The microgenres of Metal are some of the most combative and atomized amongst any music fandom. Black and Death metal are in eternal struggle. What even counts as Post-Hardcore? Is Metalcore dead? Chat Pile’s Toronto show at The Concert Hall listened to all those questions and decided they didn’t give a fuck, instead giving their audience a collage of Metal genres from across the vocal, intensity, and style spectrums.
Traindodge has been around the OKC scene for decades, establishing themselves as staples of Southern Post-Hardcore. They immediately remarked at how early the Toronto crowd seemed to pack the venue. Immediately diving into one of their early releases, Brass-Eyed, Traindodge caught the audience's attention straight away with clean, powerful vocals courtesy of Jason Smith. Their emo-yet-scary aesthetic carries through melodic downturns and bursts of classic breakdowns, reminiscent of some Fugazi or At The Drive-In songs.
Completely out of left field, Agriculture’s self proclaimed “Ecstatic Black Metal” plays the hits of the super-genre; Tremolo picking, hauntingly shrieking vocals, eyes to the floor and lyrics to the sky. But their major key compositions throw typical black metal stereotypes into rather bright arrangements, reminiscent of blackgaze artists like Deafheaven and Sadness. The musicians don’t wear corpsepaint but maintain lyrical influences from Gospel and their religious upbringings. The band is also female-fronted featuring simultaneously sweet and haunting vocals by Leah Levinson.
Agriculture’s performance engages seemingly endless genre subversions to make them one of the most unique metal bands I’ve ever seen. Drummer Kern Haug is an absolute demon, boundless energy exploding from the back of the stage while maintaining a smile on their face the entire time. The band surprised singer Leah with a birthday cake and the audience sang her happy birthday before starting their set without breaks. The control of the songs’ energy is masterful with luls being filled with ambient soundscapes that transition perfectly into the next song. Check out their self titled album here.
Lead singer of Chat Pile, Raygun Busch (ha), didn’t look at the audience once, but that didn’t stop him from being the most engaging Sludge frontman I’ve ever seen. He was constantly talking to the audience, eyes averted like a cornered wild animal, shirtless and barefoot, but spent the entire concert talking about movies he likes that were filmed in Toronto. He is a huge film buff, and his Letterboxd is a joy to scroll through. I left a comment after the show thanking him for his performance and he responded within minutes.
He is intimidating but sarcastic, commanding a presence amongst the crowd that were desperately waiting for the start of the show. They launched into their setlist, which changes every concert, with an obscure song from a split EP launched 4 years ago. I was shocked to see that the crowd still knew most of the lyrics. They played nearly every song from Cool World, a brutalist deconstruction of the current state of affairs from American Politics, to self loathing and alienation, to wanting to release your wild animal, as if Raygun ever had a choice. The songs halt to a screeching stop and Raygun continues his monologue about movies, generating a chuckle from the audience every time as they expect him to finally run out of film references. Chat Pile ‘s aura is addicting, and kicked off a concert bug I am still (financially) recovering from.
Comments