By Andrew Bansal
July 15th 2016, Complex, Glendale CA: Depressive suicidal black metal group Ghost Bath released their second full-length album ‘Moonlover’ via Nuclear Blast this year, and just completed a short North American headline tour to promote it, with support acts Underling and He Whose Ox Is Gored. The tour arrived in the Los Angeles area for a gig at Complex presented by Church Of The 8th Day, and unlike most shows of this nature, there was no local opener this time around, and just as well, because based on the quality of the lineup and the regularity with which its first band has visited LA and this venue in particular, this show didn’t seem to need a local opener. On a fine Friday evening in Glendale, a smallish but devout crowd turned up to expect the unexpected from the live music on offer.
Starting off the proceedings with a mesmerizing set was Seattle doom/prog band He Whose Ox Is Gored. The power and conviction with which they orchestrate and intertwine rich layers of heavy music is quite exemplary in itself, but their ability to do so on the strength of clean female lead vocals and generally clean guitar and bass tones makes them a must-listen band for anyone that claims to like any variants of doom and prog. Experiencing the band live, specially in a good-sounding venue run by a competent sound engineer, enhances and amplifies all these qualities that much further. Singer Lisa Mungo captivated the audience with her vocal delivery, and also added elements of fuzz and melody with her exploits on keyboards. Her bandmates excelled at their respective instruments as well, as guitarist Brian McClelland and bassist Mike Sparks also constituted the growling/screaming vocal element to complement Mungo’s ethereal clean singing. It was a good thing that this spellbinding, awe-inspiring performance came early on in the evening, as some attendees are not able to stay for the entirety of shows that run late at Complex, and it would have been a pity to miss any part of the He Whose Ox Is Gored set for any reason. This set comprised only one-third of the live music entertainment the show treated the audience with, but was already worth thrice the ticket price and then some.
Northern California based atmospheric/post black metal/post hardcore band Underling, featuring members of Fallujah, Arkaik, Battlecross, WRVTH and Sidian, were up next. They set the stage by asking the lights to be dimmed down and turned to blue, and went on to present an expressively bleak set which exuded vibes of post metal and definitely carried an atmospheric/ambient touch to it as well, with aggressive bursts of straightforward black metal thrown in the blender. The band’s style took some getting used to, but the performance was positively received by an appreciative crowd. The backgrounds of these musicians being from other bands seemed to have no bearing on one’s perception of Underling, and was equivalent to seeing the band firsthand without any information about the lineup. Underling have tremendous potential and endless possibilities of the directions in which their music could travel in the future. This would certainly go down as a fruitful first North American tour for them as they picked the right lineup to be part of, and this city and this stage will undoubtedly see a lot more of them at a regular basis.
And lastly, it was Ghost Bath‘s turn to destroy eardrums, but before they did that, they meticulously set up their gear on stage, and as they were busy resolving some connection issues, an inebriated fan in the front row started heckling them. They handled the situation with extraordinary calmness that some others wouldn’t have shown, finished installing their equipment, disappeared for a quick minute, and returned in their stage outfits. The vocalist/guitarist was dressed in all black and his four bandmates were contrastingly clad in all white, beautifully portraying the meaning behind the band’s name, i.e. the act of committing suicide by submerging in a body of water. With the visual element established, they proceeded on to present their music in the manner it’s intended to, and appeared to be completely in the zone, overtaken by their own creation. There was an undeniable depressive quality emanating from the band’s overall sound, but it came across as strangely uplifting, which is perhaps what draws listeners to the band in the first place. Their sophomore LP ‘Moonlover’ is a beautiful set of tunes that was originally released on the German underground label Northern Silence Productions in 2015 but has deservingly been reissued on a much larger scale this year by Nuclear Blast. Having started in 2012, Ghost Bath is still a new entity and carries a largely mysterious personality with undisclosed member names and ambiguity surrounding their origin and location, which only adds to the intrigue. Ghost Bath possess tremendous potential and have only just begun what could be a long musical journey, and the same can be stated for the other two bands on this lineup, which is what made this such a powerful show overall.
(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt!)
