A Quick, Rather Overdue Review of Kit Fistu, Brother Ares, Exorcism, Fenris, Intoxicated Male, and Witch Hex at the Muse

First off, I'd like to all apologize to my readers (yes, all ten of you) for how late this review is. Between sickness, school, skiing accidents, and other shenanigans, I've barely had time to think. But here it is, a quick n dirty review of Kit Fistu-Brother Ares-Exorcism-Fenris-Intoxicated Male-Witch Hex at the Muse on Feb 26th.

First: Intoxicated Male.

Post-tech-math-prog-grind-core from somewhere around here. Guitarist's fingers never stop moving. Screamer Elias is intense. Good, high energy show. 8.5/10ish

Stream their shit here!


2nd: Fenris!
Show is as good as ever. [Lead Singer] Chance is the man; he and Elias of Intoxicated Male are bros, yelling together into the mic often during Fenris' set. Chance talks about hating religion before one song. Good crunchy heavy shit throughout. 8/10

My memory gets a little hazy here so bear with me. I think the next band was Witch Hex:


When Exorcism and Brother Ares join forces, planets are shaken and demons cower. Crazy, droney, screamy improv jam set. Incredible.  9/10 DO IT AGAIN

Afterwards, Brother Ares and Exorcism each put on a show of their own. the Ares Bros were as solid as ever. I got to sit on the stage for their set! Awesome. Can't wait for their EP to get finished. Exorcism was fantastic as well. Sean got down from the stage and joined the crowd. Despite his normally mild-mannered nature, the guy is a madman when Exorcism gets going. He puts his whole body into the music. So energetic, so awesome. So glad I got to see a full set.
9/10ish for both.

Last was Kit Fistu.
I don't remember their show very well, unfortunately. I think it was pretty fun, but I don't remember any details. They sound pretty good on record though. Nice and crunchy. Can't remember/10
Check them out below!

Halmos' debut EP Vicious Cycle

When I saw these Atlanta doomers back in January, I wasn't quite sure what to make of them. The duo was heavy and doomy enough, but their vocals struck me as unusual. Instead of being sung or screamed, they were shouted, almost spoken. This comes through in their first release, their self-released EP Vicious Cycle.

The first track "Datura" opens with a gentle, flowing intro, almost reminiscent of some of Isis' quieter moments. And then the riffs come in, and don't stop for the rest of the EP. The following track "Patterns" comes in with a nice sludgy riff, and then slams it down an octave. Track number 3 comes in similarly, with a slow heavy riff that drops an octave when the drums make their presence known. There is a little more variety in this track, with a the vocals switching switching between the regular shout and a slightly more intenser style, and a more upbeat (but no less heavy) passage. After it fades out with some noisy feedback, the next track, "Prophet of Two" comes in with an absolutely crushing riff. This is probably their heaviest track so far, good stuff. The second half of the track mixes things up starting with a bridge reminiscent of Electric Wizard that leads to an ocean of a riff and then to a groovy jam that closes out the track nicely. The final track "Antithesis Superstructure" comes out swinging. The track is solid and groovy, and closes the release on a familiar heavy note.

The vocals on this release capture the emotional appeal very well here; it's pretty serious in tone, but without being desperate. It's a somewhere between Swans- and Thrash-like in nature, but with less of a tortured feel than Gira and not as menacing as thrash vocals can sound. The guitar is thick and heavy, and the drums are punchy. The overall sound can be described as a somewhat stripped down, pure style of sludge and doom metal.

My main complaint here is a lack of variety. These guys can definitely rock, but it teeters on the edge of stale at some points. The addition of some solos, more vocal variety, and maybe a bass or second guitar could really help to expand and flesh out some of these guys' more interesting ideas, like the psychedelic theme present in the lyrical content, but not fully represented in the music itself. Make no mistakes though, these guys make good, groovy, fun doom. These guys have a lot of potential, I just hope they go in a more experimental direction with future releases.

