIPHERY, JOB FOR A COWBOY, GOATWHORE, EXHUMED, CEREBRAL BORE
Event on 2012-08-10 14:00:00
Supporting Acts: Second Stage:, A Wanted Awakening, Art Of The Enemy, As Tyrants Fall, The Atlas Collaspse, Conforza, Destroy The Legacy, Dysentery, Formless, Pathogenic, The Summoned
CANNIBAL CORPSE
Cannibal Corpse has smashed—nay, hammer smashed—every boundary set before them, defied every censor set upon them, and besmirched every country that would have them. After two decades of unending death metal torment, the band's calling cards are many: the depraved lyrics, the blinding technical prowess, the dominating stage presence, the legions of dedicated fans, the million and a half albums sold. From their bloody Caesarian inception in 1988 and debut splatterfest Eaten Back To Life (1990), Cannibal Corpse have mangled the minds and stereo systems of death metal youth from Buffalo to Sydney to Tokyo to Tampa while playing a crucial role in inspiring a new wave of musicians like The Black Dahlia Murder and Cattle Decapitation. In the far-flung death metal universe, the name Cannibal Corpse has achieved godfather status—not only for the band's morbid musical legacy but because of their commitment to the scene as a whole. "Part of the reason we may have ended up in a leadership position in the scene is because we've been consistent," bassist Alex Webster offers. "We've tried to stay 100% death metal in the kind of music we make, and we've always tried to take younger death metal bands on tour to help give back to the scene we've been so lucky with. So if we've become godfathers of death metal in any way, it's because we care about the scene, and we've been consistently caring about it for our entire career."
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
The men of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME have once again charted an expedition into undiscovered country. Colors, BTBAM's fifth and newest release, is a continuous, sonic labyrinth of savage metal, lush prog-rock and uninhibited emotion. "It's the ultimate BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME record," says vocalist Tommy Rogers. "It's definitely the most musical thing we have ever written. It goes through so many shifts and moods but still feels very organic and comfortable." "Comfortable" is exactly where BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME should be right now. After countless tours, nearly 250,000 records sold, and recording four of the decade's most celebrated albums, BTBAM have every right to feel invigorated. BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME began in 2000 when Tommy Rogers met Paul Waggoner and agreed to craft a style of hard rock that would defy categorization. Their impressive, self-titled debut was a widely heralded collection of stomping, progressive metal and hardcore filled with brutal breakdowns mixed with intricate musicianship and shifts in mood. The band signed with VICTORY RECORDS shortly after and followed suit with another pivotal release within the metal/hardcore underworld entitled The Silent Circus. This album was another chapter in the ever-evolving band and put them on the map of today's modern wave of forward-thinking American metal. After several line-up changes, the band finally found their footing with 2005's Alaska. New members Dan Briggs, Dustie Waring and Blake Richardson immediately clicked with Rogers and Waggoner and gave BTBAM the kind of foundation that would allow them to take their unique brand of rock to the masses. "Alaska was written together and it was really us, with the newer members, Blake, Dustie and Dan just finding our sound," explains Rogers of the new family members and their third full-length release. "After that record, we really felt that we found our niche." "I had just joined the band and they had the title track already written," says bassist Dan Briggs. "We didn't know each other and we all had new ideas in writing more for that record. We went on tour right after it was completed." The touring went non-stop and brought them face to face with the heavy metal summer camp known as Ozzfest. The Anatomy Of…, their fourth release, contained renditions of classics by Metallica, Queen, Depeche Mode and Faith No More and was released just as Ozzfest kicked off that summer. The response was phenomenal and helped open BTBAM up to an even wider audience, giving the world a closer idea of the broad creativity that resides in them. But it was hardly an indication of what was yet to come. The demanding summer and fall of 2006 was the catalyst for the band to begin work on what would become Colors. They felt inspired and enthused by the challenge ahead of them. "This is the best that the band has been since day one," says vocalist Tommy Rogers. "We wanted a much more epic feel to the record and make it clear that this would be a complete album, not just a collection of songs," Rogers explains. "You have to listen to this all the way through to really get it. Today, music is all about singles and videos and the other songs are just filler. We really did something that we are all very proud of and feel this is opening a whole new chapter for us" Colors is not just an ambitious piece of music, it is a monolithic step forward in the advancement of hard rock. This record affirms that the music of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME is as emotionally engaging and beautiful as it is brutally empowering and complex. So it seems only fitting that such a groundbreaking studio album would be just as good, if not better, live. In October of 2008, Colors Live was released to the public. The two disc CD/DVD set offers live footage of a performance in Nashville, as well as special features.
