|
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Burning of I
Who:
Where:
When:
When:
I've been itching to add live shows and bands to the gearpage at roughly the same time I thought to switch over to blog format. For the most part, I want to snap pictures of pedalboards and write about gear-- I want to let SeattleAudiophile actually review the shows... but I was at this one so I'm feeing the need to step up.
Gearwise, there's little to shoot. Many, many metal bands don't need much more than their amps, and there's not a lot of footwoork on display at a Burning of I show-- guitarist/vocalist Jacob Weatherspoon stepped on a Morley wah occasionally, but mostly was defined by a Genz Benz head. Matt Finse rocked a VHT, and Jesse Brasch's bass was fed by the ultimate in heavy bass standards: an Ampeg tube head. I don't really speak drum, but for the Paiste cymbals alone, Tory McKeag's drums are intimidating (nothing sounds like a Paiste ride; you don't have to play drums to know that ping.)
 |
Gearpage work done, this was a stunning band playing an amazing show. I'm easily bored by bands that fall into rote patterns, even if they're patterns I like (the only band I want to sound like Entombed is Entombed, thank you very much), and Burning of I established themselves within their first song as being complex and original. They're heavy, sure, but also atmospheric and textural, claiming Neurosis in their influences... their thrash is thrash and their black metal is black metal (sort of: no matter how their picking goes, Burning of I's sound is rich and articulate, and even if the riffing goes Black Metal, they never have a "bee in a tin can" black metal sound.) Though I can't define this (or most other bands I like) by a list of comparisons, personally, I hit a lot of metal shows like a wine taster... It's got a Neurosis body, with a Mastadon nose, and a kind of Gojira mouthfeel.
The band truly covers a lot of ground, with Finse (chunkier and more scooped) and Weatherspoon (bigger mids) both being tonally seperate.. but I was wearing earplugs, so don't beat me up if their EQs aren't how I describe them-- the two guitars sidestepped the biggest problem in two-guitar bands and complimented each other instead of fighting one another. Even then, when something went wrong (as Jacob assured us is normal at Burning of I shows), Matt did all of the guitar work alone, and the song still came off assuredly. As an uninitiated bystander, I thought Jacob putting down his guitar and picking up the mic was simply part of the song.
Being a bassist myself, I spend a lot of time noticing bass, especially in metal bands-- there's a fine line between a joke in Metalocalypse ("why don't you act like a bassist and be inaudible?) and show-stealing flash. There are a lot of complex and interesting guitar chords in Burning of I, so there's a lot of room for Jesse to shine-- stunningly heavy and articulate low end, and (maybe this is the way the band writes, maybe it was Wes from Nekro Morphosis running live sound, maybe both) the bass and guitars were well defined without one instrument drowning out the others. Regardless, this is the kind of band where the bass is a live, moving, real part of the mix, and that always pushes a band forward for me-- I need more bass. They all gang up for heavy chunka chunka lows, but the guitars spend lots of time selling atmospheric top, so the bass (played fingered, not picked) gets to be the heaviness a lot of the time.Finally, the whole machine is complex-- I bounced across the club to call out a riff in 7/8 to a bandmate, only to return to my post and have a friend inform me the riff was in thirteen: it was alternating sixes and sevens. I always love the off-kilter grooves, especially when they sound right-- this is a band that sees the complicated through the head-bobbing and relatable, and they're great riffs first and complicated second... theses aren't the kind of songs where you can see everyone counting time in their heads, they're great, interesting, complex grooves.
I haven't heard any recordings yet, but the live show was a knockout... I do intend to do more Gearpage-y show writing, snapping pictures of pedalboards, but for the launch, Burning of I were too good not to write about.
...end transposition. I've seen Burning of I since April, and will give them a proper write up without the trappings of the Gear Page, but this seemed a fine enough place to start.
Burning of I on Facebook
Comments
