by BBG

Batillus @ Acheron

Batillus headlined Acheron last night, their last show of the year on their homebase of NYC and a primer for their forthcoming West Coast dates with The Atlas Moth and Kowloon Walled City. Batillus's appearance featured a new song, one of several that band has already written for their follow-up to Furnace, the band's celebrated debut with Seventh Rule. Details on that are forthcoming.

Richmond crew Inter Arma were the lone touring band on the bill, joining locals Belus at the Acheron. Inter Arma linked up with Balaclava on earlier dates. Balaclava played Acheron a few days earlier.

Acheron will host another noteworthy show (that I booked) TONIGHT (10/27) at 9PM with Thrones, Danava, Caltrop, and Psychic Limb (who recently played a boat). It's one of two Thrones/Danava dates in NYC. The second is Thursday at Union Pool with La Otracina and Ben von Wildenhaus at 8PM.

More pictures and videos from last night and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Batillus, Inter Arma & Belus played Acheron (pics & video), Danava & Thrones kick off 2-night NYC run there tonight"

words & photos by BBG

Krum Bums @ Europa

A blackened crust band. An updated NWOBHM band. A poppy street-punk band. A blackened thrash band. A slow crusty doom band, and a traditional doom band with female vocals. Outside of a grind band and a hardcore band, I'd say that almost all heavy bases were covered on Friday night at Europa and Acheron. My night started with the Toxic Holocaust / Holy Grail / Krum Bums tour which hit Europa with support from Salo. Though the crowd was insanely into both Toxic Holocaust and Holy Grail (I preferred the former way more than the latter), Krum Bums were my favorite band at Europa that night. Their high-energy street punk awoke the quiet crowd, who were circle-pitting by their set's end. Toxic Holocaust had the audience eating out of their hand too, with the much larger circle-pit giving way to on-stage sing-alongs for favorites like "Wild Dogs" and "War is Hell".

side note: Toxic Holocaust's fans at Europa need to take a cue from the book of hardcore when it comes to stage-diving; thirty seconds of hesitation and searching for the right spot to dive isn't just embarassing, its just plain pointless.

After Europa, I headed over to the free after-party at Acheron featuring Windhand with local Belus. NYC's Belus is only on their second show, but the band shows maturity and songwriting way beyond their years. Make sure and catch them whenever you get the chance. Windhand was all the makings of an amazing traditional doom band: great vocals, memorable riffs, and bombastic sound. Can't wait to see them again.

All pictures and some recent video (including some from Europa) is below.

Continue reading "Toxic Holocaust, Holy Grail, Krum Bums, Salo, Belus & Windhand played Brooklyn Friday (pics & video)"

photos by Greg Cristman, words by BBG

Batillus

Let it be known, Batillus was officially the heaviest band in Brooklyn on Saturday night (4/23). The band's earth-shaking volume forced a premature ending to their record release set at Union Pool due to a "neighbor's noise complaint". It was fun while it lasted (they finished most of their set) and, once again, a guest appearance from the always incredible Kat (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, ex-Salome) was a welcome/unholy addition. I've said before that Batillus is a band that improves with every outing, and I thought Saturday night was their crowning achievement.

Co-headlining were the always malicious Morne, whose crusty prog-sludge set of over an hour was fantastic. The band played material from their forthcoming LP Asylum. Their set was amazing, and definitely topped their last NYC performance at Studio B with Tragedy.

Belus, featuring members of the once-great Curandera, opened the show and were an excellent way to set off the night.

Saturday was a disappointment and a huge triumph in equal measure, but that just makes room for an exciting set at Batillus's next appearance, May 14th at Acheron as part of a one-year-anniversary celebration of the venue with Trenchgrinder (pretty much Atakke sans Chloe and avec a new vocalist), Mutant Supremacy, Mortals, Defeatist, Tournament, Bad Dream & Beer & Cable.

More pictures from Union Pool below...

Continue reading "Batillus, Morne & Belus played Union Pool (until the show got shut down) -- pics"