If you're a fan of underground stoner doom metal, then you will enjoy these guys.
7/10

Stream from their bandcamp!

THE LONG AWAITED HIMEN HOUSE FENRIS BROTHER ARES ASSNUKE DEX/FRIENDS EXORCISM INTERVIEWS SHOW REVIEWS PICTURES CLUSTERSHITFUCK

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! After a long 11 days of being somewhere between busy and sick, I am finally posting this Himen House thing in one whole blog post! Alright!

Let's start with the interviews!

Fenris and Jessie Mowery of quote: "Every Band Ever"
After moving to Jessie's room and shooting the shit about how awesome Dixie Dave and all of his bands are, we got down to "business".
Me: So tell me about your band, what you guys are all about.
Fenris' vocalist Chance: We've been a band for like a year now.
Guitarist Danny: We smoke weed and drink beer and ride bikes.
Bassist Deighton or Dee-dee (or a variation of that spelling): The story of our first show is pretty interesting.
Drummer Jimmy: Our first show was terrible...
Dee-Dee: Not really the show... (garbled)... but between our first and second show, we completely changed the lineup.
Chance: We didn't even have a band.
Dee-dee: The first show came down to the last week. Evan Galvarez was supposed to be the bassist of Fenris, right? It came down to the last week, and he lived in Hendersonville. They got robbed. And [the other band members] were like "Well Dee-Dee, Evan can't come, so we're just gonna teach you all the bass parts, and if it works out, you can be the bassist." And I was like "Sweet."
Chance: We had a fill-in drummer at our first show and Jimmy played guitar, and it was all on practice amps.
Dee-dee: We wrote at least half our setlist two nights before the gig. It came down to like three nights before the gig and we were like "We've got two songs, we need to make a few more." So yeah, it was pretty ridiculous, and it wasn't that great. But then, it got good.
Chance: The coolest thing about our first show was the Filler cover.
Dee-dee: And then we were like, we need a guitarist, Jimmy should be the drummer. How about Danny? He's a really good guitarist. And then we got Danny for our next show, and he's been with us ever since.
Jimmy: Yeah, they were like "See if this works" and I was like "Alright man."
Me: You guys rock hard. Influences?
Dee-dee:Brainwreck, I would say.
Dex and Friend's guitarist/vocalist Jessie: Yeah, Brainwreck. They're a band from here.
Chance: When I started a band, I started it because I saw them.
Jessie: They broke up September of last year. I think they were a band for almost three years. I played a lot of shows with them.
Chance: They were just fast and raw and heavy as fuck. Badass.
Jessie: Really awesome hardcore. Powerviolence. Whatever the fuck. But always really emotional sets. They didn't give a fuck, they were just playing to fucking do it, and have fun.
Chance: But musically we've been listening to a lot of post-hardcore. Saetia, Orchid, shit like that.

Unfortunately, I realized after the interview after this that the voice recording app I was using on my phone stopped recording at five minutes, so the above transcript is all I have verbatim from this interview. Which is really quite unfortunate, because after this part, we talked about the Nashville scene and how it has evolved, and Jessie Mowery waxed rather eloquently on the subject. I will make a new blog post once I am able to catch up with him and see if he remembers what he said on this night.