THE FACELESS
Line up: Jeff Ventimiglia - vocals Michael Keene - guitar Steve Jones - guitar Brandon Giffin - bass Brett Batdorf - drums Michael Sherer - keyboards The Faceless are a technical metal band from the Los Angeles area who have formed to astonish their live audiences with dizzying guitar work, lightning fast drumming and unmatched brutality. Formed by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin, the band quickly found the perfect mix of dedicated musicians to complete the line up. Drummer Brett Batdorf having played a brief stint with Himsa and long time drummer of the acclaimed Los Angeles death metal band Tchildres complimented the group perfectly and was added to the line up soon after. The combination of blistering guitar work, complex and fast-paced rhythms, offset by haunting keyboards and brutal vocals from singer Jeff Ventimiglia set The Faceless in a class with the metal legends who have come before to change metal forever. The Faceless have developed a large following from their dead accurate live performance and the online success of 3 songs recorded and produced by guitarist Michael Keene. The band has already become a buzz in the metal scene drawing up to 300 kids at local shows. The Faceless is quickly rising to the top in a sea of mediocrity to claim their place in metal virtuosity. In the past year The Faceless have been lucky enough to share the stage with such talented acts as: Cephalic Carnage, Vital Remains, Impaled, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Animosity, Ed Gein, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Into The Moat, Reflux, On Broken Wings, From A Second Story Window, Ion Dissonance, Crematorium, Phobia, Light This City, Neuraxis, Job For A Cowboy, Intronaut, Anal blast, All Shall Perish, Winter Solstice, Radiation 4, The Red Death, Embrace The End, Psyopus, Deadsoil, Glass Casket, and many others.
JOB FOR A COWBOY
Unleashing a relentless fusion of hardcore and death metal with the precision guitar attack of progressive metal, Job for a Cowboy was formed in Glendale, AZ, in 2002. The group was founded by vocalist Jonny Davy, guitarists Ravi Bhadriraju and Andrew Arcurio, bassist Chad Staples, and drummer Andy Rysdam, and the band cut their first demo CD in 2004. In 2005, the band recorded a six-song EP, Doom, that attracted the attention of Arizona independent label King of the Monsters, who distributed the disc after an initial self-released pressing by the band. Doom earned a potent buzz in metal circles, enhanced by extensive touring, and Metal Blade Records signed the band in 2006, reissuing Doom with a bonus track. Recorded between road trips with producer Andy Sneap at the controls, the group's first album, Genesis, was released in May 2007 by Metal Blade, with lots more touring to follow. Mark Deming, All Music Guide
GOATWHORE
Goatwhore is a black/death metal band from the swamps of New Orleans, LA. They were formed by well known musicians from the Louisiana metal scene. They first came together in 1996/97 when Sammy Duet (former Acid Bath/Crowbar guitarist) and Zak Nolan (former drummer of Goatwhore, now replaced by Zack Simmons) jammed together as a little sideproject when Acid Bath was taking a break. They soon made some four track demos. When Acid Bath fell apart in 1997 (due to the loss of bassist Audie Pitre) they dedicated more time to Goatwhore (formerly known as Kilgore). They quickly turned into a 4 piece with the addition of Ben Falgoust and Pat Bruders. In 2004 Goatwhore was offered a deal by Metal Blade Records, who they are signed with now… "We are timeless … within damnation" With its 2000 debut, The Eclipse of the Ages Into Black, Louisiana miscreants Goatwhore explored old school satanic black metal as no American act had before. The band's flame-throwing ferocity and blasphemous conviction hailed such pioneers as Bathory and Venom and offered respite to purists grown weary of the fanciful, over-orchestrated musings of Europe's contemporary black metallurgists. Goatwhore's new second effort, Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun, ventures into darker, less conventional territory. Probing the pitch-black recesses of mind and soul in a disturbing, introspective examination of dark forces at work, and unleashing it all with a feral hookiness and atmospheric flare, the band steps beyond the bounds of mere black metal into a realm all its own. While the band's raw, vicious tone remains - and Falgoust and Duet's high-end, low-end vocal tradeoffs ensure plenty of menace - there's more order to the chaos on Funeral Dirge. The unrelenting tempos and buzz-sawing guitar that fueled Ages have been refined to provide "Vengeance of Demonic Fury" or "Baptized In A Storm Of Swords" with more structure, depth and texture. Goatwhore takes a rather drastic turn on "As The Sun Turns To Ash" and "Fires of the Judas Blood." With their dramatically slower pace and eerie vocal/guitar interplay, they echo Celtic Frost's ground-breaking Into The Pandemonium and lend an even more ominous air to the album. After releasing Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun in 2003, the band jumped to Metal Blade for 2006's A Haunting Curse, which took on a much clearer blackened death metal style. 2009 saw Goatwhore's latest release, Carving Out The Eyes Of God.
