Sector 2814

let’s begin by framing this post with a bit of context. the place where I currently reside - a little place known as Moncton - has a pretty nice local music scene; with plenty of great bands and some very decent venues at which to witness them. one thing we don’t get a lot of here is out-of-town bands - especially the type who come from countries other than Canada - who will actually tour or play in this part of North America (for you yanks, we happen to be located east - and depending which part of the state you’re in, north - of Maine). granted I’ve missed a few (damn kids), but in the past two years the biggest names I recall playing shows here are Behemoth, Martyr, Krisiun/Belphegor and Rotting Christ. oh, did I mention it’s a pretty metal town too? yeah

so when a rumor began to circulate that my favorite prog/shred-metal band Behold… the Arctopus were going to play here, I figured it had to be bullshit. the source of the rumor was a band in another town 1.5 hrs away from here who had apparently been contacted about setting up the gig and sharing the bill. and then… nothing. no promotion. no word of any other kind. this probably wasn’t helped by the fact that the guys who run the main venue(s) in town, where the show was supposedly taking place, were out of town on tour with their own band. but in the end, it turned out to be true and thankfully - mostly through word of mouth and a thread on a local message board - there was a decent turnout. not only that, but it turned out to be their first-ever show in Canada.

a while back, a friend of mine had jokingly used the term “skullfucking” when someone asked what type of music Behold… plays. it might have been more accurate than first predicted, because my brain was melted, blown through the back of my head repeatedly and I was indeed skullfucked numerous times by their performance. not only that, but they played another gig in a smaller town 20 minutes from here two nights after the first one. a group of about ten of us from here drove down for that one as well and we were pretty much the only people who stuck around to watch their set. so I got skullfucked all over again. bought a bunch of their merch (they must have brought most of it on tour with them though b/c the site is sold out of a bunch of stuff I picked up at the gig - translation: GO SEE THEM IF YOU WANT TO BUY THIS STUFF). talked to them a fair bit both nights as well - couldn’t ask for a more stellar and down-to-earth bunch of guys. considering their combined talent, having egos to match would be entirely justified - but none of that here. they just kept thanking us profusely for coming to the shows (especially the second one) when it should have been us thanking them for playing here. yes, I’m getting somewhere with this.

in all of my gushing over these shows in various places on teh interweb so far this week, one thing is becoming oddly clear to me: not nearly as many people know about this band as I originally thought. or, people know but just don’t care/aren’t into it - which is fair enough I suppose, since it does take a certain type of music fan to truly appreciate what they’re doing here. either way though, they’ve pretty much become my favorite active band (not that I didn’t like them a lot already) on the strength of these two shows, so I’m gonna plug the hell out of ‘em.

for anyone who hasn’t heard them yet, the only way I can describe them is with a metaphor: calling Behold… the Arctopus the next evolutionary step after late-80s Voivod would be like calling King Crimson the evolution of early Black Sabbath. I made a comment while mesmerized by their live DVD at post-show party that I’ll stick by: this band is something you want your planet to be remembered by. I semi-seriously considered buying a second copy of the DVD to put in a time-capsule.

hear them for yourself on their myspace page.

let’s not forget to mention the fact that these guys are all pretty prolific musicians who also play in other bands and/or have solo projects of their own.

Colin Marston (Warr guitar - that’s the big Chapman-Stick type thing he’s holding in the pics, btw):

- plays bass in Relapse math/prog-rock outfit Dysrhythmia

- does all instrumentation and drum-programming (with live drum samples as opposed to “canned” sounds) in his similarily-styled solo project Indricothere

- does all sorts of things in experimental/metal duo Infidel?/Castro!

- plays guitar (and collaborates with Jarboe) in experimental/drone/ambient duo Byla

Mike Lerner (guitar) also has a solo project called Direwolf in which he handles all instrumentation, vocals and drum programming. another must-hear.

Charlie Zeleny (drums):

- also drums with the most excellent Blotted Science, which is spearheaded by guitar mastermind Ron Jarzombek, formerly of (80s tech-thrash wizards) Watchtower and Spastik Ink.

- played on the yet-to-be-released new Kayo Dot album, which he tells us is “a lot more jazzy” than their earlier material

now that I’m done with the (deserved) pimping, it’s worth pointing out that Behold… added a cover to their set at the second show. when Colin announced it, everyone in the place thought he had said “this is by a band called Foreigner” in an attempt to either get the attention and/or make fun of the freaked-out, head-scratching, violence-contemplating rednecks in other sections of the bar. my friend asked him about it after the set - as it turned out, he had actually said “this is by a band called Coroner“… upon this reveal, my brain instantly jumped to my youthful days of catching (and VCR-taping) the “Masked Jackal” video on the good ol’ Power Hour. for some reason, I had only ever checked out Coroner’s first two albums “R.I.P” and “Punishment for Decadence”… actually, the exact reason is likely that I had no idea they’d become progressively more technical with each subsequent album. to rectify this gross misjudgment on my part, I set about familiarizing myself with their later albums in an attempt to figure out what the cover was. if my guess is right, it’ll turn out I didn’t have to go much further than Coroner’s third opus, No More Color (that’s a link to the album so y’all can’t say I didn’t give ya nothin’ t’day… ingrates )… based on parts I remember hearing at the show (especially the intro), I’m convinced that Behold… covered what has become my favorite track on this album: “Tunnel of Pain”. and hell, if I’m wrong I still discovered (better late than never) another excellent older album to share with you, my faithful readers.

last but not least: I don’t often do this sort of thing - in fact, this might be the first time I’ve ever posted pictures on this blog - but how ’bout some evidence of (one of) the shows in question: