Hidden Hand, Kylesa, Minsk preview
The Hidden Hand, Kylesa, Minsk
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Brace yourselves, Chicago metalheads, for what what very well may be the heaviest show of the year.
From start (Minsk) to middle (Kylesa) to finish (The Hidden Hand), Saturday night the Empty Bottle will test your tolerance for both loud and heavy. Put it this way: Headliners The Hidden Hand, fronted by Scott “Wino” Weinrich of Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, and Spirit Caravan fame, is the least heavy band on the bill!
If you’re looking for the all-out bulldozer of this trio, it’s Kylesa. This Savannah, Georgia band only formed in 2001, yet already have released three full-lengths that have earned considerable critical acclaim. Their most recent, last year’s Time Will Fuse Its Worth (Prosthetic), doesn’t stray far from the dark, dank, sludgy attack of 2002’s self-titled effort or 2005’s To Walk A Middle Course, but it is definitely the five-piece’s best effort yet simply because it’s their most focused. Bassist/vocalist Corey Barhorst and guitarist/vocalist Laura Pleasants provide a male/female vocal dynamic rarely found in heavy music (10 lashes to anyone who says Lacuna Coil!), but it’s the blunt-force trauma of the *two* drummer lineup that really punches listeners in the gut.
The all out-weirdos Saturday night will undoubtedly be Minsk. The avant-garde metal act’s ties to Illinois and Chicago are strong: Their core (Christopher Bennett, Timothy Mead, and Tony Wyloming) hail from Peoria while bassist Sanford Parker calls Chicago home. Parker, owner/engineer of Volume Studios, actually joined the band while he was recording their debut full-length, Out Of A Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive, in 2005. Minsk’s then bassist wasn’t working out so the switch was made mid-session. Last year the group signed to Relapse, which will release the highly experimental The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment February 20th.
So The Hidden Hand aren’t the most brutal, or the most bizarre, but they’re still the most noteworthy thanks to Weinrich, an underground metal icon. When Weinrich’s post-Obsessed group, Spirit Caravan, disbanded in 2002 it appeared his most noteworthy project would be Place Of Skulls, founded by ex-Pentragram guitarist Victor Griffin. It only took one record with Skulls, though, 2003’s With Vision, for Wino to decide his talent would be better spent on his own band, Hidden Hand, who released their debut album, the stellar Divine Propaganda (MeteorCity), that same year. Since then there has been some lineup shuffling, most notably three different drummers, but Wino marched on and eventually signed with Southern Lord, releasing Mother Teacher Destroyer in 2004. The new Hidden Hand effort, The Resurrection Of Whiskey Foote, hits streets this month.
— Trevor Fisher
Click here to download Kylesa’s “Where The Horizon Unfolds.”
Click here to download Minsk’s “White Wings.”
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
