Somergloom and Doom

Live Review

Aug 28

On 27 August, 2022 darkness descended on Boynton Yards as titans of postmetal Junius headlined a daylong bill of doom at Somergloom. The music festival was presented by Treebeard Media as part of the ONCE Summer Series. Food, drink, and vendors livened up the lot, which boasted more black shirts than Mussolini’s march on Rome.

Openers Heavy Hands, Dysthymia, Lesotho, and Crone Visions kicked off the festivities.

Ashen Veil was a last minute cancellation due to Covid-19 positives, but one member was in attendance and entertaining the crowd while Consumer set up. Along with a few groaners, he had some interesting observations about the socio-economic character of the doom scene. Generally speaking, it’s a lower middle class bunch of creatives who prize a DIY ethic, hard work, and boosting the local scene. In other words, it’s pretty cool.

There was a code-red Cool Dad alert at the cornhole game. He had clearly come with his son, who was a touch too young to attend on his own.

Whether the son had brought the dad, or the dad brought the son, who knows. Maybe they’re both into the scene.

Connect this insight to the Ashenveil remarks: along with DIY and local, the metal scene is fairly family-oriented. There were more kiddos and tweens running around Boynton Yards at Somergloom than HDN has observed at any other Summer Series show. Families that headbang together, stay together?

Consumer

Consumer delivered a 5-piece dose of guitar-led scream metal. The band could slow it down to deep sludge, or speed it up to high-flying anthems. Pick your poison. The synth player added a curveball to the sound. Extra points for closing with a song about Bain Capital. H8 U Mitt.

Philadelphia’s Queen Elephantine – whoah! Who are these guys singing about the “infinite?” This band is some different dudes. The 4-piece included a frontman on guitar and vocals; a tanpura player, seated to his left; a guy operating a monstrous electronics rig, seated to his right; and a ferocious drummer in back.

With the tanpura and electronics humming, Queen Elephantine spits out a massive drone. Atop the drone the frontman plays fairly typical metal riffs, with no distortion. Some of the metal heads were scratching their heads, having never heard what their chord progressions sound like unsyruped by 10 gallons of sticky fuzz.

Providence’s Dreamwell expressed some surprise that they were on the bill, being less doom than screamo hardcore. Genre expectations have gotten so overheated in recent years that close cousins in music think they speak different languages. Part of it’s due to lazy journalism that corrals music into genre ghettos to make it easier to write about. Part of it’s due to commodification that genre-fies music to make it easier to sell. Part of it’s due to the proliferation of digital platforms, like Spotify and Bandcamp, that encourage artists to brand their genre to optimize searchability.

Have you looked through the lineup at Woodstock? You’ve got Arlo Guthrie twee-folking “Alice’s Restaurant” next to Jimi Hendrix landing UFOs with his left-hand guitar.

People enjoyed Woodstock just fine. Dreamwell fit in at Somergloom just fine.

Boston’s SEA plays slow-to-medium tempo doom, slightly sludgy, with a jammy sensibility. Shout out to the band members in SEA that did the heavy lifting in organizing Somergloom and crafting the promo posters.

The five-piece Glacier includes a guitar, guitar, guitar, a bass guitar, and drums. That’s a lot of guitars. And they amplify the impact by doubling, tripling, quadupling their riffs for a massive sound.

It’s a purely instrumental affair, no vocals. So all the emoting is delivered through the strings, skins, and choreography.

Extra points for Glacier’s synchronized head banging like they were the four horsemen of the apocalypse coming to collect the rent.

Junius

Headliner Junius is another guitar mountain. The local post-metal mavens brought their own lighting rig and possessed a clear sense for the dramatic. The frontman wore a black hoodie like he was a cowled druid about to make a human sacrifice. The rest of the band thrashed and heaved around him like they were celebrating a blood revelation.

The Junius sound is thick, heavy, a little heady, stocked with plenty of headbangable moments to satisfy the traditionalists.

As the Boston locals worked through their set, a chill breeze cooled down the asphalt at Boynton Yards. The Somergloom gang brought the first signs of fall, along with the gloom and doom, and we’ll all thank Satan (our dark lord and master) for that after a long hot summer.