Photos Show Recap

CATTLE DECAPITATION & REVOCATION: Hazy recollections from MN

by Ryan B

Summer is here, my graduation is days away, and a Facebook status update from REVOCATION reminds "Saturday night, no excuse to not party!" I take strong heed and head down to a friend's house with several of my fellow rabble-rousers to tap the keg well before the show starts and line our guts with beer in preparation for the night of grindcore and death metal that awaits us down the street. CATTLE DECAPITATION is the name on the marquee of the Triple Rock tonight, and with REVOCATION in tow, we are to be prepared to be spoiled. (more…)

Show Recap

A STORM OF LIGHT, BATTLEFIELDS: multi-cam footage of MN show added

by Ryan Buege

It's that time of year again! The snow has melted, birds are flying home, and soon all the trees in Minnesota will once again enter their rare period of leaf-bearing. As you're probably well aware, it's also the time of year when the nation's finest names in underground music descend to Austin, TX for a weekend of music and good times. Virtually every city in the country sends some talent to the capital of the lonestar state during the SXSW weekend each year, and here it's no different. In Minneapolis, we were proud to send off quite a few great names to Austin this year (EMPIRES, GAY WITCH ABORTION, the BIRTHDAY SUITS, and many others immediately come to mind)… but not before our beloved locals left us with some of the inevitable send off shows!

One nugget of fruit from these circumstances came on Saturday March 13th, a date that proved to be very fortunate date for local metal fans of the doom, sludge, and post-metal persuasion.  As luck would have it, A STORM OF LIGHT - the prophetic avant doom metal band helmed by the Josh Graham of BATTLE OF MICE and NEUROSIS's art department and featuring alumni of TOMBS, BATILLUS, and RELIGIOUS TO DAMN – were traveling across the country from west-to east on the last leg of their tour at the very same time that BATTLEFIELDS – fellow Minnesotans as well as the progenitors of one of the most lethal strains of raging doom and experimental post rock I've recently been privy to – were preparing to set out on a short run of dates down to Texas. My friend Jimmy and I assumed that it might be as good of a time as any to gather some cheap camera equipment and film a multi-cam video to capture the night – and that's what we did. (..eh.. two cameras qualifies as multi-, right?) (more…)

A/V Photos Show Recap

BARONESS, EARTHLESS, & U.S. CHRISTMAS: videos and photos from the Minneapolis show

BARONESS live at the Triple Rock in MN 11/27/2009

Last Friday (Nov. 27), the Metal Injection-sponsored tour featuring BARONESS, EARTHLESS, and U.S. CHRISTMAS played at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, MN, and your faithful MI contributor (Ryan Buege) was in the crowd and able to capture some video and photos throughout the concert. All bands killed it, and though the refined epics of BARONESS and the manic shred of EARTHLESS definitely turned the most heads, the show-starting set of smoky Americana meets suffocating doom from U.S. CHRISTMAS was what really had my jaw on the floor. Long story short, it was a good idea arrive early(, and considering that DARK CASTLE, GAZA, and IRON AGE will be supporting on tail-end of the tour, I know this won't change as BARONESS travels on into the west and the south). Keep reading to enjoy the sights and sounds of this night of glorious psych-metal from the perspective of my trusty camera.

Video: BARONESS "Steel That Sleeps the Eye/Swollen & Halo" live @ the Triple Rock in Minneapolis, MN 11/27/2009

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A/V Photos

Photos: 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, SAVIOURS, and HOLY GRAIL at the Triple Rock

3 INCHES OF BLOOD live at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, MN 11/20/093 INCHES OF BLOOD, SAVIOURS, and HOLY GRAIL pillaged their way through Minneapolis, Minnesota's Triple Rock Social Club on Friday last week, and Metal Injection contributor Ryan Buege was on hand to snap a few candid closeups of the bands during their respective sets. The bill was extremely solid, especially if your thing is no-frills Valhalla-worthy heavy metal, and each band pulled their weight to give the crowded venue of fist-pumping, denim 'n' leather wearing MN metalheads what they came for – battles, heavy metal riffs, and brotherhood. Oh, and a few beers as well! Continue to the next page to gaze upon all of the visual goods..

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A/V

Spoils of a stellar doom show: BURIED INSIDE, BATTLEFIELDS live videos from Minneapolis

I'm just going to preface this post by saying that catching pneumonia in the summer fucking sucks – especially when you come down with it on the day of a show you've been looking forward to seeing for literally months.

