Videos by Jerry Howard
SRG contributor Jerry and I stormed Capitol Hill a couple Saturday’s ago in order to catch the fine billing at the Comet Tavern. Needless to say we left a number of frosty beverages in our wake while taking in sets by the razor sharp Android Hero, metal megatons Slave Traitor, PDX doom outfit Witch Mountain, and the all-mighty Helms Alee.I just can’t say enough about Android Hero and the way they slice and dice my mind into little bits, and if you’ve missed SRG’s most recent championing of one of the best local bands around, here’s a recap.
“I’ve had a chance to see these dudes live on a couple occasions recently and both times they firmly impressed with a bottom heavy punk sound that not only deserves a raucous pit, but a genuine listen with some good headphones as well. With bassist Eric Carnell’s groovy bass slaps, Jeff McNulty’s slicing guitar riffs, and Matt McGillivray’s thunder dome drum licks, Android Hero make some tough as nails music with an underlying sense of humor, and are responsible for one of my favorite local records of 2009” -Nik
Slave Traitor took the stage next and unleashed a fury of iron fist sludge metal that simultaneously muddled my brain and left me permagrinned like the Joker. It is obvious there is some vast under appreciation going on if a band like Slave Traitor can toil in the depths of our local metal scene without much notice for so long. The guitar duo of Eric Kempton and Jake Willanger brought the hammer down with brute force riffs, and together with bassist Marc Burno the trio entertained with their well practiced “more metal than thou” facial expressions. It had been a couple years since I had seen Slave Traitor live, and it was quickly apparent I had been dropping the ball completely. Slave Traitor deserves to run with the big boys, so metal labels and metal fans do yourselves a favor and pick up “Man Infest Destiny” now.
Witch Mountain’s trip up from Portland was the main reason for the show. Even though they exhibited some flourishes of reasonably epic doom metal, the performance was more or less spoiled by crappy sound. It also didn’t help matters that vocally talented front woman Uta Plotkin distracted from her talents by simply not having much stage presence. I wasn’t impressed, can you tell?
Sending us off into night very happy heavy music fans was the mighty HELMS ALEE. All the adjectives in the world can’t sum up the pure intensity that radiates from the stage each and every time Helms plays a show. They are without a doubt Seattle’s premier heavy band and are unmatched in the sonic mastery department as well. Ben, Hoz, and Dana began their set with an amusing full band participation tequila shot and then systematically leveled the playing field for the next 30 minutes. The set was short, too short, but contained some nice to hear attempts at new material as well as choice Night Terror cuts like “Big Spider” and “A Weird Away”. A little Helms Alee can sometimes go a very long way.
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