Nachtmystium at Sala Rossa with Boris and Torche

Chicago black metal practitioners Nachtmystium took the stage at Montreal’s Sala Rossa alongside Japanese sludge masters Boris and Florida pop-metal band Torche.

I was been a fan of ex-Nachtmystium alumni Aamonael's Avichi project and when the new Nachtmystium album Black Meddle came out I was blown away. So it was pretty exciting to have a chance to see them on a bill here in Montreal, and with Boris no less!

Unfortunately for me, Nachtmystium were the openers at this early show and so I must have missed at least a little bit of their set as they were playing when I came in to the club. Still caught a fair bit of it and they were mesmerizing.

Long passages of hypnotic and strangely peaceful drums are just one of the reason this envelope-pushing black metal band from Chicago is labelled psychedelic black metal. The set was incredible but I had a feeling that a lot of the fans were unfamiliar and unready for raw black metal -- Boris, if they can be considered metal at all, certainly has a fair bit of crossover audience and I didn't see anybody in the audience that looked particularly like a black metal fan. Then, again the band themselves didn't look particularly black metal - the band eschews all of the theatrical visual excesses of the genre and instead focuses on the music.

They were the band that I was there to see though, and they kicked ass. Only wish they'd been headlining their own show.

Torche was up next. I was previously unfamiliar with this Latino pop meets sludge band from Florida. Although there they got off to a great start and had some good moments, I found their sound was too pop and radio-friendly for my taste. Was a real bummer to have to sit through their long set wishing that Nachtmystium or a like-minded band was onstage.

Boris were the headliners and by the time they took the stage, Sala Rossa was more packed than I've ever seen the club. I'd previously caught them at the Brickyard in Vancouver with Sunn O))).... They played a great set, lots of drawn out ambient parts of the set but some killer sludge metal riffage thrown in too of course. Drummer Atsuo's enthusiasm and ego bordered on performance art and got a good rise and probably many laughs from the crowd - at the end of the set he came out from behind the drums to pose for the audience and extol their praise before heading out for some crowd-surfing....

All in all a killer show and a great counterpoint to the limp, lineup at the recent inaugaral Heavy Mtl festival.... If you're unfamiliar with Nachtmystium, I strongly recommend checking out their new Black Meddle release. It's brilliant and forward-thinking black metal that would have appeal beyond the confines of the genre as well.

http://www.myspace.com/nachtmystium

Gordon B. Isnor