Show In Review: A Funeral of Sludgy Crusty Doom

by sanguinesinner · March 13, 2019

It was the evening of February 27th. The venue, Bunkhouse Saloon.. The firepit, smoldering.. The stage, fogging.. The crowd, growing… The lineup this fine moonlit night we had doom metal locals ‘Commonear‘ and ‘Demon Lung’, followed swiftly by San Fran’s crusty sludge metal act ‘Body Void’, then topped off with Seattle’s very own funeral directors of doom….’Un’.

The venue itself, Bunkhouse Saloon, is nestled just south of 11th St & Fremont. It sits across the street from a tattoo parlor/liquor grocery store and around the corner from Vegas’s famous Atomic Cocktail. If you’re a smokaholic like many of us then you’d also find the large dirt lot outside the Saloon’s doorway a haven for a quick drag in between sets. Inside the venue it’s dark as shit and you’d be lucky not to run into anybody once the fog machines kicked on, but that’s what you really paid for isn’t it? With a large roundabout bar, bathrooms plastered in band stickers, and big stage for performances, this is definitely a spot worth performing or spectating at.

Onto the performers.. Commonear opened first to a crowd that was slowly staggering in. My introduction to this group was maybe 2016 at the now-defunct Garth Haus. A local band to be proud of.. Lengthy brutal instrumentation and frightful growls belched from the darkness of the stage above made Commonear, once again, a band worth watching. Keep an ear out for their upcoming split with fellow death-doom locals ‘Plague Doctor’!

Up next, was the almighty Demon Lung! I hadn’t seen this band since October 2017! For those unaware, Demon Lung is also a Vegas doom metal band. The female leads by Satan’s very own daughter, Shanda, really set the band apart from other local acts I’ve heard.

Dressed in a white veiled gown, with fog spewing ever frequently, and long emotional vocals singing of Satan, horror, and the occult backed by eerie hard rock sounding riffs gives this band a poetically dark finish. The demonic members of the Lung have a concept for their upcoming album and have all been working separately on material. In the months to come they’ll reorganize to stitch all these ideas together for their new album late this year. So do the right thing and close 2019 with some fresh fucking doom metal!

Now what to say about Body Void.. They certainly live up to their style of music. Very sludge and very fucking crust. I hadn’t heard a band remotely like them since watching Vegas locals Wallower performing at the Womb Room. Lead vocals/guitarist Will Ryan screeched into his mic under the glaring light of his own stage lamp. The trio played with tons of feedback and slow-to-fast riffing, relentlessly combining hardcore punk and doom metal in their music. If you’d like to hear more of their songs yourself then look forward to the release of their new EP on March 15th!

http://www.metalinjection.net/av/full-album-stream/body-you-will-know-the-fear-you-forced-upon-us-premiere?fbclid=IwAR0XQwqhZEx4Yq_FTEbYRmPkFSh9UVNr214N2vutly051dhnMc4gSaR9KEw

Now for the headliners of the night.. All the way from Seattle, Washington.. They put the “fun” in Funeral… The band who’s name you can’t possibly fucking forget…. UN! This was the type of band that played soft melodic riffs with mellow growls and still managed to sound eerily brutal.

Their 10+ minute songs could keep your mind lost in darkness in only the best of ways. The kinda band that just makes you wanna light a joint and read Creepypasta stories in the dark. You could really feel the emptiness and grief in their music…but what is doom metal without a little death and desolation??