If the sight of a fully-grown man’s bare arse bathed in blue LED light has you shuddering with disgust, then you simply aren’t acculturated to the ways of Metal. If you are willing to sit through songs detailing gruesome acts of murder and purchase merchandise emblazoned with decapitated infants, but you suddenly become grossed out as a lead singer’s testicle peeps at you momentarily from its loin cloth, you’ve got a long way to go, kid.
Impetuous Ritual’s performance in Dublin earlier in the month raised a few questions about the visual effect that nudity has on the overall presentation of a Metal gig. Is it necessary? If so, what does it actually achieve? What does it say about a music, that in order to be played effectively, it demands at least partial nudity of its musicians? Were Manowar on to something when they posed like greased-up Mr. Universe contestants? Is Gezol from Sabbat saying something about consumerist society when he dons the leather fundoshi, or does he just get an exhibitionist kick out of people staring at his bum?
In the case of Impetuous Ritual, their relative nudity intensified an already primitive display. The band are supposed to take you out of the Zeitgeist, they’re a band that are supposed to capture your eyes as well as your ears. The sight of four men in loin cloths may have conjured up a few childish giggles from the crowd at the beginning, but by the end of their set, it all seemed to make sense. You’ve read it here first, throw aside those patch jackets, barbaric undergarments will be the next big thing in Metal gig apparel.
Primitive Man
Like much of what’s coming out of the USA at the moment (Think Nails, Full of Hell.), Primitive Man launt their elasticity. A mishmash of all that is noxious in Metal and Punk, the Colorado three-piece lunge forward in grotesque motion on their latest single, ‘Futility.’
Gol
Australian Metal keeps getting better and better, Gol are just further evidence of a scene that is brimming with good old fashioned heft. Gol bring the trudging guitar riff back to Black Metal and while it’s nothing new, the duo do well to remind you that this is head banging music and not merely trendy performance art for snarky twenty-somethings.
Goatsnake
It has been 15 years since the last full-length Goatsnake offering and it hardly has to be suggested just how much buzz there has been around this record. The supergroup return on top form to deliver murky and soulful Doom that both re-establishes and reinforces the relationship the genre has with the swampy Blues of old. A truly fun album amidst waves upon waves of down-tuned misery.
Goatsound Recording
It’s very rare that a compilation would be featured here on The Hefty Fog, but this project by the Aussie Goatsound Recording studios to recreate and pay tribute to Black Flag’s Damaged was too good to let slide. Spanning multiple genres, this compilation is a success as both a tribute to the past and exhibition of the present. Liam Doyle