Brother Ares and Sean from Exorcism
After musing for two minutes about Unsane, beards and mustaches, makeup, and Carson Daly trying to be Dick Clark:
Me: So what are you guys all about? That's a good place to start, right?
Brother Ares' guitarist/vocalist Blake: Beards.
Brother Ares' drummer/vocalist Gore: I don't know what that means.
Me: : Maybe something easier. Influences!
Blake: The Body, Beast in the Field...
Gore: Melvins...
Blake: Earthless, Om. We totally cover Om in practice. And of course, by proxy, Sleep. And with all metal bands, it comes back to [Black] Sabbath, really. Any slow metal band to an extent.
Jessie pokes his head in here: Really any evil sounding metal band...
Blake: The tritone! The devil's chord!
Me (to Sean): How about you?
Exorcism's vocalist Sean: I guess basically shit like Swans, Big Black, the Jesus Lizard, Discharge, and Meanderthal. The Gun Club are a big one. Fuckin' love the Gun Club. Shit like Trial, Undertow. Just basically anything fuckin' heavy and visceral. Not even necessarily heavy, but just visceral. We all listen to a lot of shit. Patsy Cline.
Blake: We'd be all about that.
Gore: We actually want to start a powerviolence cover band called Johnny Gash.
Sean: Just a lot of different shit. If you limit yourself to one type of thing...
Gore: ...You're really fuckin' up.
Sean: Shit like that. Black metal stuff.
Norwegian music is discussed. Modern black metal is brought up. Arguments concerning Liturgy ensue.
Me: So you got your demo out, are you guys (Exorcism) at a standstill, what with the eviction and stuff?
Sean: Well I mean, this just happened a few days ago, the guys are staying at a motel right now, but we'll be alright. We'll figure something out. If the guys could drag themselves up from Murfreesboro they could practice at my house...
Me: So what do you think about the Nashville scene?
Sean: I'm just getting into it. I moved back here after living out West for a couple of years. There's so many fucking good bands. There's really good shit. I kind of feel like this area almost has its own sound. Everybody seems really restless, nobody wants to do the same thing. All these punk, metal, whatever bands. There's so many bands that feel that way and pull from whatever the fuck they want. It's really, really cool. I really like what's going on here. I've liked every band we've played with. It's really surprising. They're not going for anything specific, they're just going for what they want to hear and play.

While I wasn't able to talk much to Clay Cronic of Assnuke beyond talking about DRI and Melvins being influences at the time, I was able to catch up with him tonight and ask him if he wanted to talk about any other influences.
Assnuke's guitarist/singer Clay: "Poison Idea, Aus Rotten, we play a Battalion of Saints cover, and if I wanted to be that asshole I'd say the Germs, but that's a big stretch. Preston [the drummer] is into a lot more metal than I am. Needless to say, I listen to a lot of shit across the board, but as a punk band, it's hard not to sound completely musically autistic. At these days? We try to practice a lot, same old shit."

Pictures of Brother Ares coming soon. I invited my dumbass sweet and loving brother to come take pictures of the show, but there was an error in communication so he thought I only wanted pictures of one band. He showed up, took pics of Bros Ares, and left. He still hasn't sent me the pictures. I'm trying to get him to come and actually cover all of the next event.

And now it's the part everyone's been waiting for! The Reviews! Let's hope I remember enough of the show to review it.

First up was Fenris.
Sludge. Hardcore. Punk. Crust. Grindcore. If Fenris was a refrigerator, all of these labels would stick like magnets (and you can bet your ass that this Fenris-fridge would be stocked with nothing but beer). These guys could do slow, fast, and anything in between, with topics ranging from the serious (one song was about how Chance had lost a friend to prescription pill abuse) to the delightfully, blasphemously absurd (I'm fairly certain their last tune was a speedy grinder entitled "Skullfuck Moses"). Excellent show, full of passion and energy. Would watch again. 8.5/10

Next was my bros Brother Ares.
Don't be fooled by their lack of band members, this duo will rip your face off and make you beg for more. Their mighty beards alone should be reason for you to cower in both fear and awe. Their crunchy mixture of sludge and doom metal will leave you flattened, gasping for air as your lungs are unable to open beneath the crushing, glacier-paced sound. Despite needing to borrow a cymbal or two, Blake and Gore were in top form, their screams and shouts shaking the diminutive venue and annoying at least one neighbor. Just when I thought they couldn't get any better, they debuted a cosmolith of a song, with an extremely heavy almost minimalist riff, punctuated by a gorgeous noise-inspired mid-section and outro. After a few more songs and an outcry of "TUNE, ASSHOLE!", Blake switched to the totally brutal sparkly blue guitar for their traditional closing song, a cover of Black Flag's "My War". It was better than I remember. 9.2/10