EXHUMED
San Francisco's Exhumed plays gore-obsessed death metal with a tongue-in-cheek flair and an overall musical approach that are often reminiscent of Carcass, a band whom they have frequently acknowledged as a primary influence. They have endured constant lineup changes to become, if not a highly original act, at least one of the better representatives of their doomed-to-obscurity subgenre. The band formed in 1991 with a lineup consisting of Matt Harvey (guitar, vocals), Col Jones (drums), Derrel Houdashelt (guitar), Jake Giardina (vocals), and Ben Marrs (bass). They made their first recordings under this formation, including the Excreting Innards 7" for Afterworld Records. Giardina and Marrs left the band within the next few years, with Matt Widener (bass) and Ross Sewage (vocals) brought in as replacements. After recording the Horrific Expulsion of Gore demo (1994), Widener left and Sewage took over bass duties. This lineup eventually recorded a split CD with the Ohio band Hemdale, In the Name of Gore, which came out on Visceral Productions in 1995 and featured an absolutely revolting album cover. Soon after, Houldashelt left and was eventually replaced by Mike Beams. With this lineup intact, they signed to Relapse Records and finally released their first official full-length, Gore Metal, in 1998, with guitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary) at the production helm. Sewage left the band shortly after this record, leaving the trio of Harvey, Beams, and Jones to record the follow-up, Slaughtercult. The album was released on Relapse in 2000 and was enthusiastically received among the death metal scene
at The Worcester Palladium
261 Main Street
Worcester, United States
Toadies / Helmet
Event on 2012-08-01 19:30:00
Supporting Acts: UME
Toadies
"There's a certain uneasiness to the Toadies," says Vaden Todd Lewis, succinctly and accurately describing his band—quite a trick. The Texas band is, at its core, just a raw, commanding rock band. Imagine an ebony sphere with a corona that radiates impossibly darker, and a brilliant circular sliver of light around that. It's nebulous, but strangely distinct—and, shall we say incorrect. Or, as Lewis says, "wrong." "Things are done a little askew [in the Toadies]," he says, searching for the right words. "There's just something wrong with it that's just really cool… and unique in a slightly uncomfortable way." This sick, twisted essence was first exemplified on the band's 1994 debut, Rubberneck (Interscope). An intense, swirling vortex of guitar rock built around Lewis's "wrong" songs—like the smash single "Possum Kingdom," subject to as much speculation as what's in the Pulp Fiction briefcase, it rocketed to platinum status on the strength of that and two other singles, "Tyler" and "Away." Its success was due to the Toadies' organic sound and all-encompassing style, which they aimed to continue on their next album. Perhaps in keeping with the uneasy vibe, that success didn't translate to label support when the Toadies submitted their second album, Feeler. Perhaps aptly, things in general just went wrong. It was the classic, cruel story: the label didn't 'get' it. "These were the songs we played live," says Rez. "It was pretty eclectic… different styles of heavy rock music—some fast, heavy punk rock songs and some slower, kinda mid-tempo stuff. I've never really been able to figure out what the beef was." "We got approval for a record," says Lewis, "and somewhere in the process of handing over the masters to get mixed, it got unapproved. So we went back to the drawing board." Eventually some of the Feeler tracks made it onto Hell Below/Stars Above—a sophomore offering that came seven years after Rubberneck. "It was a very weird, trying time," says Lewis, who didn't see the next blow—the sudden departure of bassist Lisa Umbarger—coming. "We went out on tour, and