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NO GUTS, NO GLORY METAL FEST; THE BONE CHURCH AND MORE…
Beatlanta caught The Bone Church at the No Guts, No Glory Metal Fest this past Saturday. This was my first time seeing them live but they caught my ear months back when I saw their name on a flyer and looked them up on myspace. They immediately had my attention and I’ve wanted to see them ever since. My first thought was that The Bone Church was something a little different; the shrill pitch of the vocals on top of heavy thrash guitars mix with the faultless beat of the drums fusing together epic stylings of pure metal bliss. The sound meshes with authority and ferocity and E on vocals has a really unique higher pitched voice that is not common among heavier bands. Their stage presence is gargantuan, their attitude cool and their approach is methodical. They are fast and they are intense. Two major components into what I think makes an amazing metal band. They reminded me of Dragonforce meets System of a Down and everything in-between, however, still cleverly unique. The Bone Church is Shon on Guitar, E on vocals, Jack on Bass and Karl on drums. The the current lineup formed about a year and a half ago when Shon ran into Jack, who was an old friend who played guitar in several bands, and convinced him to pick up the bass. Karl, Shon and E (E and Karl are married) had been writing material together for about 3 years. Here is a song from the metal fest, played live for the very first time and put on the internet first right here at beatlanta.com….
I caught up with the band after the show and they had a lot of good things to say about the other bands playing the fest and the Atl metal scene…really cool fucking dudes in the Bone Church. Karl was telling me about a video for another band that he was in…I had heard of this band Iwrestledabearonce from Shon (who always finds cool new bands to check out) They had this crazy video for “Tastes like Kevin Bacon” which was directed by David Anthony from Ocular Intrusions out of Douglasville. He has also done video work for Synapse Defect and my friend Metal Mark, who interviews major metal bands for Skullsandbones.com. When IWABO got signed to Century Media, they demanded he do the video. Mark asked if I wanted to be an extra so we went to the Last great watering hole in Tucker and got filmed for the “You ain’t no Family” video. We are rednecks in the video, who are none too happy with this weird band. David and Ashley from Ocular Intrusions are total pros, and they hook bands up with really great deals!
When the band started out they played a more alt rock sound and note the change to a heavier deal to the natural progression of their talent as musicians. Karl had this to say about it…I think it was just a natural progression as I kept getting better at playing, I continued to challenge myself, as did E. She has only been singing for about 5 years. So as we got better, we got heavier and more technical, allowing Shon to incorporate more progressive riffs. We never really tried to be anything in particular, which is why we don’t really sound like anyone else. It really worried us when we decided to book our first show with Tank and Brandy from Dead Donkey Productions. We didn’t think we would fit in with any of the bands on the scene. We have played with a lot of bands from Goth/Rock to Death Metal and we’ve been accepted well at every show so far.
The Bone Church have yet to come out with a debut album but have been writing and recording material for years. The brand draws mutual inspiration from bands like Mike Patton, System of a down, QOTSA, Tool, Max Cavalera, NIN, Mastodon, The Mars Volta, Pj Harvey, Ani DiFranco, Radiohead, Meshugga, Gojira, Misery Index, Helmet, Henry Rollins, Therapy and Bjork…..They are preparing new songs every week and have a couple albums worth of material almost ready. They plan to play more live shows, progress as musicians and brand their name before one day heading into a studio. Rest Assured though, beatlanta will keep you posted on any album plans in the future. You can catch The Bone Church, who got their name from the famous Sedlec Ossuary in Czech (a church made out of bones – I saw it on TV once, its fucking weird and amazing), playing at Sweetwater Live for their continuation in a battle of the bands on Sept 26th and also in Chattanooga at Ziggy’s on Oct 3rd. They had this to say when I asked what other bands, metal or not, that they would recommend to their fans…(Karl) – As far as non-metal bands, I would say Wake of the Titan, or The Brightside Suicides are great to check out. Also Shadow Boxer, whom we just played with. Now with Metal, Empyre Down, Project Mayhem, Prime Mover, Obsessive Compulsive Order (O.C.O), Caustic Thought, Soil To Sky, Alternator, Lazer/Wulf, Victim 9, Dead To The World, Ingrain, Unaccounted IV, Organ, Standing Behind You with Knives, Trapp County, Crimson Moustache, Powersville, & Double Barrel Democracy. E says Milque Lizard (Chattanooga Tenn), although not local, you MUST check them out!.
….The Bone Church live at the Masquerade for the No Guts, No Glory Metal Fest Saturday, Sept 5, 2009….
The Bone Church had this to say bout what drives their lyrics…(E)-Instability of Mind and unreliability of Memory, these two ideas have influenced my writing more than anything this past year. (Karl)- E seems to take experience then writes a story that allows a broader audience to relate. (E)-When a person approaches a bands music and lyrics, or any form of art really, they bring their own experiences to the table, which is kind of nice. It effects how the work is interpreted, so that it is different to everyone and becomes independent of the creator. So I can’t really say I have a certain message to relate. I guess my goal would be to get people thinking creatively.
SUPPORT THE BONE CHURCH. Its worth your time
Metal as Hell…
See more videos of The Bone Church at beatlanta’s youtube channel…
HURDLE THE DEAD and SHADOW BOXER
Hurdle the DeadI also caught Hurdle the Dead, who put on an amazing follow up to The Bone Church, and asked them a couple questions…but first….Hurdle the Dead live from the metal fest…
When did Hurdle the Dead Form?
Hurdle the Dead started started in January of 2008. Josh Hicks (vocals) and Jeremy Hicks (guitar) have been through a lot to get where they are now. Brandon Wilkins(drums) has known the brothers for over ten years. Josh and Jeremy met Justin Woodliff (guitar) through Brandon. Chuck Banford bas) knew josh through work. There is a lot more to it but to sum it up, Hurdle The Dead is where they need to be. We are ready to step it up to the next level and get things moving.
How do you feel about the turnout of the metal fest? Did you know any of the other bands playing?
It was a bigger turn out than we expected. We got a chance to meet one of the bands, Alternator, I would recommend checking them out.
You can see their shows advertised on flyers around town, on facebook and myspace. Hurdle the Dead is in the process of taking their exposure and music up a level and are looking for a good studio at a reasonable cost. If you know one, hit them up on Hurdle the Dead on Myspace.
….Shadow Boxer live at the No Guts, No Glory Metal Fest at the Masquerade on Saturday Sept 5, 2009…..
See more pics of the bands in beatlanta’s picture section. See more videos of all the bands at beatlanta’s youtube channel.
