KEELHAUL/SIN DEALER/THE WOMB @ ANNEX WRECKROOM, MAY 21ST
For the second time in about a month, I found myself at the Wreckroom to catch a touring heavy rock band with a couple local openers. This time, however, it was the locals who caught my interest. Sin Dealer and The Womb are two of my favourite Toronto bands, but I wasn't too familiar with Keelhaul from Cleveland, Ohio, who hadn't crossed the border in nearly a decade. The headliner won me over though, blowing both my mind and my eardrums with their performance!
THE WOMB: Y'know, I probably hadn't seen The Womb since last summer. I didn't make it out to their rescheduled CD release party last month, although I woulda gone to the one in February had the album been ready. That being said, I had only heard a couple of the new songs on the band's Myspace page, and wasn't entirely sure what to expect. From their lengthy, atmospheric opener, it sounded like The Womb have been listening to a lotta Isis lately, which is never a bad thing. After a couple more tunes, they busted out the tried-and-true trio of Kicked Down Force Fed, Beyond War and World is Gone from their self-titled EP. The old stuff still sounds good, but it seems that they've added a new layer of complexity with their latest release. Of all the Toronto bands I can think of, they were perhaps the best-suited to open for an act like Keelhaul, and they didn't dissapoint.
SIN DEALER: Turns out that Sin Dealer's got a new sound too, and it's a lot darker and faster than before. The band alternated between some of the heavier tunes off Dying to Live, like Gasoline and Betrayal, and a handful of new tracks from the upcoming record tentatively titled Satan Loves Us All. Songs like Scum and Thoughts mixed thrash metal drumming with a Panteraesque guitar chug, while Sell Your Soul, the likely single, is 50 proof Southern sludge. I mean, I enjoyed Sin Dealer as a party rock band, but I gotta say, the new stuff is pure fuckin' evil!
KEELHAUL: Although both opening bands were stellar, Keelhaul was the cherry on top of the sludge metal Thursday. There were lotsa heavy instrumental passages--mostly slow to mid-paced, albeit with a few bursts of speed and the occasional vocal bark--from the band's upcoming record on Hydra Head. Keelhaul's sound is hard to categorize. I guess you could call it progressive sludgey math rock. The best reference point I can think of would be Fiftywatthead, who actually have a song called Keelhaul on their latest album, Fogcutter. Too bad the GO Bus schedule won't allow me to catch both bands in Hamilton this Saturday, cuz that's sure to be a killer double bill!
What did you think of the show? Discuss it on the THTGIR forum
For the second time in about a month, I found myself at the Wreckroom to catch a touring heavy rock band with a couple local openers. This time, however, it was the locals who caught my interest. Sin Dealer and The Womb are two of my favourite Toronto bands, but I wasn't too familiar with Keelhaul from Cleveland, Ohio, who hadn't crossed the border in nearly a decade. The headliner won me over though, blowing both my mind and my eardrums with their performance!
THE WOMB: Y'know, I probably hadn't seen The Womb since last summer. I didn't make it out to their rescheduled CD release party last month, although I woulda gone to the one in February had the album been ready. That being said, I had only heard a couple of the new songs on the band's Myspace page, and wasn't entirely sure what to expect. From their lengthy, atmospheric opener, it sounded like The Womb have been listening to a lotta Isis lately, which is never a bad thing. After a couple more tunes, they busted out the tried-and-true trio of Kicked Down Force Fed, Beyond War and World is Gone from their self-titled EP. The old stuff still sounds good, but it seems that they've added a new layer of complexity with their latest release. Of all the Toronto bands I can think of, they were perhaps the best-suited to open for an act like Keelhaul, and they didn't dissapoint.
SIN DEALER: Turns out that Sin Dealer's got a new sound too, and it's a lot darker and faster than before. The band alternated between some of the heavier tunes off Dying to Live, like Gasoline and Betrayal, and a handful of new tracks from the upcoming record tentatively titled Satan Loves Us All. Songs like Scum and Thoughts mixed thrash metal drumming with a Panteraesque guitar chug, while Sell Your Soul, the likely single, is 50 proof Southern sludge. I mean, I enjoyed Sin Dealer as a party rock band, but I gotta say, the new stuff is pure fuckin' evil!
KEELHAUL: Although both opening bands were stellar, Keelhaul was the cherry on top of the sludge metal Thursday. There were lotsa heavy instrumental passages--mostly slow to mid-paced, albeit with a few bursts of speed and the occasional vocal bark--from the band's upcoming record on Hydra Head. Keelhaul's sound is hard to categorize. I guess you could call it progressive sludgey math rock. The best reference point I can think of would be Fiftywatthead, who actually have a song called Keelhaul on their latest album, Fogcutter. Too bad the GO Bus schedule won't allow me to catch both bands in Hamilton this Saturday, cuz that's sure to be a killer double bill!
What did you think of the show? Discuss it on the THTGIR forum