Metalliance Tour Review 03/22/11

Being a fan of Crowbar I was aware of the Metalliance Tour for some time now.  It started off as a tour featuring a band I love and one I'm not too familiar with at all, Helmet.  Later, Saint Vitus and Kylesa sweetened the pot even more, not to mention some other bands that I was less familiar with but had heard good things about.  I had just assumed that this tour was some time away and would probably only be on the west coast anyway.  Needless to say I was pretty pumped when I saw a post on Crowbar's Facebook page that said they were going to be in Greensboro, North Carolina that night.  Not only was that in my area but it was actually closer than the last Crowbar show I went to.

Southern Flame: Whiskey Metal

Southern Flame are a metal band from southern West Virginia that combine elements of doom, sludge, and thrash into their sound.  This is a review of their 2007 album Whiskey Metal.  The disc itself actually comprises two separate recording sessions with two different line-ups not unlike Napalm Death's Scum.  Tracks one through eight are the newest songs with an at that time new drummer, nine through sixteen a previously recorded album titled Alcoholocaust with the original drummer, and the final two songs bonus tracks.  The shift in quality brought about by this could be seen as a problem, but when you view all tracks after number 8 as bonus as was intended it clears that up.

Eyehategod/Crowbar/Black Tusk/Phobia 12/2/10

The Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte North Carolina hosted one of the heaviest shows I could imagine on December 2nd, 2010. NOLA legends Crowbar and Eyehategod are both on tour at the moment and their paths converged for one night of sludge destruction. Supporting this crusher of a dual headliner were Phobia, grindcore legends from California and Black Tusk, a sludge-esque band very much in keeping with their Georgia brothers in Mastodon, Kylesa, and Baroness.