Ash Borer & Fell Voices- California Live Rituals

Last weekend two very elusive bands made live appearances in the Bay Area. The two kindred spirits play a style most of the world would call Black Metal. But here genres, labels, lineups, press releases, promo photos and album cycles are irrelevant. Ash Borer from Arcata and Fell Voices from Santa Cruz exist purely create and revel within their own unique sphere of sound. Their albums serve as mere documents of a fleeting moment in time, their live performances are releases of pure energy. You get the sense that either band could disappear at any given moment and never be heard from again (in fact, Fell Voices were on hiatus), therefore it was important to catch these two bands as many times as possible while they made themselves available to the public eye as well as ear. Fell Voices and Ash Borer played Oakland with Velnias, Hell, Sutekh Hexen and Lycus, and San Francisco the following day. The SF date was a unique case seeing as how the bands played two sets. The first was an early show at Elbo Room that started at 4 in the afternoon. Immediately following the Elbo Room show, the bands set up inside a garage and each played a truncated set of furious and punishing music. CVLT Nation gives you an in depth look at this rare live ritual. More review, full photo gallery and a video after the jump.

Fell Voices are the rawer, more aggressive of the two. The band is a three made up of guitar, drums and bass. The drummer attacks his instrument so furiously you get short of breath just watching him. As if that wasn’t enough, he screams the lyrics on top of all the instruments being played at full volume sans microphone. The bassist also does this, their banshee shrieks pierce the thundering drums and buzzing guitar without any amplification.

Ash Borer have no problem matching Fell Voices in intensity, but also balance the violence with moments of quiet and melody. Rather than being a drawn out, slow build band, Ash Borer will play delay soaked single notes one second then blast you with full force distortion and tremolo picking the next. Ash Borer have their dynamics figured out so well and never come of as gimicky. Their use of keyboard isn’t to bring synth strings or pretty piano to their compositions, but rather as an intriguing layer of harsh noise.