Buried Inside photo via Evan Hunter

(Buried Inside photo via Evan Hunter)

Dragging myself down to the 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis, MN (against the stern device of my trusty doctor) wasn't easy; but while laying in bed, pondering the fact that BATTLEFIELDS would soon be plugging in their equipment in to prepare for their first appearance in the metro since the release of this year's stellar The Thresholds of Imbalance opus (on Translation Loss Records) AND that BURIED INSIDE would be headlining, I let my excitement get the better of me. Needless to say, I pulled my weary ass together and was there at the 7th St. Entry, assuming my position stage left as the curtain was pulled back to reveal one of the most exciting doom metal shows in recent memory.

Slowly,  BATTLEFIELDS descended into an expansive journey through their new album, and all the symptoms of my illness seemed to melt away as their calculated, proggressive dirge carried my mind off into psychedelic abandon. After months already spent on the road, honing these new songs, the band was locked into an incredibly strong groove during this performance in front of their friends and the hometown crowd, and it showed.

By the time the raging crush of BURIED INSIDE took center stage, I was at the front banging my head with the rest of the beardos and had totally forgotten about my formerly miserable state of mind. The band's new album Spoils of Failure (released on Relapse Records) is an amazing, mind-numbing, torrential package when you're listening to the massively heavy Kurt Ballou-produced recordings, but HOLY SHIT, these are songs that need to be heard live. Twisting and turning seamlessly through every nuanced sound – both the beautifully serene and the disturbingly cataclysmic – the quintet's incredible (and long-awaited) performance commanded the strict attention of the audience for all the best, most satisfying reasons.

And the best part? I had the sense to capture some videos from the show, and I'm posting them here for your viewing pleasure. Continue browsing below to watch live videos of "II" and "III" from BURIED INSIDE and "Disacknowledge" from BATTLEFIELDS. Lucifer only knows how many times I've already replayed these videos from my sickbed while I try to relive the night and ignore my persistent phlegmy cough…


VIDEO: Buried Inside, "II" (live at 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis, MN on 7/16/2009)


VIDEO: Battlefields, "Disacknowledge" (live at 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis, MN on 7/16/2009)

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Show Recap

Concert Recap: MASTODON, KYLESA, & INTRONAUT heavy on sweet riffage, light on commentary @ Fine Line Music Cafe

Mastodon live at the Fine Lin

Last week, the conceptual prog/thrash/stoner metal masters in MASTODON came to the intimate Fine Line Music Cafe in the heart of downtown Minneapolis’s  club district in support of their brilliant new album Crack the Skye, and without a single word spoken to the audience the entire night, the band played through a gripping set that left the devoted Minnesota crowd salivating for more. It’s one thing to make every one of your albums into a separate concept piece, but it’s an entirely different story when you are able to execute that concept, front-to-back, in front of the live audience. However, MASTODON succeeded at just that by dedicating the entire first half of their set to the new release, and it didn’t even end there; in fact, they treated each of their releases with the same type of reverence, playing back through their career with mini-conceptual sets devoted to Blood Mountain, Leviathan, and Remission as the night went on…  (more…)

Photos

HØST @ the Hexagon w/ VERNAL POOL and others captured in photographs

To some, they may be known as HENNES SISTE HØST – the North Dakota based underground USBM band whose brilliant new album of frostbitten black'n'roll progressive metal, Høst, broke new ground with its fusion of the band's blackened Norwegian traditions and a variety of other abstract and punk oriented influences. Last week, they made the trip from Fargo to Minneapolis for the second time in as many months, and are now performing under the simpler moniker HØST. The turnout was meager, however the show was incredible – their dynamic songs playing with an exceptional clarity and evoking psycotic, psychedelic madness through their relentless riffage, chaos, and rhythm. Here are some photos:

HØST live @ Hexagon
HØST live @ Hexagon
HØST live @ Hexagon
HØST live @ Hexagon
HØST live @ Hexagon

HØST were preceded by a showcase of some of the most innovative and promising Minneapolis' acts: doom-gaze metal band VERNAL POOL (photos), techmetal from SAID THE SHOTGUN TO THE HEAD (photos), crusty grind'n'roll from AMBASSADOR GUN (photos), and dirty, sludgy thrash from Eau Claire, Wisconsin's DESOLATE VOID (photos).

If you have no idea what I have just been talking about, do yourself a favor and visit them online now.