I headed out Saturday evening to catch local doom lords Grey Host at Backstage Café and I was treated to killer performance from Yautja, a grind/sludge band out Nashville who were stopping by on tour in support of the debut album, Songs of Descent. Unfortunately, I missed show openers Smoke Signals, who I’ve been meaning to check out ever since I saw some of the members’ other band, Ethicist, play at Iron Fest last year.
I got there just as Yautja was setting up. I hadn’t heard anything from those guys prior to the show, but I was familiar with the band name from researching something else. They turned out to be a pleasant surprise, loud as fuck and heavy as can be. All three members took turns singing, even though they all had basically the same vocal style. That was weird. The songs were brutal, though. They combine the basic sludge sound with some interesting stop/start riffs, some thrashy riffs and some cool drum & bass parts. I heard enough good stuff to grab a copy of the band’s album on my way out, so I’ll be reviewing that at some point.
Grey Host closed out the night. Due to schedule conflicts, this was the first time I was able to catch the Host in quite some time and I think they’ve made tremendous strides. I thought they were pretty damn good before, but I don’t remember the keyboard being so instrumental to their sound. I’m not usually a big keyboard guy, but I thought it sounded fantastic throughout Grey Host’s set. I’m assuming that the guys were playing mostly new stuff, but I can’t confirm that because it’s been a while since I’ve listened to their album. Regardless, everything sounded great and you could even hear the vocals, which is hit and miss at Backstage. Grey Host’s combination of heavy doom and melodic interludes is really only surpassed in the American doom scene by Pallbearer. Until I hear someone better, I’m sticking with that assessment. Hopefully I won’t go another 6 months without seeing those guys and I hope they have some new material coming out soon.
I got there just as Yautja was setting up. I hadn’t heard anything from those guys prior to the show, but I was familiar with the band name from researching something else. They turned out to be a pleasant surprise, loud as fuck and heavy as can be. All three members took turns singing, even though they all had basically the same vocal style. That was weird. The songs were brutal, though. They combine the basic sludge sound with some interesting stop/start riffs, some thrashy riffs and some cool drum & bass parts. I heard enough good stuff to grab a copy of the band’s album on my way out, so I’ll be reviewing that at some point.
Grey Host closed out the night. Due to schedule conflicts, this was the first time I was able to catch the Host in quite some time and I think they’ve made tremendous strides. I thought they were pretty damn good before, but I don’t remember the keyboard being so instrumental to their sound. I’m not usually a big keyboard guy, but I thought it sounded fantastic throughout Grey Host’s set. I’m assuming that the guys were playing mostly new stuff, but I can’t confirm that because it’s been a while since I’ve listened to their album. Regardless, everything sounded great and you could even hear the vocals, which is hit and miss at Backstage. Grey Host’s combination of heavy doom and melodic interludes is really only surpassed in the American doom scene by Pallbearer. Until I hear someone better, I’m sticking with that assessment. Hopefully I won’t go another 6 months without seeing those guys and I hope they have some new material coming out soon.
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