Deafheaven, Sumac, Balance at Rickshaw Theatre – December 4th 2014

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VANCOUVER — Thursday night started off with beers at Buick 6, a bar down the street from the Rickshaw Theatre. My friends and I were waiting with excitement to hear Sumac and Deafheaven take over the Rickshaw Theatre. Balance, a band from Vancouver, took the stage a little after 9 p.m. and got the crowd going with a hardcore sound.

Sumac is a supergroup with Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom & Isis), Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) and Brian Cook (Russian Circles). Sumac was a treat to watch and Aaron moves and shakes with excitement with every scream and guitar riff. Sumac officially played their first-ever live show and graced our ears with gradual progressive riffs that lead into sludgy crevices but kept the listener afloat with high pitch guitars. It was lovely.

Deafheaven (George Clarke and Kerry McCoy) came up on stage and started setting up their guitars and mics themselves. They then left the stage for a more ambient entrance with dimmed lights. They played songs from Roads to Judah (2011) and their most recent full length, Sunbather(2013).

Heavy metal music is a staple in my diet and Deafheaven walks that metal line well. Their live show was entertaining mostly because frontman Clarke convulses with the passion and love of his music. There is no doubt in my mind that music is his life. McCoy played the guitar with little movement or excitement in his face, a major contrast to George.

The crowd busted over with excitement when George announced they were to play their single, “From the Kettle Onto the Coil.” This fast black metal-laced song with crushing drums, vocals and beautiful guitars ended the night on a high note.

Photo and review by Serena Navarro

Thanks to Beatroute for the opportunity to review this show.

First published article: Auroch’s Taman Shud stands alone.

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VANCOUVER — Music can be twisted and warped; what once was in pure form is now cut a million times over. Yet Auroch continue to strive towards an uncooked perfection with their new album, Taman Shud. “We don’t believe in cheating,” Auroch’s guitarist and songwriter Sebastian Montesi says against cut and paste methods of modern recording. “We want it to be authentic and genuine…and really struggle to get it done.”

After releasing their first record, From Forgotten Worlds, in October 2012 on Hellthrasher Records, Auroch were readied for change. Profound Lore Records, a Canadian label and home of Dead Congregation, Agalloch, Leviathan, and Mitochondrion, was a first choice for the band. Together they released Taman Shud, Auroch’s second full-length album, on June 24th.

Montesi and bassist Shawn Hache were joined by drummer Zack Chandler in 2010 inspiring a major change in the band. “We started to be more focused and cohesive as a unit,” Montesi recalls. “And our sound shifted towards death metal…we started to write material that wasn’t just throw away demo material.”

“I don’t have any problems with having a label or classification,” Montesi tells me about Auroch’s genre or sound, “but I will leave that to other people to figure out.”

Taman Shud is a fast-paced, no-fat kind of record, understandable since Auroch wrote it in six months and recorded it in 10 days. “The element of struggle or suffering is stripped from it if you take the time to do it over and over again…there should be the raw passion in it,” Montesi explains of the recording process.

Art and music can be about discovering that creation on your own terms, defining your own experiences and finding them in the music. “There are themes and stories, allegories and mysteries in [Taman Shud] that are there to be solved,” Montesi explains. “We don’t want people to solve them. Whether someone solves it is up to them, but it’s not really something that we’re going to go and spend all this time masking, all this time making sure that everything is meticulously done, and all the lyrics are exactly as they should, all the formulas precise, and then reveal it in an interview.”

Exploring Taman Shud might lead you into calculated chaos of dark and violent technical metal. If you like searching out the horrific then this album is for you.

Auroch kick off a European tour/album release party at the Biltmore Cabaret on August 22nd.

By Serena Navarro

Thanks to Beatroute for publishing my first article.