metal monday in the mission...Walken, Witch Mountain, & Premonition 13

so as i sat at work tuesday morning, moderately hungover and wishing for additional cups of coffee, i was still trying to process exactly what to say about monday night's show.  with so much brutal brilliance berating the venue, it's surprising that the elbo room's structural integrity held...but on to the recap...

i sauntered up to the elbo room at about half past 9, feeling accomplished (i washed AND folded a load of laundry...on a weeknight?!?!  hells yeah!) and ready for some beer(s).  i was stoked to be seeing one of my favorite bands (Walken...as if you had to ask) on what would otherwise be a lame ass monday night.  the dude working the door commented on my Walken t shirt on my way in...not really sure if he was talking shit or simply stating the obvious, but either way beer = sandeep's top priority, so what the fuck ever.  with beer in hand i grabbed a quick seat on the periphery and took in the scene.  many of the usual sf metal show regulars were about as members of Hornss, Hazzard's Cure, Black Cobra, and a slew of other local metal greats came together with nerdy fans (ME!!!) and scenesters (cooler, non-socially hopeless, significantly less nerdy metal heads) for the purpose of badass-ness.

considering that i was at a Walken show, i had no doubt that i was going to enjoy myself, but i was particularly curious about Witch Mountain.  i'd missed the band a couple of times in the past, but had heard nothing but badass reviews, so i was pretty stoked.  Premonition 13, being one of Wino Wienrich's bands would undoubtedly be fucking sweet, so all in all, i was revved up for a killer show.
anyone who's ever read insanehinduramblings knows i fucking love Walken.  i can't completely put my finger on what it is, but something about the way they put together their music makes it exactly what i want/need to hear.  their combination of sludgy riffs, mathematical rhythmic accuracy, disturbingly brutal musical talent, and the desire to tear this shit out of every stage they set foot upon ensures that i will avoid missing a Walken show at all costs, while verbally berating folks who can't make it or don't want to come. Walken's set monday night surpassed even my high expectations.  leading off with two newer songs, Walken set the evening's tone with blistering riffs, mournful growls, and the aggressive, meticulously well organized chaos that manifests as Zach Farwell's incredible percussion skills. 

other than the newer unreleased stuff Walken's set highlighted some of the strongest tracks off of their full length from november 2009.  while the set was totally badass, and i'll never get tired of hearing "Thunder Paws" performed live, i couldn't help but wish that the band might consider playing something older...maybe off the silk screened EP...?  (translation: sandeep wants to hear "Bitch Wizard"...cuz it's fucking awesome!!!) in conversation with various members of Walken post set, it sounds like the band will be taking a break from shows in order to get some new songs written.  yes, it will be a total bummer short term wise, but looking long term, that decision will only yield crushingly awesome results.  best wishes for your performance hiatus Walken, we'll be foaming at the mouth for a show when y'all are ready!

Sean, Shane, and Zack in the background...3/4 of the mighty Walken!!!

Shane, Max, and another failed attempt at photographing Zack...Walken!!!  bow down!!!

second to the stage was portland's Witch Mountain.  as a band with a female lead vocalist, it can sometimes be tough for metal audiences to get past that fact.  either we're too testosterone fueled and assume a woman can't thrown down the way a guy could, or we're totally enamored with the fact that it's a woman in a metal band and as a result just spend their set swooning.  Witch Mountain crushed either reaction before they started as lead vocalist Uta Plotkin's sound check caused a hush to fall over the assembled headbangers.  just to let y'all know, i've been having a hard time trying to fully articulate Witch Mountain's sound.  they definitely fall into the epic sludgy doom category (with riffs that reminded me a bit of Brainoil), but those vocals take me in another direction...like say if Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler passed on John Michael "Ozzy" Osborne and instead recruited Ella Fitzgerald to sing for Black Sabbath.  needless to say, i spent most of Witch Mountain's set flitting back and forth between complete awe of what i was experiencing, and rocking the fuck out.  if you ever get the chance to see this band or buy their album, DO IT.

