ACARO / AUSTRALIS / SOUL REMNANTS / FORCED ASPHYXIATION / TOTALITY

ACARO / AUSTRALIS / SOUL REMNANTS / FORCED ASPHYXIATION / TOTALITY
Church, Boston, MA 7/24

Tonight’s very exciting line up features one of Thrash N’ Bang’s favorite metal artists, ACARO, performing with a hot rockin’ line up of 4 of their sick metal friends, Australis, Soul Remnants, Forced Asphyxiation and Totality (WooHoo, Fuckin’ Yeah!!!). Slimedog and I are very honored to be in attendance at the Church for what will undoubtedly be an ear shattering, brain stomping, life threatening, and overall most entertaining evening of metal music. It’s obviously a very special night for ACARO, since it’s their CD release party (you can find my CD review of ‘The Disease of Fear’ here), but it’s also a very special night for TNB, since Slimedog will be snagging the boys from ACARO to do a live interview.

At any rate, I got to the Church a little early (…to say my prayers, of course) and go over to the bar to get a frosty one from Peter, one of the Church’s very fine bartenders. Peter and I have a little chat while I wait for Slimedog to arrive. Soon Slimedog arrives and we hang out for awhile discussing the finer points of the difference between an albatross and a dung beetle. Eventually we see Chris (Chris Harrell is the lead singer for ACARO) and manage to get his attention. So Chis comes over and couldn’t be more friendly and accommodating to us. We exchange a bit of small talk and Slimedog discusses the logistics of the interview. They decide it’s probably best to do the interview before the show and so Chris goes off to corral the rest of the guys. In the process of the lassoing and roping, I managed to meet and greet two more very talented members of ACARO, Jason (drummer) and Felipe (guitarist). When all the guys are finally ready, they disappear with Slimedog into the green room to do the interview (be sure to check out Slimedog’s way cool interview of ACARO here). After the interview is over, Slimedog returns and we sit back and get comfortable for the pending metal mayhem that is about to unfold.

First up is a newly formed death metal band out of Boston called, Totality. Founded in 2010, they are a 4 piece band consisting of Danny Dodge on guitar and vocals, Jarett Norton on guitar, Zak Baskin on bass and Brian Simmons on drums (you can find their band profile here). They start out quite scary with the lead singer workin’ a cool, demonic, goin’ to hell kinda vibe. The best part for me is when Danny just rares back and screams (excitable boy they all said). At times they do a cool synchronized band bop together. It isn’t long before Slimedog and I feel like we’re merrily going to hell. They flip out lots and lots of ‘mother fucker’ comments during the set, which leads Slimedog to admit that he’s actually a ‘father fucker’. I think their forte is something I call, drone metal. Eventually they reach a nice level of drone-ness that everyone in the Church is bangin’ too. Their song ‘Deception’ is a very cool. Both Slimedog and I ‘totally’ enjoyed Totality’s set. Check out a song by Totality below:

Next up is Forced Asphyxiation and for some strange reason I immediately feel like I can’t breath (…just kidding). This band is a trio consisting of Brian on guitar, Ryan on bass and Alex on drums (be sure to check out their band profile here). The band started out in 2007 with original members Brian & Alex and were then later joined by Ryan (Ryan also plays in the next band, Soul Remnants). They start out with a cool tune called ‘Blunt Force Trauma’, which kinda reminds me of what would happen if Rob Zombie was stuck in a burlap bag with a dozen rabid cats. Slimedog and I still feel like we’re merrily goin’ to hell. They play lots of cool doom stuff with a lot of interesting time changes. Brian’s voice goes through several metamorphosis’s during the set. Ryan plays a mean 6 string bass. Very Sabbath’y. Cool set. Check out a video by Forced Asphyxiation below:

The 3rd band is Soul Remnants, a Littleton, MA Death Metal, Thrash band featuring Thomas Preziosi on guitar, Ryan Murphy on bass (again), Colin Conway on drums and Mitchell Fletcher on vocals. Formed in 2003 these guys are no strangers to the Boston metal scene (you can check out their band profile here). As soon as they start playing, Slimedog and I are immediately hooked into their high energy, devilishly good guitar licks and go to hell vocals. They kinda remind me of a cool band from the past named GWAR. They love to do synchronized head swirls and even the drummer gets into the act (unheard of). These guys are definitely a fun and entertaining band. They combine cool death metal vocals with very hooky guitar licks. Slimedog swears that one of the songs was by the Archies, but I beg to differ. But one thing we both agreed on is that the last song of the set kinda sounded like a death metal polka. Anyhow, cool band, great set, definitely check them out. Check out a video by Soul Remnants below:

The 4th band is Australis, who hails all the way from Twin Cities, Minnesota to join us tonight. They are a progressive, Death Metal band featuring Matthias Joyce on vocals, Lucas Scott and Aaron Lott on guitars, Sal LoGuidice on bass and Patrick Ruhland on drums. They play an interesting brand of aggressive cuckoo death metal with savant jazz hard drumming. Pandemonium has definitely broken loose in the Church, along with mass hysteria. The guitar player does a mean head swirl. They feature lots of drum para diddles. Slimedog says he senses a bit of opera metal going on complete with viking helmets and munchkins. Then he gets a strange vision of the band transporting back to Woodstock, 1969 and playing sandwiched between Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, causing the confused, acid tripping crowd to begin sticking forks in their eyes. I, on the other hand, feel like I have definitely been possessed by demons and aliens are coming out of my butt. Very intense, very entertaining. Lead singer gets into the tunes with frenzied abandon. Cool set. Check out a video by Australis below:

Then, finally, it’s time for ACARO with Chris Harrell on vocals, Felipe Roa & Chris Leblanc on guitars, Kevin Smith on bass and Jason Fitzgerald on drums (you can check out there band profile here). At this point, I’m not sure if I have any more superlatives left in my vocabulary to top what I’ve already said and written about this band (but I’ll try). Simply put, ACARO rocks. They offer up their own blend of metal and hardcore and, individually and collaboratively, are awesome musicians. Their live performances are second to none. Chris, with his energy, voice inflections and great stage presence, has got to be the number one front man in metal today. Tonight the guys really get into it and the Church crowd is definitely bangin’. At one point, Chris worked the crowd into a frenzy by leaping off the stage and moshin’ around with them in a big circle below the stage. And when it’s all said and done, Slimedog and I feel very privileged to have witnessed yet another fantastic ACARO performance. All we can do is just look at each other, shake our heads in approval and, of course, rock out with everybody else. Definitely check them out when you can. Here’s another one of ACARO’s cool videos below: