By Lisa Burke
May 31st 2016, Complex, Glendale CA: Underground heavy metal bands are there at your fingertips waiting for you to discover, if you know where to find them. One place you can always count on discovering a new band or three is at Complex in Glendale. It’s the perfect size of intimacy for discovering and hosting newer bands while also keeping up to the needs of long time well-known acts. On Tuesday May 31st 2016, I introduced myself to a couple of new bands and got a taste of some great blackened death metal. The three bands on the lineup for this night were Grave Miasma, Old Coven, and Funeral Smoke. If you’re bored, you can totally take it upon yourself to mix any of the above band names together and still end up with a cool band name such as Funeral Coven or Smoke Miasma. Promoters Church Of The 8th Day and The Elegy Ensemble have a knack for finding themed lineups such as this one and has yet to disappoint.
Grave Miasma happened to be travelling from Maryland Deathfest that ended the weekend prior, to come out and play this special LA show, but unfortunately the singer had a delayed flight due to a storm in the Mid-West, so this night was pushed back an hour to give him time to arrive, and because we all believe in black metal as if it’s our religion, none of us had any real problems with the lack of sleep we knew was inevitably going to haunt our future.
Funeral Smoke took the stage around 10 PM and brought in the death and a touch of doom with ease. This trio definitely was a decent start to what was to come, and with the drummer on death metal vocals they added an extra element of surprise to the mix. For me, lack of any commentary besides some displaced laughter between songs is slightly on the odd side, yet perhaps that comes with more live performances under their belt. Regardless, definitely announcing the name of your band is super important heavy metal 101 in the rule book of live performances, and not enough bands do it. I say do it, and do it twice because I can’t even count how many times people ask me or someone else what the name of the band was after the show because most people don’t take the time to read other than the name of the one band they know, and it’s not as if you can count on the order listed on the flyers all the time either. Back to the tunes, they had a good solid song structure happening, and even though it carried similarly from song to song, it did present itself as a full body of work and the skill shone through. I’m left curious to see what they’re planning on next, and if pushed above and beyond the call of duty, it’s bound to be an exciting time.
Next up was a really refreshing mix of blackened thrash that is Old Coven, comprised of three dudes that call themselves ‘Tormenter’, ‘Putrid’, and ‘Malus’. Apparently these guys are local and active since 2012, and are seriously worth hunting down whatever you can find on them despite their lack of any ‘social media overdose’. I regret not remembering to buy any music at their show because I seriously dug it that much. They had one precariously placed candelabra lit up on stage that no one managed to knock over and burn the place down with, even though they were thrashy as fuck and had the stage presence to prove it. The guitarist was more thrash in style and the bass player/vocalist had a dominating black metal attitude and the vocal effects were truly mesmerizing. The guitar player’s studded gauntlets and spikes, and the drummer’s black metal face paint served their purpose well, and the talent ensued on both their accounts. The drums followed suit and led the party as well, with the perfect mix of thrash and black metal. The bass playing and exquisite black metal growls absolutely made for an excellent show from start to finish. On the top of my new favorite band of the week list you will find none other than Old Coven. I will definitely count myself in on all of their future shows, and if you like blackened thrash, this is a must see. After it ended, for some reason I was left with a weird craving that maybe I should go rescue a litter of black metal kittens to prevent myself from the witch crafted temptation of perhaps lighting a church on fire or dancing naked in the woods.
Now comes the most beautifully tragic story of the evening which is that after much effort the singer of Grave Miasma was unable to attend since he was most likely still way too high up in the sky at that point. Instead of cancelling the show, however, the rest of the three band members decided to play without the singer and while it definitely was a slightly different flavor this way, it was absolutely brilliant and the best decision that could have been made in the moment. They really gave it their all and kicked so much ass that the vocals were not missed as much as they could have been otherwise. The guitarist announced the songs in his demonic black metal voice and that was enough. These guys originated in England about 10 years ago and in my opinion I’ve renamed the genre to be called ‘demonic blackened doom ov death’. It does not lack on any of these extreme accounts, and the guitar, bass, and drumming are all equally full of demonic pizazz. The crowd did thin a bit towards the end but I think mainly due to work schedules the next morning, because these guys really brought down the house despite the lack of vocals. I couldn’t walk away if I tried because my eyes and ears were glued to the stage, and I certainly didn’t want to leave. Everyone seemed very thankful and proud that they stayed and put in two-hundred percent effort with the amps cranked up to eleven. Hopefully, they will come back not too far into the future with vocals to boot since I now have only witnessed them live without, and it will be interesting to see and hear the vocal addition.
Even with the unfortunate circumstances that could have led this show to a bitter end it actually turned the tables to be one of the best shows I’ve seen lately. Blackened anything done right is totally the way to go in the future of metal in my mind, and these were the three bands who could prove that theory beyond the shadow of a doubt. Smart booking and smart follow through is sometimes so hard to come by these days, yet it continues to be a consistent theme for these promoters and rightly so.
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