On March 18, the Brooklyn Bowl and Decibel Magazine put on an ideal night for Nashville’s community of metalheads, featuring four unique and gruesome heavy bands. The evening lineup kept the entire crowd on their toes every hour until the final two-hour headliner set by Mayhem. Personally, as a nonmetal listener, I was thoroughly impressed with the intensity of the genre and elaborate costuming, as well as the visuals.
Fans continued trickling in once New Skeletal Faces started their set at 6:30 p.m. CDT. This California-based band described themselves with the phrase, “new frequencies from the occult celestial dimension.” This certainly felt like the vibe, considering their impeccable stage presence. The lead singer Fritz would play alongside and back-to-back with the bassist KRO as the drummer Don shook his spiky black mohawk back and forth. The ambience of the venue was electric with an overhead balcony, bar and, of course, the main floor that allowed plenty of room for headbanging.
Shortly after, Imperial Triumphant took the stage and immediately dominated my attention with gold-horned masks and dark cloaks. The lights went dim and an eerie, crunchy record track of a ‘40s show tune made my skin crawl until an abrupt drum beat emerged. Their second track began with a simple, steady beat with which Steve Blanco, the guitarist, encouraged the audience to start clapping along. Overall, the vocals were primarily harsh growls which I could hardly identify as English at all, but the energy was palpable. Each song seemed to end with Zachary Ezrin’s glorious arm spread as he looked up to miscellaneous noises, like an airplane pass. Blanco would point his guitar neck at the audience as he perched one leg frantically on the amp, and the set concluded with ridiculously impressive strumming and picking techniques over their heads and vertically.
After the next brief pause of crowd mingling, Mortiis, an electronic band from Norway, set the scene with a large black-and-white backdrop that displayed alternating sketches. These sketches started off more tame with landscapes of castles, mountains or a storm on a beach cliff but progressively got much more disturbing with graphic demonic creatures, for example. On either side of the stage were two more backdrops of long-nosed vikings, closely resembling Mortiis’s prosethic mask. The lead singer played on his keyboard, uncannily swaying back and forth as the drummer stood very still, pounding the rhythmic percussion. It was only very deep into the set that the electronic keyboard was accompanied by deep crisp vocals and a vocalizing choir.
Ending on a strong note was the evening’s headliner, Mayhem. This black metal band hails from Norway and started in 1984, so their comeback was quite revolutionary. The set began with a black-and-white video of their past performances and interviews, along with eerie sounds and gory graphics like pig heads, barbed wire and gravestones. The crowd roared as they came out in elaborate white face paint makeup, and the lead singer, Dead, wore a luscious dark red cloak. The musicians focused deeply on their craft and ripped insane riffs and drum solos while Dead stayed mostly stationary in a possessed, dramatic manner as he moved his arms and head. Fans reached over the barricade bars and yelled enthusiastically upon the end of each song.
Overall, this experience took me out of my comfort zone, and, although I cannot say I am a new metal fan, I certainly enjoyed myself and appreciated the commitment to the gory aesthetic by artists and fans alike. I recommend anyone in Nashville to try something new and explore our popular metal scene for a change!
