This show was originally scheduled to take place at Studio 7, an up and coming Seattle venue with top of the line light and sound gear. Thanks to Great White the venue was closed by the fire marshal the day before the show, allegedly due to not having enough exit doors. Thanks to the cooperation of Frank from Houwitzer Productions ( http://www.seattlemetalfest.com/) promoter Karen Hale was able to relocate the show to Goldie’s on Airport Way. This forced the former all-ages event to become 21 and over, potentially keeping a lot of people from attending. Regardless of this approximately 90 people showed up for a night of metal.

First up were Seattle locals Serpens Aeon. Despite being plagued with sound issues (a fuse kept blowing, knocking out the PA a number of times) they played a decent set of their brand of blackened thrash metal. With more practice and live appearances Serpens Aeon could become a force to be reckoned with on the live scene.

Boise, Idaho’s Conscious were the next group to hit the stage, actually the floor as Goldie’s has no stage. I’ve never heard any of their recorded material but they seemd to be a cross of Immortal and Emperor, minus the keyboards. All in all they played a great set with the only downside being the clean vocals seeming really out of place with the rest of the music. Don’t get me wrong, clean vocals are great in black metal but these clean vocals just didn’t seem to belong. The grim vocals were great as was the rest of the music, especially the drummer who had some amazing double bass feet. I listened to the three mp3s I found on their web site and have to say they are killer! I guess it’s just going to take a bit more live experience to get their live performance to fully compare to the studio work. No matter though as they are a young band and have a lot of time to grow.

Next up were local favorites In Memorium. They were conspicuously missing a bass guitarist as they were setting up their gear. This had me a bit nervous but the nervousness didn’t last for long as the 5 piece outfit ripped out a great set of epic black metal. Without the low end of the bass the guitars and keyboards were (obviously) much clearer and as a result the audience was able to realize the depth of the music. The band was very tight and played a number of new tunes (they recently finished recording a new CD) as well as some older tracks from their demo. Nihilist has to be one of my favorite frontmen currently, his shrill shrieking fits the music perfectly his facial expressions, sweeping gestures, and overall attitude add a theatrical aspect to the performance that, unlike some bands, doesn’t make a mockery of the music or genre. These guys (and gal) have come a long ways since I first saw them years back and deserve some recognition. My only complaint ( and a very minor one) is that their keyboardist’s live performance is too subdued, she plays very well but needs to headbang or something now and then.

I’m not very familiar with Agalloch but so many people have praised them I was looking very forward to seeing them. I was a bit skeptical between the intro and the first full song as they seemed a bit uncomfortable after blowing a spot with a sample. Once the first song was completed, however, they simply tore it up. From extremely heavy to almost ambient sounding, from grim black metal shrieks to hauntingly clean vocals, Agalloch covered all the bases and produced a set of some of the most emotionally charged metal I have ever experienced in a live setting. With the exception of the blown spot after the intro they were very tight, an amazing feat considering they only started playing live about two weeks before this show. Their set was comprised mostly of songs from “The Mantle” but they played a couple from “Pale Folklore” as well. All in all they were great, great music, great musicians and a great performance. I hope that I will be able to catch them again in the near future but hopefully at a better venue.


Serpens Aeon web site: http://www.serpensaeon.com/
Conscious site: http://www.conscious.cc/
In Memorium site: http://www.inmemorium.tk/
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Rating: 8 /10