Witch Mountain sound checking and obliterating all other sounds at the elbo room.

Witch Mountain...providing utter destruction in the best possible formats.

closing out the show was Premonition 13, Wino's most recent full band project after his acoustic solo album.  personally, i have a hard time not enjoying  Wino's work.  granted,  drony, sludgy, gravelly voiced, skull crushing awesomeness is kinda my thing, so how could i ever not enjoy a Wino production?  with Premonition 13, Wino definitely summons up that recipe for traditional Wino sauce that we all love, and then kicks it into high gear.  despite the delightfully chorused guitars and tube driven fuzz, Premonition 13's riffs represent a little more Thin Lizzy or Steppenwolf influence to Wino's traditional Sabbath/Pentagram styled sounds.  don't get me wrong, Premonition 13 still screams with those classic doom tones, but they're backed up with a little more attack.  during the set i overheard someone shout "it's never a bad day to see Wino", which is totally true.  despite the fact that monday night had turned to tuesday morning and i knew i'd need to be up in less than five hours for work, fuck it, Wino's on stage.

ah Wino...the definition of badass.

as i began my short trek home, i found myself still reeling from the show...so much gut ripping awesomeness...my brain still rattling between my ears...i should have stopped at three drinks...no more Walken shows for a while, bummer...i wonder if i could do some sort of random stream of consciousness section when i blog about this...somebody's pooping on the sidewalk...keep it gloomy y'all!

um...hey!

holy shit...it's been a while! i know, i know. you're sitting there, in front of a computer, curing my lazy ass for denying you pertinent information on the music you should be acquiring as you chuck out all that bullshit you thought you liked. sorry, i'm back, so continue destroying all non-metal music, and keep it tuned here...insanehinduramblings is getting re-envisioned.

so the flow of things is gonna change a little. as opposed to simply offering up reviews of badass albums and shows, i'm gonna give y'all some insights through a chronicle of one slightly off kilter eccentric metal head growing up, doing the adult thang and headbanging til i snap my neck doing so. so what does that mean for the blog you ask? basically, you'll get regular musings, show reviews, album reviews, show suggestions (all probably shorter than the reviews posted previously), and insight into the way metal has enriched my life and will yours as well...as soon as you quit being such a pussy. posts will be full of listening recommendations and disparaging comments about most other forms of music and folks who's political ignorance is so great that they require instant death and a Cannibal Corpse style postmortem skull fuck. it'll be awesome and everything you need...aside from the many badass downloads available at Illogical Contraption (...wait, you don't read Illogical Contraption?! why the fuck are you wasting your time on this pitiful joke of a blog?! do not pass go, just head over to Illogical Contraption and forfeit your life).

alright, well let's start my blog's zombified return to unlife with a quick recap of 2011. 2011 has been pretty shit kickingly awesome...nuff said. they year began with a new years party at guerrero gallery where some douchy whiny hipster band got totally blown away and musically mauled by Grayceon who brought some real talent to the party. since then, waves of awesome musical brutality have been ebbing and flowing like no other. Red Fang has shattered skulls with two SF appearances in less than a month, Walken has resumed regular (almost monthly!!) black masses (aka shows) in SF, Lesbian came through on tour to brutalize us with tunes from a new album, YOB decimated locals at the great american music hall in support of Neurosis, Unsane has laid waste to both thee parkside and el rio, Hightower pressed 'Tower to the People' on vinyl, germany's Nocturnal raised Satan in the united states for the first time ever at submission art gallery in the mission, Black Cobra (featured in shitty cell phone pictures below) continues to kick the shit outta every local audience they play for, and the 45 minute set of all new material Saviours played on their sf stop of the 'Eternally High' tour showed the band reaching soul shreddingly awesome new musical heights.

