SUMMER SAD DAD FESTIVAL - 06/24/2023 - AMAYA, APEX ALPHA, THE EPHEMERAL, ECHOES IN ASHES, CELESTIAL EXILE, TAROT BLOOD, BORNE OF ASH, PHAGE @ THE NILE
This is going to be an absolutely massive post, and I've been putting off writing it for a pathetic amount of time. Somehow, this is my first blog in Mesa/Phoenix. I'm hoping to stay away from that in general and stick to Flagstaff shows primarily, but I don't mind dipping down sometimes. If anyone has upcoming shows, releases, or general music stuffs that they'd like to see covered on here, don't hesitate to send me an email at [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos courtesy of Ruben. |
Phage was up first to bat boasting two 8-strings to fill the gap of a missing bassist--which they did well. Cory's vocals ramped up and down between almost spoken word screaming to ground-shaking and guttural roars. Justin's energy pushed the crowd into motion as Derek's scraping and rhythmic 8string tone drove them forward almost as much as Jackson's loose snare and beating china. Together, they bounced into oblivion between sudden breaks of utter silence, tight blast beats, and inventive time signatures.
The scraping of guitar strings felt like talons, echoing their dead march with razor precision. At some point, they threw beach balls into the crowd--which then bounced them back and forth in their thrashing. Beneath the energized skin of their devastating musical pumping, there was no escape from breakdowns like spinal cords snapping. Stream Evergloom.
It's fascinating to me how the combination of progressive metal and djent have absolutely taken over in some regards. In the AZ community, at least, it is absolutely enormous--this festival being a superb example. In all honesty, many of these bands blended together to me because of this; they were all tight, heavily-gated, djenty metal with tasty breakdowns. Still, they managed to stick out in their own ways here and there.
The last thing I was expecting to see was a Dark Souls-themed metal band, but Borne of Ashe gave me exactly that. Doomy, hateful, and tinged with Gojira-esque beatdowns and nasty chugging, they drilled a megalophobic sense of gloom into every audience member. Marked by the signature dark sigil tattoo on his right hand, Nathan lead the band with his echoing war cries and charismatic energy, both arms outstretched to praise the sun like Solaire.
Diego and Tim strummed and chugged in-sync like a coughing spurt of anger over Andrew's speedy and wretched blasts. Justin's grounding low end held down their impending bullet of sound. What I think made my heart happiest was that they lead us back to metal's original, stereotypical audience: the gamers, goofballs, and geeks. They were unapologetically themselves, but did so without sacrificing quality.
With performance mode set on max, Tarot Blood took the stage. Infused with a variety of different influences, they were a hodgepodge of metal-adjacent performance art. Avi's vocals remind me of Nine Inch Nails at their softest and Korn at their highest. Ruben was also the only drummer of the night (and of any live performance I've seen so far) that used an electronic kit. Still, it was loud enough to rival its acoustic counterparts and added to the industrial-adjacent feel of their sound.
Their breakdowns felt fun and sheathed with a nice barrage of noise. Garret's burning guitar solos ripped through the air with some on-point riffage. They were fun, what more could I say? Stream Hurt Myself.
Looking back, there's something very interesting about the philosophy of this performance to me concerning space. I feel like a lot of the acts I usually cover leave a good amount of space between songs, within songs and between parts. Of course, this is something that I think works really well, because it pulls you into every note with much more veracity and force. But with all of these metal bands, almost every note is accounted for and filled. There's little to no negative space until breakdowns--where they finally use that emptiness to their advantage to force audiences into focus. Really, is negative space more important than the notes themselves in terms of composition?
With a jumping, bouncing, and hypnotic energy, Celestial Exile blasted the audience with a heavy, grinding assault of noise. Josh and Quinton reminded me of toads leaping over their devastatingly heavy guitar riffs. Their slower sections were reminiscent of Knocked Loose with deeper, more hellish vocals from Vint. The sound of Addison's kick drum was like the smacking of an enormous slab of meat: a crushing beat that echoed throughout the room with hatred and power.
They rode the razor sharp line between hardcore and metal with precision and perfection. Fast and energized with hate, they felt like a thunder strike bulleting through the atmosphere. Brian's bass held down the intensity between each crushing crash splash as they cracked between the growl of guitar. Stream Death Crown.
