The True Underground...

2006-08-17T07:45:00.000-04:00

Xtreme Soundscapes Show - August 11, 2006
The Haunt, Ithaca, NY

The show opened just after 8pm (there was some initial confusion about the start time due to some miscommunication) with Chamber Law. Female fronted Death Metal, very rhythmic and agressive, and rather original. D generally surprises people when she starts her gutteral onslaught, and even more so when you realize she can actually sing as well.

Following up Chamber Law was Angels Beneath Me. Intricate Death Metal from Cortland. Personally, I love the way their songs build and explode. Very, very intense...

After ABM was the first appearance of Crappy the Clown. He came out, smoked his giant crack pipe and sang a kareoke version of "I Wanna Marry a Porno Star" before introducing 137...

137 are from the Rochester area, and can not really be called Death Metal. Nor do they fit in any other category cleanly. Slow and heavy, crushing, yet heavy. Brutal, gutteral, yet mostly understandable vocals. And they even threw in their cover of the Beastie Boys' "Fight for your right to Party"... Very cool...

Crappy the Clown came out and sang his new song, "7 Dirty Words", and then introduced Mahavatar. Extremely original, aggressive Metal, female fronted... They remind me a bit of Crisis, but they don't sound like Crisis. They are more melodic, and they have an almost tribal sound at well. Mahavatar hail from NYC and have just signed to Escapi Records. Amazing performance.

Dormitory Effect, also from NYC, were just as impressive this time around, if not more-so. The least heavy of the bands on the bill, they still easily held their own with the crowd. Crappy tried to fish for them during their set, to no avail.

Chapel Perilous closed off the night, playing their odd, almost Lovecraftian sounding Metal. Hard to classify, they create some odd sounds, and have 2 bass players. Very bizarre and interesting. Heavy, but hard to call Death Metal. They also did a cover of "Aces High", in their own odd style...

Seriah Azkath

Xtreme Soundscapes Volume IV Release Show

2006-05-01T04:59:00.000-04:00

So, an overview. Never the Sunshine, started a bit late. Their drummer / vocalist apparently thought the show was at Castaways, understandable as the last couple times they played for us, they played there. Anyway, it all worked out. They played a good, 45 minute set, aside from some technical problems, which seemed to plague all the bands (and for that matter, The Last Exit for the Lost later in the night). They have just recently signed to WoeconstrictoR Records (www.WoeconstrictoR.com) and will be recording a new full length CD this summer. They did their sludgy / doomy thing and played a bunch of new songs that will be on the new album...

Inherence were supposed to be next. They no showed. Being that the vocalist owns a club, I expected a little more professionalism out of them than to do something like that. Apparently, that was my mistake. For the record, they are the only band to ever no show an Xtreme Soundscapes show. On the up side, it allowed Never the Sunshine to play their full set after starting late.

Seasons of the Wolf were up next, and started almost right when they were supposed to. They made the trip up all the way from Tampa, and also seemed to have a good share of technical problems. All in all, though, it was a really good performance. They have sort of that old Gothic Metal vibe going on. They have fun with it, and really put everything into their performance. They plan on coming back up before the end of the year to probably do a CD Release show in this area. Really cool, down to earth guys.

Sun Descends had played one of our earliest shows, and now they were back, with a new drummer, and an absolutely phenomenal set. Pure, unadultrated thrash. Incredibly tight and aggressive, and they work so very well with each other on stage. They are off to do a European tour in a few weeks, so this was sort of their warmup show.

Bone Jar were the headliners, and, as usual, put on a rock solid performance. They will be putting out their CD finally, sometime soon, as well. This night, they played a slightly shorter set than usual, with all the technical problems throughout the night, things ran a bit late, but they are so very into each and every performance, and they are so damned tight when they play. The crowd was so very into both them and Sun Descends, it was rather cool. They seemed to avoid the curse of tech problems the other bands had, instead we had planned to do a bit where Just Joe was to be wrapped in Bubble Wrap and tossed into the pit. Unfortunately, the wrap was locked in Joe's car, and they called him up on stage for the bit. So I guess we gave them their tech problem for the night. But they handled it like professionals, they all gave Joe a hug, and then they moved on...