Jason of Black Cobra

Rafael of Black Cobra

a couple of new promoters of darkness to keep an ear out for would be the bone marrow guzzling brilliance of Hazzard's Cure (featuring Shane from Walken, Chris from Floating Goat, and a couple other folks that i'm pretty sure used to play for Orb of Confusion [who fucking owned] before they broke up), Pins of Light (featuring Jake from Hightower), Serpent Crown (female fronted awesomeness with Will Carrol [of a buzillion bay area metal bands, but most prominently Death Angel] pounding beats on his signature 'Hail Satan' drum kit), Pegataur (another loud ass, gut ripping bay area heavy metal two piece), Huntress (a collection of california badasses who's unrelenting, thrashy, sexy female fronted power metal stylings leave one seething for more), Hot Fog (who's tasty NWOBHM style goodness helps keep smiles on metalhead's faces), and Night After Night (i'm pretty sure they have the same drummer as Hot Fog, but they rarely play shows and are struggling to get an album recorded and released, so all i know of them is from rumors at shows, blog chatter, and random downloads from Illogical Contraption...but seriously, download this fucking Night After Night album...it owns!!).

wonderin' where to find me rockin' out  next?  shit, after reading this post i would be too.  well you're super fucking lucky, 'cuz next up for sandeep is Walken (dude, these guys are the shit...see previous posts if you have questions) next saturday the 4th at thee parkside.  come check out some awesome local shred slayed by some brutally talented folks      

so there you have it folks. insanehinduramblings is back with plans to be bloodier than ever. keep it gloomy y'all.

metal swim...the Bay OWNS!!!

so this post is gonna be a quick one. don't worry, you'll get more from me (in the form of a review of sunday's floating goat/hellbeard show), but, did y'all see this 'metal swim' post on adult swim's website? apparently they're putting together a compilations of "16 rare or unreleased tracks form the heaviest bands in existence". not sure how they plan to back that claim up, but there is a super impressive bay area showing in their mix! Death Angel, Ludicra, Saviours, Black Cobra...i fuckin' love the bay.

http://www.adultswim.com/promos/201009_scion/index.html

keep it gloom y'all.

Sleep - Regency Ballroom 9/12 & 9/13 - Awe Inspiring Iommi Worship

so i remember being back at an ozzfest in the early 2000s and seeing a stack of t-shirts at a merch booth with some crazy picture of Ozzy channeling lightening and the words "Listen to Black Sabbath" written across the back. simple yet essential advice that luckily i had been adhering to for quite a while at that point, but advice that has always provided me with an incredibly high quality of life. it's obvious that the message also got through to the young Al Cisneros, Matt Pike, and Chris Hakius in their early days growing up in san jose. those slow, oppressively heavy grooves Black Sabbath is legendary for led those three gentleman to create one of the bay area's most prolific underground metal bands, Sleep, featuring drony, hazy, Sabbathy riffs, deeply technical and mathy percussion, heavily wahed bass and that angst ridden nasally vocal style Ozzy created for us all to admire. despite strong support from fans across the globe and Sleep's unique path in early 90's metal, creative differences with their record label caused Sleep to disband in 1995 after only one full length, two EPs, and an album that their label refused to release (which went onto become the uncanny album/song 'Dopesmoker'...after being cut up into pieces and released as 'Jerusalem').

when i found out Sleep was doing a reunion show in england at the all tomorrow's parties festival in 2009 i was a little pissed. at that point rumors were circulating that the festival appearance would be a one shot, and afterward the members of sleep would re-split and continue to work on their current musical projects. though new material was on the horizon for High on Fire and Om as well as the debut of doom supergroup Shrinebuilder featuring Al Cisneros on bass, getting a chance to see some good old fashioned Sleep grooves performed live would have been epic beyond words.

