Another night, another show - damn I seem to start a lot of articles that way, maybe I'm just a shitty person... The point being I saw four great bands last night, and in a way they spoke to the fucked up nature of humanity more than Sartre or his ilk ever could. One of the most memorable Philly bills to come through in a long while the First Unitarian Church was packed to the gills with metaller, hardcore kids and freaks of all stripes united in the name of unholy doom and triumphant blasting noise.
Anxiety Hammer were the first to take the stage (Admittedly there was no stage, but I'm in lack of a better word) and decimated with a old school Ceremony type sound filled with a bucolic violence. There is something cathartic about these guys and the way they pull out violent riffs and skull crunching blast beats to provide salvation to even the most depressed. The raw energy of the bands frontman is inspiring and proves to me that these guys definitely have what it takes to make a name for themselves in the local scene - this is a band who will beat your face in, seemingly out of pure necessity.
I've long adored Backslider - or at least since I first saw the back in September. These guys drive forward with a palatable energy with their unique take on grinding powerviolence adding a lot of flavor to any bill they got tossed on. There is a sense of gleeful finality that defines cries of "I hate you more". The sense of primal destruction these guys bring to the table is impressive and far beyond almost all of their peers in the Philly heavy music scene. With great stage presence and a sound that can only be described as a sublime assault on the eardrums there is no way to deny the greatness surrounding this band.
Regular readers of my work know that I've seen Full of Hell approximately a million times and I get more into them every time. At this particular show they had a trumpet player adding brutal accents to their already noisy and violent sound. The aura of destruction that Full of Hell generate is shocking, jarring and in many ways really hard to deal with. The sense of terror that this band is able to invoke within me is delicious. When you watch these guys play and see people going absolutely fucking nuts its impossible to deny that these guys aren't something special.
Suddenly it was time for The Body. Now - if you haven't seen The Body before just know this - seeing them is akin to a religious experience. The sense of cosmic terror that defines this band is simply stunning. They invoke moods and atmospheres that I long thought impossible for this kind of music. They explore depths of depravity that many never even knew existed. What I'm trying to say is that The Body are one of the most fucked up bands in the history of rock music and seeing them play is insane. As Chip delivers his ungodly vocals it seems impossible to reconcile the fact that these horrifying noises are coming from him. It's a sight to be seen and will change your life.
As I left the venue with one of my favorite local bands, Bandit (Good friends of Full of Hell) I couldn't help but smile. This was the kind of night we will all be talking about for months, if not years to come. All four bands that played last night were exciting, and Full of Hell and the Body are sicker than ever. The fact that these two top notch bands are getting ready to put out a record together has me giddy as a schoolchild - go fucking jam.
Find the bands on Facebook!
Anxiety Hammer: http://www.bradwallacerecording.com/anxiety-hammer-demo/
Backslider: https://www.facebook.com/backslider215?fref=ts
Full of Hell: https://www.facebook.com/fullofhell?fref=ts
The Body: https://www.facebook.com/pages/the-body/334047229514?fref=ts
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