immediately the band split up," he laughs sardonically. "We kinda shot ourselves in the foot." They released a live album, Best of Toadies: Live from Paradise, and it was over. Coming out of the Toadies, Lewis, guitarist Clark Vogeler and drummer Mark Reznicek were disillusioned. Vogeler went to work as a film editor, Rez hooked up with the country-western band Eleven Hundred Springs. Lewis initially thought, "Fuck this whole business. I'm gettin' out. I just wanted to do anything else." Toadies fans, though accepting, stuck with them, often inquiring as to the band's activities. Says Lewis, "People just asked me "So, what are you doin' now?" Although he'd been "foolin' around" with Rev. Horton Heat drummer Taz Bentley, he answered, "I don't know. Nothin'. This, that and the other. Workin' around the house, workin' in the garage, just toolin' around." Soon it occurred to him that music was all he wanted to do. "I'm a musician. That's what I do, and I'm not happy not doing it." Lewis and Bentley formed the Burden Brothers in 2002 and released a slew of EPs, two albums and a DVD while touring profusely. "I took some of the lessons I learned in the business and took off with that band," says Lewis, "and tried to apply that knowledge." That's how he wound up with Texas indie label Kirtland Records. Meantime, "Possum Kingdom" never left the airwaves, enjoying constant rotation at major modern rock stations. Fans clamored for a Toadies reunion, which Lewis, Vogeler and Reznicek discovered wasn't such a remote possibility. "The band never went all the way away;" says Lewis. They regrouped in 2006 for a couple of sold-out shows around St. Patrick's Day, and again the next year for the same thing. In August 2007, when personnel changes with the Burden Brothers resulted in that band going on hiatus, Lewis began writing. "I was pissed off again and wanted to keep goin'," he says. "I didn't know what I was writing, right out of the gate, but… it was just coming out very "Toadies." Lewis called Rez and Vogeler and asked if they were interested in making another record. They were—and the Toadies officially reconvened, signing with Kirtland and recording No Deliverance with David Castell (Burden Brothers, Blue October) at Fort Worth Sound in Fort Worth, and Music Lane in Austin. Lewis says the band has gone for a "bare knuckle" sound, amping up the psychotic stomp heard on Rubberneck and Hell Below… on the grinding, relentless title track as well as the seething, death-of-a-romance gem "So Long Lovey Eyes" and the towering, sludgy "Man of Stone." The upshot is a taut, exhilarating listen that is quintessentially Toadies. Lewis is stoked on "the freshness of this new record. I wrote it between first week of August and, what? About a month ago. Getting back into this, back into the feel of the Toadies, is cool. Lewis, Rez, Vogeler and new bass player Doni Blair (Hagfish, Only Crime) are optimistic that their indie incarnation will succeed, thanks to the support of their devout fans—and equally supportive label. "The music industry has changed so much," says Vogeler. "A band like us can be on an independent label and still get the music out to the people who want to hear it." The Toadies are now free to pursue success on their own merit and muscle. And things are starting off nicely: On August 2, The Toadies will play Lollapalooza and, following the album's release, they'll embark on a nationwide tour offering old fans and those to come—as he recently told SPIN, "Balls. A ton of balls." "Getting back to the bare knuckles element of the Toadies," continues Lewis, "is what I really enjoy, after being away from it for so long." Vogeler and Rez concur. "I'm here and still doin' it," furthers Vogeler, "because the music's good." And Rez proclaims in his thick Texas drawl, "The Toadies are back in business." And suddenly, everything wrong is right.
Helmet
Seeing Eye Dog, Helmet’s seventh album, is one of the band’s most uncompromising and ambitious releases, embodying the classic and utterly unique Helmet sound and pushing it into regions the band has never before explored. One big reason for that spirit of musical adventure is the record is essentially self-released (through the Work Song label). “I just felt completely free to do whatever I wanted to do,” says frontman Page Hamilton. “It was really fun to make this record because I just felt this…freedom.” Freedom can also arise from limitation, something Hamilton knows well–as ever, he insisted on having few overdubs and edits on Seeing Eye Dog. “This album is human and honest,” he declares. “People have always commented that we sound like our albums live, and our recording approach has a lot to do with that. Humans playing music will always be better than chop-shop rock.” Besides Hamilton, the humans on Seeing Eye Dog include drummer Kyle Stevenson, who joined Helmet in 2006, guitarist Dan Beeman, who’s been on board since 2008, and long-time Helmet bassist Chris Traynor. (Dave Case is the band’s touring bassist.) The album was produced by Hamilton, with additional production by Toshi Kasai (Melvins) and vocal production by Mark Renk. Some history: In 1989, Page Hamilton co-founded the New York-based Helmet, fusing Zeppelinesque riffing with a vehement post-hardcore precision, augmented by dense chords and offbeat time signatures based in Hamilton’s formal jazz training. The combination was that rarest of visionary creations–it was successful in its own time. After their 1990 debut album Strap It On (on revered indie label Amphetamine Reptile), Helmet unleashed the major label Meantime (1992), a widely acclaimed album that earned a Grammy nomination, went gold, and launched a thousand other bands. Betty followed in 1994, successfully branching out from the band’s ferocious attack and into more varied musical waters. (In 2010, Helmet issued via their website a digital-only deluxe version of Betty that includes 14 original album tracks plus five bonus tracks.) Another acclaimed album Aftertaste followed in 1997 and after nine years and thousands of shows, Helmet called it a day in 1998. Hamilton went on to do soundtrack work for major Hollywood movies like Catwoman, S.W.A.T., Titus, and Saw, among others, formed the band Gandhi, and, following in the footsteps of greats like Adrian Belew and Stevie Ray Vaughan, played lead guitar in David Bowie’s band in 1999. In 2004 Hamilton restarted Helmet, releasing two acclaimed albums–Size Matters in 2004, Monochrome in 2006–and co-headlining the Warped Tour that year. Helmet did extensive US and European touring in 2009 in preparation for the new album. Bands such as the Deftones, Rise Against, Pantera and Tool have all cited Helmet as an influence, and not just for Helmet’s blistering, aggro approach but for the band’s sheer musicality and brains. See, Helmet, among other things, is a work of art. Hamilton is a trained musician who happens to make heavy, brutal music, a guy who digs Bartok and Minor Threat. Which is why, as Seeing Eye Dog proves, Helmet is a surprisingly flexible concept. “The Helmet musical vocabulary is well established at this point, but I continue to work on a variety of musical projects that inevitably influence the Helmet songs,” says Hamilton. “I’ve been working on movies with Elliott Goldenthal and co. for 17 years now and had never really experimented with incorporating these soundscapes (or shit sculpting as I prefer to call it) into Helmet songs. We had a much better recording situation in which I felt much less time pressure and was working with an engineer who was patient and very creative (Toshi Kasai), so away we went. I started layering upper parts of the chords and was digging the sound so I went with it.” “So Long” and the title track embrace the classic Helmet approach: raging slabs of guitars, drill-sergeant vocals, drums like an expert beating, and guitar solos that scrawl hectic graffiti across the band’s monolithic attack. The lyrics, as Hamilton has said, spring from a combination of “comedy and disgust,” particularly in the scathing Welcome to Algiers and In Person. But Seeing Eye Dog also finds Helmet pushing at its own boundaries–the grimly affecting White City, for instance, is as close to a ballad as Helmet has ever dared. LA Water sounds like a Beatlesque Helmet and later, And Your Bird Can Sing is a Helmetesque Beatles, with the band wielding the Fab Four’s standout Revolver track like a molten sledgehammer. The mostly instrumental Morphing, the luminous sound sculpture in the middle of the album, might seem unlike any other Helmet track, and yet it has the same monumental quality as the band’s most brutal work. (And if you hunger for Helmet in all its live glory, Seeing Eye Dog comes with a bonus disc, a blistering live set from the San Francisco stop on the 2006 Warped Tour.) The freedom and adventurousness of Seeing Eye Dog (title via Ezra Pound, by the way) didn’t come out of nowhere. Hamilton encountered some record label interference in the past and vowed that it would never happen again. “After that, I said, I built this thing and this is the way it is,” Hamilton says. “Fortunately, those experiences ended up helping me maintain a singular attitude that’s really conducive to writing rock songs.”
at The Trocadero Theatre
1003 Arch Street
Philadelphia, United States
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