: : Extreme Texas Metal News : :

Upcoming Shows

The 'Shows' page has been updated, more shows have been added. If you know of a show that's not on the calendar, please email me. More flyers have been added to the gallery also.

Austin metalheads, there's a shitload of shows and events coming in May-August. Keep an eye out for them. \m/

Flyer Creation

Just wanted to announce something new we are doing. Flyer creation. Contact me or Mars if you are looking for someone to make or fix flyers for your band's shows. There is no charge ofcourse.

Remember, flyers are always being uploaded to the photo gallery, so if you have a flyer that isn't on the gallery, email it to me.

Images of Violence news

"We are currently writing new material that makes all of our previous releases gay.Some newer tracks not yet recorded are.... Perverse Caress, Degrade the Shapeless, Nocturnal Visits, Spread for Worship, more to come..we are also re-writing some older material to make it sick....or we just might throw that shit away. We are also debating on changing the name of our band....we will see... thank you for your attention." -Images of Violence on My Space http://www.myspace.com/imagesofviolence

La Lechuza Summer 2005

"This summer La Lechuza will start the production of the new clothing line. I have several designs already sketched, just need a few more to make the collection complete! I hope everything goes as scheduled to launch the clothing collection in Winter.

In that time the site will also change. I will no longer carry the clothes you see now from other designers. I believe the only things I will keep working with is the Footwear and Vollers Corsets. Take advantage of this time to place your orders if you had planned to make a purchase cuz come Winter it will all be gone!!! Yet you will sure have a sweet replacement and I really hope the new La Lechuza Collection is to your liking. Thanks to all La Lechuza supporters and friends." - Aleen R www.la-lechuza.net

May 14 New Orleans Metal Show!

In Asunder News

Weslaco based 'In Asunder' is currently recording their soon to be released full length album. If you would like to check out this band, they'll be performing at "The Valley of Death Fest" on May 21st in Corpus Christi along with many other South Texas bands. You can also stop by their page on My Space: http://www.myspace.com/inasunder

Peter Beste Photography in Austin

Latest Update

Not much to report at the moment. I just wanted to let everyone know to check out the following pages for a few updates. "Shows" More shows have been added, I'll be adding a few more in the next few days. "Gallery" Check out the newest additions to the photo gallery. I've added flyers to upcoming events and shows, also added a new section called 'Skin and Ink'. Feel free to send it pictures of your best ink. We'll have a contest involving the best tattoo when we have more tattoo pictures, so send them in!! We'll have new interviews soon, as well as an announcement on July 23rd's Austin Metalfest.

Come back soon, this website is updated almost daily.

New look

Welcome to Extreme Texas Metal. I just finished updating all the pages on the website. Let me know what you think. If you have any problems with any of the pages, or just want to comment please go to our feedback page.

Thanks for stopping by, and for supporting us. \m/

Review By: Prozak

Permafrost

In truth, this reviewer did not make it to the venue in time for Permafrost, but can relate secondhand what occurred: this young band were happy for a chance to prove themselves, and showed their passion by working past adversity to get that difficult first big show over with. While the name is terrible, and the music has a ways to go, Permafrost made up for that to some degree with a lack of rockstar attitude and genuine caring about the music. It made the experienced fans glad at least to see that recognition of the reality of metal: adversity is your friend, as in struggling against it, you get better. Those who care about the music value getting better, while others are simply there to look like they're important. It's a crucial distinction.

Gates of Enoch

Although this band showed energy and technical poise, there was something missing in the complex puzzle of black metallic art that unites thought and emotion, structure and substance. While clearly they are fine instrumentalists, and can execute complex rhythms and passages with ease, Gates of Enoch linearize the concept of black metal into a rigid and numerical exercise. As a result, their songs have power as parts, but not as a whole, and the sum of the parts is less than the whole as each element leads the whole in a contradictory direction. It makes sense to define art, "objectively," as a process of communication between artist and listener, and if that is the case, Gates of Enoch communicate disorganization and lack of purpose, without the intent to use that as an artistic statement.

For that reason, the band was able to punch out a competent set that meant nothing to those listening except a few cool riffs. Like most metal music past 1996, the experience was therefore one that was not bad, but was not memorable either, and thus left one feeling an appreciation for the skill of the band but not their vision. Instrumentalism was competent but unsubtle, and this was not demonstrated more effectively than in their choice of covers, a song from later Dissection and "I am the Black Wizards" by Emperor. The Dissection cover, being like Iron Maiden a slightly more informed type of rock music hybridized with metal, went off well and benefitted from their dispassionate regularity in playing; on the other hand, the Emperor cover was a disaster.

Where the point of the original was to have guitars detach themselves in diaphanous fronds of frothy sound from the animalistic battering of drums, and to then develop the song with subtlety, Gates of Enoch slash and bash a rigid and unyieldingly obvious version that while still beautiful misses the gently interwoven emotions of the original delivery. It sounded like a deathgrind band covering Emperor. A similar critique could be applied to their songs: the drummer rode his snare too hard at the end of each phrase, and composition tends to follow a two-step pattern of melodic decoration crashing into percussive anchor riff. Guitarists play like they're reading tab, but with plenty of energy, which is gratifying. The vocalist clearly listens to a lot of Gorgoroth.

In reality, there are only two types of music reviews: "it's good" or "needs work," no matter what permutations we invent to euphemize those extremes. This reviewer is not crafty enough to disguise the truth as I see it and too experienced to lie: Gates of Enoch needs work. I do not say this to discourage them, however; depending on where they are in their development, it is possible they have far better things ahead. My advice to them is to stop studying their black metal favorites as technique, and begin studying them as effects on the listener, working backward to diagnose in that context the function of technique.

