Performative Screenings #45

[[[ALTAR:THRON]]]
unten:oben
light sound object: school

First we’ve heard from this mysterious outfit, but somehow from the strange name, and symbol heavy spelling, we were expecting something heavy, which is precisely what we got. A churning, death march plod, sort of Godflesh-y, pounding caveman pummel beneath thick caustic downtuned riffage, blurred into heaving swells of droned out thrum. This is a some serious slo-mo, abject doom-dirge heaviness, the opening track eventually shifting into something more majestic, the droned out riffs, soaring heavenward, wreathed in feedback, the vibe very Harvey Milk, as if they might break out into some twisted Leonard Cohen number at any second, but instead, the band unfurl a woozy bassline, that drifts below streaks of feedback, as the whole track oozes malevolently, into a stripped down creep, laced with whispered vokills, squalls of tribal drumming, all driven by that distorted bass buzz, before finally exploding into a sort of anguished doom ballad, the vocals a mournful wail, over the lumbering doomic creep.
We kind of expected the second song to be more of the same, but wow, the instrumentation is the same, but the vocals, epic, soaring, belted out, this could be a doom metal Circle, the same sort of near ridiculous almost operatic bombast, but here it transforms the sludge into some sort of epic doom-prog, or a more rocking Harvey Milk maybe, it even reminds us at points of Magma! The final track mixes it up again, laying down a murky dirge of muted guitar chug, swirling almost psychedelic shimmer, before blossoming into some slow near metallic churn, and those vocals again, swoop in, dramatic and over the top, and transform everything, suddenly it’s some warped ultra heavy doom ballad, a little bit mathy, a lot bit moody, darkly dramatic, eventually shedding much of the heaviness, and finishing with a strange stretch of stripped down minimal syncopation. Seriously cool, and seriously warped stuff. Fans of twisted doomy dramatic heaviness will go nuts for these guys, Harvey Milk, Pinkish Black, Eagle Twin, Like A Kind Of Matador, etc.
This is WAY recommended!! Includes a download code! (Aquarius Records, San Francisco)

A series of showcases by artists who employ performative strategies and the projected image as tools in their works.
Focusing on the screening as frame for the exhibition series, school defines a specific realm within selected artistic positions that always relate to (political) realities.