Third on the bill was Assnuke.
This duo kicked off their playlist with a song about cigarettes, with an Addams Family-esque intro and clap(snap?)-along parts that quickly turned into a DRI-fueled thrashy hardcore moshfest. In fact, most of their songs sounded quite DRI-inspired, moreso than just their cover of DRI's "I Don't Need Society". Despite this slightly derivative sound, the band was a blast. I found myself head-banging along even joining in in making an itty bitty mosh pit with about five other guys. Their last song was a bit more robust, with a slower, almost more thoughtful pace, and Clay using a different vocal style. I hope these guys explore this direction in the future, what with variety being the spice of life and all that good bullshit. 7.9/10

Fiddlesticks was to be the next band on the bill, but the guitarist split. So at the last second, Dex (the drummer of Fiddlesticks) teamed up with fellow Himen house resident Jessie Mowery (veteran of countless Nashville bands, including the up and coming Nut Collector who has a split with Fenris) to become The Dex Experience Dex and Friends!
For being a rather rushed collaboration, I was extremely surprised and impressed by this pair. Dex jammed on drums while Jessie played very echoey, post-rock/metal/punk guitars and screamed at a level that was somewhere between hardcore punk and black metal. After one building jam, I craved more. Unfortunately, one jam was all they played. NEEDMOAR/10

The final act was Exorcism. I'd heard a lot about these guys in talking to Blake before the show, so I was excited. To my extreme mispleasure and disfortune, I was outside smoking a cigarette during most of their set, and made it in during the tail end of their heavy as fuck, doomy sludge tune. Their "last" song was a blaster of a hardcore song, with Sean waking the dead on vocals. After a brief pause, some premature gratitude, and a quick water break, the band reconvened and played a ruthless cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". I was more than proud to join in with the handful of guys screaming the words into the fittingly tinted pink and gold microphone. It was an absolute blissful end to a heavy-hitting, exhausting night. And while I'd like to give these guys a numerical review, I feel that I need more data in order to make an apt judgment. 2.5 songs simply isn't enough. Needsmoreresearch/10

Should I get around to it, look for my review of the next show I attend, which looks to be Kit Fistu-Brother Ares-Exorcism-Fenris-Intoxicated Male-Witch Hex at The Muse on Feb 26. Should be a good time.

Hellbender's Cosmolux

I saw this band on fellow doomer Stonerobixxx's blog and figured they were worth a review or two. After all, these guys are from Cookeville, and I figure that's close enough to Nashville for me. They have a handful of releases, but it looks like this album, "Cosmolux", is their first full-length album. Though it clocks in at about 37 minutes with only 4 songs, it appears more like an EP than a full album, but don't let that dissuade you: this thing rocks.

It's a nice combination of pretty similar genres, doom metal and desert rock, with a good mix of hefty riffs and grooving soloing guitar. The album opens with "Neon Cross", a gorgeous heavy stoner rock piece with nicely understated vocals, driving riffs, and a groovy psychedelic feel. The second song, "The Ballad of Gray Livers" starts out as a mid-tempo doom tune, but soon simmers down to an almost Country (and not that pop Country shit) feel, like Johnny Cash on a particularly nice, lazy Sunday. The song doesn't sit still for very long however, and begins to slowly build to booming, fuzzy, gorgeously heavy crescendo, and rocks out until the end.

The next two songs are a two-parter, titled "Supergiant Pt1 & 2". Part 1 opens up with an almost drone feel, but a warm, you-know-something-is-coming drone. The swirling guitars fully kick in, and the lysergic landscape begins to open up. Definitely reminds me of Earthless, but with more of a psychedelic style. Part 2 begins, and down come the riffs. This is excellent, I'm not sure whether to bang my head or dance with it. The guitar solo is a little overpowering; personally I'd like to see the riffs take a bit more precedence. But that's a minor complaint, otherwise this song is fantastic. Everything starts to blend together at the end, speakers ring out, and we're left with a little bit of quickly echoing feedback. Excellent end to a superb album.

