Black Elk/Ludicra @ Knitting Factory Front Bar, 3/11God bless the Knitting Factory for this serendipitous booking snafu - while on the main stage a children's cancer awareness benefit show rages, the front bar features some of the most malignant music imaginable. Portland, OR's Black Elk make the kind of ugly, ugly noise-rock that you love if, like me, you've got a votive candle with Steve Albini's image affixed to it - all distorto death rock and wildman screaming, and it grooves, man, it grooves! By the sound of their ripping new album Fex Urbis Lex Orbis, black metal artisans Ludicra (pictured) probably killed the toll collector on the Golden Gate Bridge when they drove down here from San Francisco. It's heady stuff, with lead Medusas Laurie Shanaman and Christy Cather shrieking in tandem over a surprisingly flexible mix of intelligent thrash and more traditional, frigid Scandinavian blastbeats. Giant Squid leaven their heavy Neurosis riffs with banjo, cello, keyboards and agile vocal harmonies, resulting in 70s-leaning tribal prog epics that likely compound flesh into goo in a live setting. No question that Lightning Swords of Death's style choices are more interesting than their old-school, Mayhem-style blackened thrash tunes, but what would a metal show be without spikes and leather chaps, non? (ER)
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