Concert Review: Pallbearer, Tombs, October 24, Lee’s Palace

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Doom metal. It’s primal, it’s visceral, it’s massive. It’s heavy. And in the case of Pallbearer‘s latest, Foundations Of Burden, it clocks in at an average of 10 minutes per song. In a live setting, those songs come across as sufficiently epic in nature, all thick, plodding riffs and melodic leads. It’s the kind of sound that just washes over you, envelops you until you can’t help but bang your head very slowly. This is music that you just feel on a very basic level somewhere deep inside, probably in your colon or liver. Or maybe your gallbladder.

The Little Rock, Arkansas-based band took to the stage and started things off with “The Ghost I Used To Be,” the standout track on the new album. Singer/guitarist Brett Campbell noted that it had been awhile since they’d played Toronto, a previous show having been cancelled due to their being snowed in at Winnipeg. Being stuck in a snowstorm in Winnipeg doesn’t sound like a great time, but as excuses for missing shows go, it does seem sufficiently metal.

Also on the bill were Brooklyn’s Tombs, who, while sharing a penchant for funereal band names with Pallbearer, had a much more varied sound than that of the headliner, drawing from various subgenres such as black metal, hardcore, and doom, and I daresay they came across as more metal than Pallbearer in some ways (I will give Pallbearer big points for the flying v guitar and the bassist’s Van Halen t-shirt though). Certainly more brutal, but ultimately equally satisfying.

Posted on by Paul in Concerts