So, all in all, not the crowd that we had at the last release show, which was suprising, but there was still a good crowd, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. Also on the suprising side, we had free copies of the new Xtreme Soundscapes DVD there, and only about half the people there took a copy. Do we not make it clear that we are giving away free DVD's no strings attached? I do not know.

I do know, that tentatively, the next XS Show is June 24th with Missing Marcus... And remember, you can now watch Vol IV right on the Xtreme Soundscapes website... And our thanks to the bands that were there, and to everyone who came out to see the show.

Xtreme Soundscapes III.V

2006-04-04T19:31:00.000-04:00

We will try this and see how it goes as far as keeping things up to date.

Last Saturday was our Volume IV Pre-Release show at The Haunt. Honestly, the turnout was a little light, not bad, but less than I had hoped considering we were giving away a limited edition DVD, and we had 5 awesome females fronted bands playing.

The night started out with Others, from Binghamton, NY. They have a sound that avoids any narrow category. There is Metal there, and Punk, Goth, a touch of Horror... They played a short but good set to start off the show. They are always fun to see live, and they have an awesome CD available. Check out their stuff at www.othersgothichorror.com and www.myspace.com/others... They also have quite a few cool music videos, and a DVD available with their CD available through Dr. Cyclops Records.

Up next was Loki the Grump. Now, originally, when this show was booked, it was supposed to be Loki the Grump. But then, there were band problems and just before we started promoting the show, Michelle changed the band to Snarky. After all the posters and CD's were done and out, they went back to Loki the Grump and never actually became Snarky. Confusing, but they rocked. Fun, catchy, sometimes almost poppy Punk. www.lokithegrump.com and www.myspace.com/lokithegrump. They made the 5 hour trip up from NYC for this debut, and due to band problems, they had only a couple of weeks to work with a whole new line-up. Because of this, they also played a fairly short set, but they will be back soon, and one can only imagine how good they will be after working together longer, especially after how good they were this night... They have a good 5 song CD available...

If Man is Five have possibly played more Xtreme Soundscapes shows than any other band. Followed closely by The Pushrods and Divinity Destroyed. There is a good reason from that, they are simply awesome. They are original and exemplify what the Xtreme Soundscapes project is all about. Their performance this night was as good as ever, with Angela's powerful, and sometimes operatic vocals, and their diversity of sound that goes from subtle and beautiful, to heavy and penetrating. There is nothing else like it. www.blackazul.com/ifmanisfive and www.myspace.com/ifmanisfive. This was also the last show for their drummer Greg. They already have another drummer in place though, so they will not likely miss a beat. If Man is Five hail from Binghamton, NY, and have a couple of CD's available, and soon a DVD...

We were familiar with Dormitory Effect from years ago when a couple of the members were in a band called One Step Beyond. I can now say with all certainty that Dormitory Effect is a force to be reckoned with. Powerful and heavy, with Sue's amazing, almost Tool-like vocal crooning, they seemed to really floor a lot of people in the club with their performance. As with most of bands this night, all the members of Dormitory Effect are exceptional musicians. They hail from NYC and they will be back soon... www.dormitoryeffect.com and www.myspace.com/dormitoryeffect...

Misisng Marcus are quickly becoming local favorites here in Ithaca, NY. Each time they perform, they seem to get just a bit better. Guy's guitar playing, and manipulation of feedback at times, is damned impressive, and Jessica's approach to vocals is bluesy and sexual. If sex could be converted to music, it would be Missing Marcus. And I mean that in the sense of feeling, emotion, and expression, not cheap T&A. Passionate performers, check out www.missingmarcus.com and www.myspace.com/missingmarcus. They are currently working on their debut CD...

Our next Xtreme Soundscapes Show is the Volume IV DVD Release Show on April 29th at The Haunt in Ithaca. Also an early show as this one was, The show starts at 5pm with some Doom / Stoner Metal with Never the Sunshine, then some Hardcore with Inherence, Some Old School Gothic Metal presented by Seasons of the Wolf, some Old-School Thrash with Sun Descends, and finally some Groove Metal / Hardcore with Bone Jar. This show will be heavy. And there will be free copies of the XS Vol IV DVD while supplies last...

Seriah Azkath
Xtreme Soundscapes Page
www.myspace.com/xtremesoundscapes