Tomb Mold
Manor of Infinite Forms (20 Buck Spin)Despite a name indicating the well is running dry, Toronto’s Tomb Mold keeps grunting and rumbling its merry way to hell on LP No. 3. Guitarist Derrick Vella rips flesh off bone, while drummer Max Klebanoff eschews every-hesher-for-himself blast beats. Doom spines “Final Struggle of Selves” and “Blood Mirror” as precision hits, but Klebanoff’s mic skills trump all. Few vokillists sound as guttural without roaring like a wounded beast. “Chamber of Sacred Ootheca” puts all the pieces together into a soaring missile of darkness, the quintessential Tomb Mold moment. (Fri. 15, Lost Well, 7pm)
Come to Grief/Fistula
“Take Me in My Sleep” b/w “Contusion” (Patac)During its Nineties heyday, Boston’s mighty Grief slouched alongside Eyehategod in defining doom-drenched sludge metal, harnessing every negative emotion its members ever experienced into slow, tortured grungecore. Named for the band’s seminal debut and led by original axeman Terry Savastano, Come to Grief picks up on this split 7-inch as if it hasn’t been 18 years since the last studio LP. Crawler “Take Me in My Sleep” demonstrates a ravenous appetite for human flesh. Akron’s Fistula flaunts the same aesthetic and brutal message on “Contusion.” Pain is life. (Sat. 16, Barracuda, 10:15pm/9:30)
Chrch
Light Will Consume Us All (Neurot)Sacramento quintet Chrch reminds us of how pointless everything is. Very loudly. Chris Lemos and Karl Cordtz grind out riffs thicker than black smoke, and rhythm section Ben Cathcart and Adam Jennings slow the proceedings down to bulldozer speed. Eva Rose then alternates between demonic shriek and an enervated croon. “Portals” adds a dollop of majestic melody, but 20-minute “Infinite Return” piles on amp-ripping claustrophobia. Light Will Consume Us All, so far down that the dumps feels like up. (Sat. 16, Barracuda, 7:15pm)
Wayfarer
World’s Blood (Profound Lore)Denver black metal quartet Wayfarer injects some Southwestern into its shriek ‘n’ shred, loping rhythms and sweeping guitar lines from an Italian cowboy soundtrack accompanying the usual blast beats and doom-thrash. Indecipherable as anything Norwegian, the lyrics address Native American history, a fittingly violent and tragic subject for USBM. “The Crows Ahead Cry War” encapsulates Wayfarer: melodic, brutal, melancholic, and savage in equal measure. “A Nation of Immigrants,” the tribal, semiacoustic album closer, drives the point home even more effectively. (Sun. 17, Lost Well, 3:45pm)
Gnaw
Cutting Pieces (Translation Loss)When the urge to throw a screaming shitfit arises, former Khanate/O.L.D. frontman Alan Dubin gathers up conspirators from Insect Ark, Enos Slaughter, and Ike Yard. The collective’s third full-length mixes NYC noise rock, grinding doom, and ranting hobos for vein-popping scree. “Wrong” approximates a coked-up politician denying concession after a historical loss, “Prowled Mary” aggros an unsettling trip through a disturbed mind, and the industrial “Extended Suicide” nudges Dubin to new depths of uncorked madness. (Sun. 17, Lost Well, 7:30pm)
This article appears in June 15 • 2018.
