aevangelist-1

Aevangelist, Oak, Artificial Brain & Disparish @ Saint Vitus (pics & videos)

photos by Caroline Harrison; video by Pit Full of Shit; words by Doug Moore

Ævangelist
Ævangelist

Disparish is a brand-new band featuring Toby Driver of Kayo Dot on vocals and Andrew Hock of Castevet on guitar, among others. Those bands are both pretty outré by metal standards, but Disparish’s music is conservative and maybe even a little retro. I was told to expect early Katatonia worship, but they’ve got some Thousand Lakes-era Amorphis in the mix too, and their shuffling pace reminds me of ’90s-era mid-paced black metal. Driver’s vocals have always been one of Kayo Dot’s strongest selling points for me, but his tack here is totally different. He delivers straight-ahead growls and rasps, though I anticipate that his clean voice will come into play some time in Disparish’s future….

Ævangelist‘s excellent 2013 album Omen Ex Simulacra flew under the radar for a lot of people, in no small part because of its many eccentricities. The live version of the band has even more quirks. Every member wears tribal-ish makeup; vocalist Ascaris sports a mask and is prone to rolling around on the floor; instrumental main man Matron Thorn plays a hollow-bodied jazz guitar instead of the standard pointy-framed Jackson or BC Rich. Most importantly, the band doesn’t have a live drummer. They rely on a drum machine instead — always a dicey proposition for a death metal band. The band unsurprisingly suffered some sound balance issues for the first half of their set. (Note: always turn down the drum machine. Always.) But once Ævangelist hit their stride, their vortex sucked me in.

Chicagoan death metal curios Ævangelist brought their tour to Saint Vitus on Saturday (1/25) for an IO-cosponsored show. Maryland’s Oak and local notables Artificial Brain and Disparish (who were making their live debut) provided support. We’ve got a full writeup, photos, and video of every band over at Invisible Oranges — the review is excerpted above. Head over there for the rest of the writeup plus all of the pics and videos.

Some of the pics and a clip of Ævangelist’s set below…

Disparish

Disparish
Disparish
Disparish
Disparish
Disparish

Artificial Brain

Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain
Artificial Brain

Oak

Oak
Oak
Oak
Oak
Oak

Ævangelist

Ævangelist
Ævangelist
Ævangelist
Ævangelist
Ævangelist
Ævangelist