How many times have I used the word "psychedelic" in this review?
I recently saw Graveyard and Radio Moscow, two both purportedly psychedelic rock bands. While I seriously doubt those bands' psych tag, Hellbender absolutely embodies it to the fullest.

From desert rock to psychedelic rock to doom metal even to stripped-down country, these guys kill it all across the board.
8.75/10


Good news: They're releasing a split with Across Tundras (another group of rockin' Nashville dudes I should probably review). Check it out!



Better news: Almost all of Hellbender's stuff is free to download from their page!

ADDED Mon Feb 27: Just picked this up from Grimey's on Friday.

This thing is crystal clear, you can hear all the parts really nicely.

The cloudy blue vinyl is just plain awesome.

New rough cut from Brother Ares

My bros in Brother Ares finally posted something to the internet. Check out a rough cut their song "Already Dead" from their upcoming debut "Devourer of Worlds":

Brother Ares, Halmos, and Clorange at The End on Jan. 14

If I'm able to keep up with this blog, the Nashville metal scene, etc, then I'd be alright tracing everything back to right here. I've seen a few bands around Nashville before, but none this low-key or local. The bands playing this night were Brother Ares, Halmos, and Clorange. I'd never been to The End before, and was excited to see what it was like.

If no one minds terribly, I'd like to arrange this in order of quality instead of lineup order.

Halmos - 6/10
Halmos, from Atlanta, came on second. As a guitar/vocalist-drums duo, they were somewhat competent, except for a dozen or so mixed notes from the guitarist. The vocals were interestingly neutral, almost reminiscent of Michael Gira of Swans, though without the full, emotional delivery. A few good heavy riffs here and there, but not very memorable overall.

Clorange - 7.7/10
I have a strange connection to this band. I met the guitarist, Elliot when he was going to school at Belmont with my girlfriend at the time; and I'm friends with the lead singer's sister on facebook, we went to the same university for a time, but for the life of me I don't remember ever meeting her in person. In any case, these guys came on last. They're comprised of two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist (the only one of the night), and a female lead singer. They put on a pretty good show: groovy, doomy riffs pumped through impressive Sunn 0))) speakers all while miss Carrie Acree sang top of the whole thing. Good sound, good presence, good show overall. My only real complaint is that the vocals didn't feel very cohesive with the overall sound on a few occasions. Perhaps it's just my personal preference, but some moments in their songs lent themselves more to a hardcore scream or two than clean singing. Minor complaints aside, a heavy and very fun show, and I look forward to hearing them live or on record in the future.

Brother Ares - 9/10
Zach from Hank Williams III band Lung was initially going to play this show, but when they bowed out, Brother Ares quickly filled their place. This quick change was quite fortituous - despite being the opening band, Brother Ares turned out to be the best band of the night. At first glance, you might dismiss this duo as just another pair of coffee shop loiterers, but once they started playing, all bets were off. Their sound was gorgeous, so deep, dense and full; heavy but not entirely without melody, with a few epic, memorable crescendoing build-ups. When the drummer, a mightily bearded man named Gore, started screaming, it was all I could do to gather my jaw from the floor. Though he made it look effortless, the noise coming from his open maw was that of a tortured, defiant soul, nearly consumed with fury, clawing its way out of hell. His screams were vicious not only in style but in volume as well.

My jaw dropped a second time when the guitarist, Blake, opened his mouth and screamed at the mic. These screams were markedly different, almost more of a shout. They were clear, loud, and at the top of his lungs, but without almost any trace of a shriek or a growl intonation except for a slight crack here and there, which only added to the emotional intensity carried by his voice. They reminded me slightly of the vocal's on Conan's masterpiece Horseback Battle Hammer, though not quite as high.

Overall, an unbelievable show, especially for just a handful of songs from a pair who started jamming in 2011. It was an honor to be able to make their acquaintance after the show, and I look forward to seeing them again next month with a spattering of other local bands. I look forward to seeing (and hopefully remembering to review) them soon.