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The mathcore maniacs are back. “The Jersey band’s onstage volatility is a sight to behold, and it’s made more than a few promoters hot under the collar—I’ve personally seen indoor fire breathing on a side stage, band members scaling at least two stories of scaffolding or crawling atop hanging light fixtures, and a swung microphone detaching from its cord and nailing a kid in the noggin, cracking it wide open,” writes Kevin Warwick. “The band has mainstreamed its output over the past few years—at least half the tracks on 2010’s Option Paralysis and the new One of Us Is the Killer (Party Smasher) are gothy, Nine Inch Nails-style hard rock with more than a touch of Mike Patton. This unfortunately means that DEP do less of what they do best: play baffling rhythms at incomprehensible speeds and very nearly decapitate one another and their fans by way of vicious guitar flailing.” This show is part of the Summer Slaughter tour, which features a ton of other bands and starts at 1:45 PM.
Tue 8/13: Old Time Musketry at the Whistler
Massachusetts metalcore outfit the Acacia Strain are touring on their sixth LP, Death Is the Only Mortal. According to Monica Kendrick, the record is “crunchy and varied, it shows willingness both to commit to a groove and to abandon it in the most whiplashing way possible at just the right moment. The shrill shredding of the guitars gives a dizzying complexity to ‘Dust and the Helix’ and ‘The Chambered Nautilus’—and helps ‘Brain Death’ live up to its name.”
