Ulcerate, Zhrine, Phobocosm, Burials
This event is in the past
Fri., Nov. 4, 9 p.m. 2016
Tonic Lounge
Kerns (Portland)
$13 - $15
Metal bands have received lots of attention in recent years for incorporating decidedly non-metal styles into their sound, often in favor of melody and at the expense of heaviness. This is not the model under which Ulcerate operates. The New Zealand death-metal band has been around since the turn of the century, but started rising in profile with the release of 2009's Everything Is Fire and 2011's The Destroyers of All, which moved Ulcerate away from shrieks and wails toward a more guttural sound. Then came 2013's epic Vermis, an hour-long slab of monolithic tech-death marked by baleful blast beats, clangorous guitars, Paul Kelland's suffocating growl, and a relentless sense of dark, inexorable dread. Vermis feels like being forced into a body bag, zipped up, and tossed down a zig-zagging garbage chute. If that's your thing, it's glorious. BEN SALMON