[Concert review] SHROUD OF THE HERETIC LP release show @ The Alleyway, Portland OR, March 29 '14

Another rainy Saturday night in Portland. Perfect for a show at a dimly lit totally kick ass bar called The Alleyway. Pre-show Mexican food at Las Gorditas started the evening off right and the show started around 9ish. The bands didn't start until about an hour after I got there, and killing time with IPAs and friends was a great way to kill time while Black Magick Dragon set up.

The lights dimmed and Black Magick Dragon set into their weird, thrashy, punkish metal. I'm not quite sure how to explain their sound. It was sort of like some sort mixture of later Black Flag/Die Kreuzen/Voivod style angular riffing and weirdness, cosmic psychedelica and sludgy death metal topped off by the occasional Thin Lizzyish lead and dual vocals, with one of the Heavy Voodoo dudes on bass/vocals. That mix varied from song to song throughout their set, keeping things interesting. They didn't really talk between songs, but their set felt longer than it was, and yet I still would have been down for another 30 minutes of that sort of material from them. Definitely one of the coolest new local bands I've seen in a while.

The rain was still going. Black Magick Dragon loaded out and Erik Moggridge set up a stool and microphone and began to lull the crowd with the songs of Aerial Ruin. The Alleyway is a perfect venue for the type of music Erik unleashed upon the crowd. Dimly lit and intimate, the rain outside set a slightly otherworldly atmosphere.
For one man and his guitar and voice to perform in front of a crowd without distortion or the cover of a full band on what would otherwise be a metal show, it takes very strong songs. And the songs were amazing, beautiful and dark. Having Aerial Ruin play between metal bands was a brilliant palate cleanser. The added bonus of hearing Erik announce songs in cookie monster vocals between songs was pretty fucking funny too.

And the rain continued. Big shock, but the field recording of a storm that started off the final set of the evening drew the downpour outside into the room as Shroud Of The Heretic tore into three brand new unrecorded songs from what is to be their new LP and one "old" one off of their newly released LP Revelations In Alchemy. Otherworldly death metal evoking the darkest horrors that lurk between the cracks in reality. I've followed this band since I snagged their first EP, Boiled To Death, over two years ago from a now defunct Portland based metal blog, and they have come a very long way since then.
Gone are the d-beats and straightforward cavernous old school death metal parts. Here are the hypnotic riffs that twist and turn through the worst parts of your mind, with a rhythm section that relentlessly propel the songs forward through the crypt gas. Sort of like Dead Congregation doing acid with Portal and Grave Upheavel, tearing holes through space and time where weird things that creep in and lurk inside your mind. Nobody in the band uttered a single word the entire set. Candles burned on top of amps as the stuff of nightmares was conjured. And then, it was over.

A few more beers and we headed home. Another awesome night.
- Tony Howard

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