hearing a confirmed san francisco date for Sleep's 'Marijuananaut's Return' tour sent me to ticketmaster's diabolical money sucking website right away, there was no fucking way i was missing a chance to see Sleep. a few clicks and i was feeling very content with my purchase as i eagerly awaited the arrival of my ticket. not two weeks after my order, i noticed a facebook announcement from Saviours highlighting the fact that they would be opening up for Sleep and i nearly shat myself. Saviors, then Sleep?! fuck yes! i was stoked beyond belief until i realized the date Saviours had listed was monday the 13th and my ticket was for sunday the 12th. upon discovering the 2nd Sleep show opened up by Saviours, i was back to ticketmaster and their bank account violating "convenience charges" (it'd be convenient if it was free...douchebags). all unnecessary fees aside, i had my tickets and two consecutive nights of uncanny bay area doom to look forward to...shortly thereafter, i discovered black cobra had been added to the bill for the monday show...seriously?! i couldn't ask for a more perfect show! it was like a show designed to highlight the finest examples of the bay area doom scene...and only three months to wait...

after some patient waiting, Sleep sunday had finally arrived! i trying not to raise my expectations to impossibly high levels was impossible as i stood on my corner awaiting muni to whisk me away to the regency ballroom. seething with childish excitement, i checked my wallet twice to ensure that i indeed had my ticket with me. i had it planned out already, sunday night was my night all about Sleep and taking in this genuine opportunity to see something legendary. Sleep did not disappoint.

i arrived a little after 9 and found out that the opener, Thrones, had already played. i knew what i was there for, so i wasn't bummed. on stage, amps were being set up and sound checks conducted in front of a backdrop on which was projected a huge photograph of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath's glory days with that signature mustache and Gibson SG and a mix of Black Sabbath tunes came seeping from the speakers scattered across the venue.

as the lights dimmed and the audience surged forward a man in a space suit came on stage carrying a bass and guitar as Jason Roeder (also of Neurosis) settled in behind the drumset. the excitement was tangible as fans yearned for the first notes of a show that some had waited over a decade for. silently, Matt Pike and Al Cisneros came to the stage, did a quick intonation check, and cut straight into the opening of 'Dopesmoker', Sleep's (in)famous hour and a half long album/song. i had read that Sleep had been preforming 'Holy Mountain' in it's entirety on this tour and thought thatmaybe SF was about to be the first city to get 'Dopesmoker' in it's entirety, but i was put in my place when Cisneros and co. rolled right onto a set of songs from 'Holy Mountain' (beginning with the title track)with healthy chunks of 'Dopesmoker' medleyed in between. Awesome is truly an inadequate adjective to describe what we ere hearing. it was like the sound a giant wad of crunchy peanut butter would make upon being flung at a wall and allowed to drip to the floor...beautiful, delicious,crunchy, and slooooooooow. i realize it's hard to imagine, but even some Sleep tunes were played through at a slower tempo than the originals leaving the audience dazed as we all reveled in some of the grooviest, heaviest, gut shatteringly chuggiest metal ever created. true to form, Sleep laid it down while periodically taking breaks to step off stage only to return minutes later bleary eyed and coughing with a partially smoked joint hanging from Matt Pike's lips.

Despite the undeniable excitement in the crowd, all of the Regency Ballroom was as if in a trance as Sleep droned through all of Holy Mountain (aside from the short instrumental space filler 'Some Grass') with healthy chunks of 'Dopesmoker' sprinkled in between. An unexpected highlight came during the first encore as fans' swaying motions were interrupted by an unfamiliar tune, but those with a good ear and a knowledge of serious metal (ahem, yours truly) were able to instantly recognize Ozzy's 'Over the Mountain' being performed at half tempo, up until the guitar solos which were taken at double time compared to The Blizzard's original work.

At the end of the night fans walked out simultaneously sated and wanting more. as i sat on muni waiting to get home, eavesdropping on other concert goers headed to their beds a couple of folks mentioned how the idea of seeing Sleep two nights in a row might be "just a little too much". i sat back and smiled, internally making plans to leave way sooner for the monday night show so that i wouldn't miss Black Cobra or Saviours...all in all, last week started out with nothin' but badass. one can only hope for a round three. keep it gloomy y'all.