This is already proving itself to be an enormous undertaking, but here we are--halfway through. Thank you to everyone for sticking through to this point. This is a great lineup of acts--one that I am in no way qualified to cover with my extreme lack of experience with this high-octane, high-quality metal. Dear All Bands Featured, I'm sorry and I hope to do your sound justice.
Echoes in Ashes, drenched in the modern sample and synth-infused metal sounds, was up next. 808s shocked the ground and ushered them on stage. Myles and Andrew led with slacking djent that drags you across the floor. Switching back and forth together between clean vocals and screaming, Christian and John came together in a few moments to create an impossibly deep roar from within. Words can only do so much describe sound like this--meaning larger than life itself.
Together with Johnathan's crushing and precise drums, beating with its double-kick into the hearts of every audience member, Echoes in Ashes uses some straightforward metalcore to help manifest the sound of helplessness itself. Stream Sight Turned Grey.
Bursting onto stage with an unexpected Carry on Wayward Son cover, The Ephemeral was a proggy relief that was well welcomed after the hours of straight metal. They bestowed upon us a constant, inventive stream of snowballing sounds. Nate's bass hits were perfectly synced up with Noah's steady kicking under Kieran and Darren's dizzying mathy sweeps. Kieran's solos slid onto the scene like a bird over the band's constant smashing and "weow"ing of djent. Nick's vocals were a pleasant change of pace, reminding me at times of The Hotelier, and at others of After the Burial.
Obviously Plini-inspired with their own heavy twist, they continuously surprised me at every turn with change ups, new influences, atmospheres, and beautiful guitar tones that swept a sense of calm between each section of bubbling and scraping djent-deliciousness. Stream their live single Opulence.
Procrastination... Seeping in... I'm trying to try to force myself to finish this. I love writing these. Being able to write this blog is one of my favorite things ever, but man do I hate actually having to do it. I promise I'll get better about staying on top of these posts in the future. I really want bands to have these as, at the very least, archival evidence of their existence on the oh-so-wide web.
Yielding audiences into place with godly force, Apex Alpha brought an intense energy to round off the night before its final act. Stefan's hi-hats managed to cut through his own blasts of endlessness with a passion, while the combined stream of Trystin's enormous bass and Hasting's gasp of djenty guitar drove a trench of deafening sound through the air. Jack barked with an animalistic energy, guiding them into breakdowns that could break the house down.
Apex Alpha managed to take the mean depths of gut-displaced hatred and make it sonic. Their rhythm section is thick, consistent, and continuous--with a gate so tight on every sound that not one is left behind and every silence beats submission into every attendee. Stream Empty.
Chugging into the darkness around like vessels exempt from Earthly law, Amaya was the final act of the night. By this point a few dozen pool noodles had made their way into the audience, paving the way for a battlefield. On stage, Dalys's sporadic fills imploded Alex and Dakota's every grinding guitar melodies. Brad's driving bass fell into perfect precision with each kick hit, echoing in your chest like a gunshot wound. Wade's screams and Brad's clean vocals blended together like two invasive vines taking over the same dying tree.
Over waves of synth tracks and piercing guitar, Amaya offered straightforward modern metal djent-goodness that pulled metalheads, young and old alike, to the stage. There's something unique about the tone of their music, though. It isn't depressing and hopeless like metal tends to be, it's more of a call to a rise of action. Stream No Hesitation.
This was an interesting experience for me. Such an overload of awesome bands in a genre I am criminally under-experienced in. I arrived at four and left at close to midnight. I'm sorry this one took me a while to get out, hoping to get a lot of good pictures and write-ups in this one before I post it. Thank you to everyone for reading thus far and supporting local bands like these. I have one more blog post to make from this weekend (I know this was like a month ago at this point, I'm working on it). Go out and see live, local music when you can.
- Foster
Check out Dead Mothers Collective's newest upload covering Flowers's performance from February 26th.
Check out Toothache's debut EP, Nowhere to Spill everywhere now.
See Borne of Ashe with Sadomasochist, Suicide Forest, and Mizmor at The Nile Underground on August 1st.
See Amaya with Inept Hero, Another Days Demons, Crow Eater, and Sin Shrift at Pub Rock Live on August 4th.
See Amaya with VCTMS, Enterprise Earth, Crown Magnet, and Paleface Swiss at The Nile Theater on October 6th.
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