Slices of Isis

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

This past Saturday, June 6, the new face of metal shined brightly when the solidly stacked bill of Isis, Pelican and Tombs levelled le National. These Pitchfork-approved post-metal bands packed in the knapsacked nerds and recovering hardcore kids. Tombs opened the night with the slugfest of their amped-up Killing Joke sound, sticking mainly to their last record, Winter Hours. Probably the most traditional metalheads, at least compared with the rest of the bill, Tombs took up a lot of sonic real estate for a mere three-piece. As mighty as Isis is, I was most excited to see the instrumental prowess of Pelican for the first time and they did not disappoint. Trying to keep an audience’s attention with sparkling arpeggios and ballast riffs sans singer is not easy but this was just too good. Pelican’s set list proved to be ballsy—a lot of new material off their forthcoming record on Southern Lord, but they also squeezed in the title track “Ephemeral” and their amazing Earth cover “Geometry of Murder” (yeah, that’s right, an Earth cover!) from their recent EP. I’ve seen Isis numerous times and they’re always crushing, and even with Pelican raising the bar substantially, Isis easily rose to the challenge. Amid the increasing rumours that the kings of post-metal may be hanging it up after this tour, this show proved to be quite a swan song—the hour-and-a-half set managed to cover a lot of ground from their decade-plus career. By mixing metal’s gut-level intensity with mind-expanding psych and prog prowess, this was definitely Isis’s night. To all you wax nerds who managed to snatch the massive Isis 12-record box set—I am officially jealous.

For those of you craving some more innovative, cutting-edge metal, look no further than one of my favourite local bands, the Great Sabatini, with rockin’ noiseniks the Desert Owls at the Green Room tonight, Thursday, June 11. Because I am so fuggin’ rad, I’ve already snatched an advance of the Great Sabatini’s new record, Sad Parade of Yesterdays, and if you’re diggin’ Unsane, Neurosis and the Melvins, this is going to melt your face when it drops in the next couple of months. Also proving to be a hotsty-totsy show tonight is the Pink Noise, Switzerland and Futensil in the pride of St-Henri, Bar de Courcelles. For those of you looking for something a bit more traditional check out the classic metal of Mad Parish with Belt at Quai des Brumes on Friday or head down to the Barfly and check out the balls-out rock of Moncton’s Motorleague and the punk rock of Nerve Control and Derbert Plaza. While still on the punk rock tip, you can check out No Idea Records’ Bridge and Tunnel, Whiskey Trench, Windsor’s Orphan Choir and Toronto’s Junior Battles at l’Escogriffe on Saturday night.

Suoni per il Popolo is well underway this week with some must-see shows. Friday, you can check out the psych blast of Sick Llama, C.S. Yeh and Hive Mind at Centro Gallego and the discordant dementia of Tim Hecker, Jonathan Parant and Edgar Olivier Charles at la Sala Rossa. Finally, as part of the Fringe MTL fest-within-a-fest, the Sunday Sinners remain true to their name and can be found sinning it up on Sunday with Spiral Beach and Nut Brown at the Green Room.

NOMEANSNO ARE COMING! JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM