speaking of more palatable approaches to "black metal"...

i've never heard of this band before, which is happening more and more frequently, enough that i'm starting to wonder if living in detroit is kind of cutting me off. nobody comes here anymore. there's nowhere to play.

in fact, this band was initially scheduled to play here in windsor tomorrow night, but it's not happening (even if they could have found a house to play at, they're not getting over the border). there's this guy doing local production, and i keep checking out the stuff he brings in, and not much appeals to me; this is both a pleasant surprise and arguably an exciting show, for downtown windsor.

i'm going to listen to their back catalog a bit more before i comment further, but this is actually maybe more in the same space as bent knee, in that it's diverse enough to almost be labeled as prog, but also in it's focus on songwriting over showmanship. or, at least, that's my impression from the first listen of the new record.

the black metal thing is...it's fashionable. yeah, i don't exactly get it either, but this is something that has happened, somehow. that said, if you'd never heard of black metal, you could get away with just describing that aspect of this sound as coming from a heavy blues influence; she screams like an angry punk here and there, but she more often sounds vaguely like a janis joplin or an amy winehouse, as the guitars screech out these pentatonic patterns. i mean, you can't unhear what you know, even if you'd rather you could. but, you could erect this out of, like, slint and sonic youth instead. even if it's disingenuous...

i'm going to give it a closer listen, but it's elaborate enough that i almost certainly would have checked it out. and, let's hope that happy little crowds brings in stuff that is this interesting more often in the future.

https://elizabethcolourwheel.bandcamp.com/