PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
The night began with local heroes and solid groove meisters Morass of Molasses (7). Regrettably, there weren’t many in attendance at the time, but that didn’t show on the faces of the seasoned musicians on stage. A tad sloppy at times and playing songs that are more or less well trodden ground for them, they set a pretty good standard for the night ahead.
The night turned to it’s heaviest band next in the form of doom/post metal bludgeoners Poseidon (7). They had an interesting sound across the board, going between standard doom riffs (that unfortunately borders on doom by numbers at times) and a Neurosis-esque crunch. The stand out was the juxtaposition of the clean vocals against the heavily distorted tone, which lent levity to the band’s sound as a whole.
Cincinnati, Ohio residents Electric Citizen (5) put something of a dampener on the evening with their somewhat clichéd sound. They were entertaining enough, but became a little samey at the halfway point. Performance wise they were incredibly tight and high energy and were well received by the audience, but I couldn’t help but feel they were a little dull.
With the night drawing to a close, the band everyone had been waiting to take the stage were greeted with rapturous applause. Orange Goblin (9) took to the stage like men possessed and proceeded to blast through a crushing and powerful performance packed with groove and energy. Having only seen them previously at festivals, they really are better to see in a smaller venue that’s packed to the rafters and filled with sweat. They played a mix of older and newer tracks that were all as well received as each other, and frontman Ben Ward pumping up the crowd into a fever pitch. Orange Goblin are a band that show hard work pays off to those who are willing to put in the hours, and they certainly don’t look like they take it for granted.
