BELL WITCH, WREKMEISTER HARMONIES and GATES at Soybomb, Sunday, March 6. Rating: NNN
With every slow descending note, the bands at Soybomb on Sunday night chipped away at the audiences patience, plumbing emotional depths with their agonizingly slow, sorrowful songs.
The ringing gong that bookended (NOWs Ones To Watch) Gates set was the only sound that could cut through the tension the four-piece sustained with their blackened drones.
Chicagos Wrekmeister Harmonies can consist of between one and 10 people, making J.R. Robinsons project unpredictable and each performance unique. For this tour, he and multi-instrumentalist Esther Shaw were supported by headliners Bell Witch, from Seattle, whose bass and drums drove Robinsons raving madman act into a swirl of unholy chaos.
For their own material, Bell Witch opted for a much slower, languid pace, playing as if they were contemplating each note as it hung in the air, giving full care and attention to the incredibly heavy music. Twenty-minute songs like Suffocation, A Burial oscillated between moments of anguish and serenity, finding a meditative balance between the two.
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