Portland’s heaviest
Portland is rife with bands, and everyone and their grandpappy plays guitar and wants to play their music for some sort of audience. The heavy music scene is no different; there are a ton of bands, many of which have side projects. It would be impossible to cover the entire breadth of bands playing some form of heavy music in Portland; here are five of my favorites.
El Cerdo
www.elcerdo.net
I first became familiar with the musicians in El Cerdo when they were playing in a band called Hauler. Hauler was a band that subscribed very much to the Mastodon school of heavy metal – and El Cerdo follows in a similar vein. At times destructively slow and at other picking up the pace, El Cerdo weaves songs that (like most rock music) are riff based. Their music has really, really heavy riffs with devastating growled/screamed vocal accompaniment. The drumming is also spot on, with a technically adept execution that gives El Cerdo’s songs a strong backbone. Check out El Cerdo on May 10 at Berbati’s Pan.
Red Fang
www.myspace.com/redfangpdx
Red Fang aren’t heavy in the traditional extremely-down-tuned mega-distorted sense, but rather are heavy in a really groovy classic rock way. They also incorporate elements of what I recognize as an early Black Flag sound – punk rock with an edge. It’s simple music really, but I like it. Red Fang reminds me of current rock heroes Big Business, in that the music is really fairly accessible, without any extremely harsh vocals, but still isn’t straight up “rock” music. Red Fang can be seen at Dunes on May 2.
Black Elk
www.blackelk.net
Heavy and weird, like an odd pairing of your favorite metal and post-punk sensibilities, Black Elk’s music isn’t straightforward – at all. One minute they’re a big screaming mess of lowly yelped vocals, the next a giant metal pain in the ass with agonized vocalizations. While no one can be truly original in this day and age, Black Elk are making a go at it. At this point their influences shine through occasionally, but they soldier on. See Black Elk on May 5 at the Ash Street Saloon.
Flying Fortress
www.myspace.com/flyingfortress
Can you say sludge? Flying Fortress sure can, because they play music that follows much of the same aural proclivities of sludge kingpins Eyehategod, Cavity and Buzzoven. Dirty, dirgy and hate-filled music, it came from the swamps of the South and spread to the gray skies of Portland. If you need more sludge in your life take the time to see Flying Fortress on May 5 at the Ash Street Saloon.
