Portrayal of Guilt • GAG • Fearing • Snag
Wed 08/30/23
8:00PM
18+
music
$16 ADV // $18 DOS
Show Lineup
Portrayal of Guilt
(Austin, TX)
Genre: Black Metal, Grunge, Punk
Portrayal of Guilt eschew predictability. While the Austin, Texan outfit have released material at a rapid clip since their formation only six years ago, it has been near-impossible to predict what each ensuing release might sound like. The only window into what to expect has been those releases’ titles, wallowing in themes of affliction, isolation, and just plain underworld allusion. Naturally, this leads to…Devil Music.
After shifting their sound over several immediate releases (most recent, 2021’s widely acclaimed CHRISTFUCKER), Portrayal of Guilt has transformed from masters of the traditional ‘90s screamo template, to fit a more blackened and sludgy metal intensity.
Citing a wide spectrum of influences, Devil Music, tracked in two different sessions in early 2022, is an experimental approach to writing heavy music. It offers five new original songs on Side A; and then a reimagining of those same five songs on Side B, replacing much of the traditional guitars and bass setup with an orchestral string section, acoustic bass, and brass.
The sludgy, thudding riffs of the album’s opening salvo, “One Last Taste of Heaven,” is transformed on the other side into harrowing violin waxing, while King’s unholy screech remains, nurturing the sound into a sort of chamber metal. It’s a paean to death and decomposition, with the original perhaps a violent aural display of the former and the unnerving rearrangement meant to convey the languid rot of the latter.
It leads into “Untitled,” an absolutely distressing depiction of purgatory with a nonetheless catchy rhythm, which the band manages to transform into a hellish near-waltz of sorts on its alternate version. Beyond that painting of torture, “Burning Hand” provides a brief foray into gory horror. The album’s pounding closer and title track sounds as though a Mephistophilean angel casts a scourge upon the narrator. Musically, “Burning Hand” even showcases some industrial drums, plus a rare spate of clean, semi-gothic singing to close it out. This uncharacteristic vocal detour helps build its counterpart to a demonic climax.
“Where Angels Come to Die” hints at the darkest of circumstances, possibly alluding to addiction and suicidal ideation, and is musically among the album’s most cacophonous; one hears it remodeled on Side B into a methodically paced number with lurching stop-starts on its bridge before a triumphant buildup to finish it.
Devil Music cements Portrayal of Guilt as a band of their own ilk, playing by no one’s rules but their own, which even here they bend to their will. The album sees its digital release April 20 and will be available on physical formats April 21 via Run For Cover. There will also be an accompanying Devil Music short film DVD, sold separately, which includes the short film and additional video content.
GAG
(Olympia, WA)
Genre: Hardcore Punk
GAG is from Olympia, WA and bring deranged, distorted, and noisy hardcore with strength and anger.
Fearing
(Oakland, CA)
Genre: Cold Wave, Death Rock, Punk
Oakland, CA | James Rogers. Brian Vega. RJ Phillips. Michael Fenton.
Snag
(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Powerviolence, Punk, Screamo
Milwaukee’s Snag came from crisis and anxiety. Environmental, economic, existential– their music represents the full-throated terror of living in a world that seems to have no regard for its own future.
Snag’s LP is in many ways the most pure distillation of their sound yet, a Welcome the Plague Year-esque driving and melodic screamo record with some of the most potent and motivational lyrics the band has put to paper. With the album opener dedicated to the memory of David Buckel– an LGBT rights attorney who self-immolated to protest the usage of fossil fuels in 2018– and profits from the jittery border-abolitionist anthem “The Only Rational Response” going to Voces De La Frontera (“Voices from the Border”), Snag shows their commitment to social causes is as strong as their commitment to adventurous, heart-grabbing music. Moments like the elegiac and uplifting interlude “Morning” as well as the gritty, off-kilter stomp and chaotic, yet yearningly melodic guitar work of “Hunger Stone” show Snag reaching a musical maturity that most screamo bands never quite make it to.
With album packaging that puts the responsibility in the listener’s hands– including a zine full of pictures and lyrics, a box of matches, and an envelope full of pollinator seeds– Snag evokes the tension of being an active and informed individual in today’s self-destructive world in every way. “It’s your choice,” they say. “I tried to tell you.” – Ellie Kovach