KEELHAUL DECIMATE BROOKLYN
Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 2:30pm by Vince Neilstein
Last night I had the privilege of attending the latest in the monthly series of Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy metal shows in Brooklyn, featuring Stats, Defeatist, Unearthly Trance, and Minsk supporting Keelhaul. I arrived a fan of Minsk — who certainly did not disappoint with their epic blend of doom, prog, sludge and punk — but I left a newly converted fan of Keelhaul, whose razor-tight set of angular post-metal riffs justly lived up to show promoter Brandon Stosuy’s description as “muscular.” Keelhaul absolutely fucking killed it, their furious Coalesce-on-steroids onslaught leaving me wondering how this band had slipped beneath my radar for so long.
Literally one note was all it took to show that Keelhaul were the night’s true headliners, displaying a sense of professionalism, poise and showmanship the other bands lacked in varying degrees. Not that there were any duds on the bill — all the bands were good, notwithstanding Stats whose set I missed — but the minute Keelhaul started playing it was immediately evident why these guys have stuck around for so long and why there’s so much anticipation for their new album Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity, out August 18th on Hydra Head.
Check out the new album’s opening track “Pass the Lampshade” below, courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan. Stay tuned for an interview conducted by our own Satan Rosenbloom which we’ll publish in the coming weeks.
Keelhaul – “Pass the Lampshade”
-VN
Yeah, Keelhaul’s pretty cool. I have one of their albums, but I can’t remember what it’s called. Clearly, it’s not exactly in heavy rotation a mi casa. I’ve always thought it was pretty good though.
/shrug
Yeah Keelhaul is good. I used to listen to A LOT of stoner rock and Keelhaul got some heavy rotation for a while.
Keelhaul fucking slays.
I saw these guys open for Isis back in June. There’s very little stopping me from picking up the new CD when it drops.
No fat, always turned to 11, one of the most underrated heavy bands around.
I think “angular” is one of the most hilariously ubiquitous empty adjectives describing guitar in all of rock criticism.
So many adjectives used in this way are just “feeling” adjectives though–the guitar gives the feeling of sharp edges, or spikes. “Jagged” is often used in a similar way. I don’t know that I’d call them empty; interpretative and pretty abstract, definitely, but not empty.