Vex

Hybridized from death metal, power metal and black metal, Vex is a band with a great name and plenty of promise, but remains disconnected from producing great art because the focus seems divided between the music and secondary elements. For their age group, these musicians are impressive, having mastered not only playing the notes but a range of techniques to add tension, emphasis and texture to each phrase. However, there's a lack of artistic consensus, which shows not only in how they perform, but how they compose.

Live, Vex sounds most like a death metal band with black metal elements, although a diverse lineage of metal can be discerned from among their winding riffs. It shows an impressive knowledge of metal, but ties together poorly, being reliant on a duality of elements that unite in chorus and then potentially shift through a series of "unexpected" riff changes to convey to the audience -- well, what? Mostly what comes across is the contribution of individuals in the band, or so it seems, as sweet riffs get piled onto one another without regard for the sound as a whole, or any concept of organization to the piece in question.

The vocalist needs to change his sense of rhythm and vocal texture, as currently he sounds like an emo or metalcore vocalist, and the effect is one to offset the already busy rhythmic background with a cadence more appropriate to an Iraq war protest than a metal concert - and for those of you who are thinking about open-mindedness, it also fails to lift or augment the music. Guitar playing is fabulous, as is bass and drums, but their integration is one of mathematical timing and little else. Their stage presence however is energetic and appealing.

Ultimately, Vex is another "needs work." Rhythmically the band integrates its work fairly well, and thus to most listeners, these disadvantages are not apparent, but over repeated listens, they'll become apparent. This is not an attempt to discourage, because the impression one gets is that this band is perfectly capable and if they could all agree on what each song they're writing hopes to express, the raw tools they have at hand are overabundant for the purpose. It reeks like a collision of personalities. This may not come in the form of disagreement, but perhaps too much tolerance for cramming in admittedly excellent pieces, soup style, into what eventually emerges as a formless and indistinct mass of sound.

Averse Sefira

Taking to the stage with customary elan, Averse Sefira stepped out of the blackness and proceded to abrade their audience with slicing aural intensity delivered in a disciplined and natural style. In perhaps one of the fastest black metal sets on record, they performed the entirety of their new work, "Tetragrammatical Astygmata," followed by an encore of three of their most popular songs from previous albums. Although there were two pauses in the rendering of the new album, and one lengthy break before encore, the songs themselves were ripped out in a martial style at high speed with only a few seconds separating them.

A smooth continuation of previous works, the newest songs from Averse Sefira are, like those on the previous album, "Battle's Clarion," a hybrid between the fast melodic work of Immortal and the relentless aggression of maniacal bands like Demoncy, resulting in a type of black metal that uses the foreboding and oppressive speed of death metal in the context of songs which interleave moods through streams of notes changing color like a singing human voice. An addition from the last album is the use of simpler riffs at times, giving the music a primitive and unsettled feel, and the circuitous redirection of song structures to replace repetition with a cycle of gained intensity. It is both highly listenable and challenging in its mystical architecture of symbols, tones, and textures.

Drummer The Carcass has upgraded his technique to use a lighter touch on the drums without dropping precision or helicopter blade cadence, extending his stamina and allowing drums to sound at a volume which integrates more cleanly with guitars. The result is a style less like an execution and more like a battle, allowing the organic ambiguity of rhythmic inflection to smoothly reinforce guitars. Bass playing has reached beyond doubling the riff and now counterpoints it with internal rhythms and explosive underscores, sometimes surging along calmly before degrading into pure noise from which it returns with a mechnical plunge to take up the motif of the riff.

For a band with one guitarist, Averse Sefira create a wall of sound that leaves no doubt as to its allegiance to Apollo and worship of Dionysos, constructed rigidly with plenty of chaos in the naturalistic, erratic rhythms of strumming and the use of Burzum-style sweeps of harmonizing notes, like an underwater arpeggio heard through the resonance of metal and water. Guitarist Sanguine A. Nocturne pauses strategically and then not so much plays but leaps into the guitar, causing it to splinter from silence and rise in dopplerizing melodies which shudder downward like collapsing escarpments. The guitar is both creator of abstraction and death hiding in an open but twilight-shrouded landscape.

The result of this battering ensemble of morbidity and passion was not lost on the audience, most of whom appeared to be motivated specifically to see the headlining band. While there was action and violence in the pit, most eyes were on the instruments and the personae who played them. The band rounded out the show with "Ad Infinitum," "Battle's Clarion" and "Fallen Beneath the Earth," at faster speeds than on the albums, and at that point, an exhausted audience was grateful for their abrupt exit and the fading of the lights.

Permafrost
http://www.geocities.com/permafrost_666/
Gates of Enoch
http://chaoticgoat.com/goe/
Vex
http://www.vexhomepage.com/
Averse Sefira
http://www.aversesefira.com/

The organization of this show was professional; the club did an adequate job. Thanks to the staff at Extreme Texas Metal, Rigor Mortis Records, and Morbid Thoughts for their work.

DON'T FUCK WITH TEXAS

I have to say many fucking thanks to all the bands that played April 2nd at the South Texas Metalfest 2, and all the bands that played last night at The Backroom as well as everyone to came out to see the show and everyone involved with them. What awsome shows! All the bands were great, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Looking foward to seeing all the bands again.

I was offline for a week so forgive the lack of an update or two on the news and pictures. I'll be posting more pictures this week from both shows, and probably a few others. Check the gallery to see my pictures from last night's show. I might have a review to post soon too. As far as the webzine, since I was unable to finish getting it together, it should be released later this week I hope. So looking for info to be posted.