Housecore Horror Live Shot: Sunday Part 1

Sunday was the day the freaks and weirdos came to the Housecore Horrorfest party, and we’re not just talking about the bloody clown and slasher stiltwalker in the crowd.

For a third and final afternoon, the day-long siege began outdoors at Midway Field House. Krigblast, metallic hardcore boasting former members of Leftover Crack and D.R.I., belched doom metal chord changes and revved them to unsafe speeds. Songs became exhilarating blasts rather than tedious blurs.

Driven by the rhythm hurricane of Down’s Patrick Bruders and Eyehategod’s Aaron Hill, NOLA outgrowth Gasmiasma ripped at an even more furious pace with brief, crusty bombs from its upcoming LP. Things then started getting strange with Fulgora. The St. Louis quartet attacked as ferociously as its predecessors, but with dynamic grace, more Velociraptor than Tyrannosaurus. A strain of Nineties noise-rock and an honest-to-Killdozer groove struggled in a muddy mix, but that didn’t stop Fulgora from insisting “It’s all RIGHT!”

The explosive attack of Detroit’s long-running Child Bite provided similar noisecore thrills. Mad king Shawn Knight contorted his face, climbed scaffolding, and gave the audience crazy stares. With songs like “Mongoloid Obsession” and “Mutilation of the Arts,” and obvious debts to Pere Ubu and the Jesus Lizard, Child Bite landed from an alien planet compared to its blazing brethren.

Corrections House hailed from different galaxy altogether.

The good book: Corrections House pastor Mike Williams (Photo by Gary Miller)

Sanford Parker’s (Minsk) digital beats, generated behind a screen adorned with the band’s logo, set a harsh, clattering groove over which Neurosis’ Scott Kelly bombed grunge, Eyehategod’s Mike Williams massacred beat poetry, and Yakuza’s Bruce Lamont made like Peter Brotzmann on downers. As Williams held his black lyric book over his head like a bible, Lamont roared through his horn’s effects-saturated mic, and Parker laid on samples from speeches about parapsychology. As much performance art as metal, Lord only knows what the assembled Superjoint Ritual legion thought of it.

Speaking of whom, the reunited group technically performed as Superjoint, though the original moniker was emblazoned on the big-ass backdrop every band played in front of. Singer/Housecore overlord Phil Anselmo and guitarists Jimmy Bower and Kevin Bond enlisted the rhythm section from the frontman’s Illegals to power the raging mix of hardcore and groove metal. Sticking almost completely with 202 debut Use Once and Destroy, the crew invested “Little H,” “Drop Lour Love,” and “Stupid, Stupid Man” with conviction and the joy of rediscovery.

Once again, you HHFF host – Phil Anselmo (Photo by Gary Miller)

Phil’s Superjoint super joint (Photo by Gary Miller)

Finished terrorizing the neighbors, the party moved to Emo’s for Dead Earth Politics. The local quintet scorched with ragers “The Queen of Steel,” “Ice and Fire,” and “Crimson Dichotomy,” proving the lines between metal subgenres have blurred irrevocably. With good humor, a charismatic frontman, and neo-classic in “Redneck Dragonslayer,” DEP proved beyond ready for bigger stages such as this.

Ready for a close-up: Austin’s Dead Earth Politics (Photo by Gary Miller)

Winnipeg trio KEN Mode ain’t no standard issue metal band, either. Playing spot-the-influence revealed Neurosis, Godflesh and Unsane. Fielding doom-laden noisecore that played havoc with loud-and-soft dynamics, the threesome blasted out fuzz-bombed bass licks and discordant Telecaster scratches while Jesse Matthewson seethed and roared about whatever pissed in his cornflakes all his life.

The Canadian guitar wrangler ended the set sitting on the stage barrier, shouting wild-eyed and unmiked into the audience as agony emanated from his ax. Earning its acronym (Kill Everyone Now), KEN Mode brought the pain as well as the scalpel used to cut it out.

Kill Everyone Now Mode (Photo by Gary Miller)