thursday11
cMAYHEM A fair number of people outside the metal scene now consider black metal an art form, which is great, but bands like Mayhem can’t have had that in mind when they started—they just wanted to sound as fucking evil as possible, and they really, really do. Mayhem’s 1994 masterpiece De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is a murky maelstrom of blurry-fast drums, gnashing guitars, and the hideous vocals of Attila Csihar, who forgoes the usual slate-gray shrieking in favor of howls, croaks, gurgles, and moans that are even more frightening for being more human—it sounds a lot like that recording floating around the Internet that’s supposed to be of damned souls in hell, picked up by microphones in a deep-drilling rig run by Russian geologists. And you can’t beat the album’s horrific backstory: vocalist Dead killed himself while the band was writing it (Csihar sings his lyrics), and bassist Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh of Burzum, stabbed guitarist Euronymous to death before its release. On this tour Csihar, longtime drummer Hellhammer, original bassist Necrobutcher, and two road guitarists calling themselves Morfeus and Silmaeth will play material from Mayhem’s entire discography, including the four studio albums since De Mysteriis—the bulk of which were written by recently departed guitarist Blasphemer. And Csihar, who’s also touring with Sunn0))) in July, is selling Life Eternal (Saturnus/Season of Mist), a limited-edition CD of five tracks from the demo version of De Mysteriis with Vikernes’s bass parts, buried in the mix after Euronymous’s murder, at their original level. Nachtmystium, Lair of the Minotaur, and Yakuza open. a6 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, 312-923-2000 or 312-559-1212, $24.50-$29. A —Miles Raymer
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
cISIS The brightest star in the firmament of progressive metal, Isis has been making variations on the same record for almost a decade, but that’s hardly a liability—I mean, nobody was like, “Come on, Faberge, lay off with the eggs.” Like its predecessors, last month’s Wavering Radiant (Ipecac) is architectural in structure and detail, simultaneously grandiose and hermetic, so that listening to it feels like exploring the ruins of an alien temple—but where 2006’s In the Absence of Truth brought to mind ornate mosaics and tangles of half-buried statuary in an uninhabited desert, the new one is all marble columns and plates of brass at the bottom of the sea. Isis wields its power with such restraint and precision that a single perfectly chosen chord change in “Hall of the Dead” can work as a climax to the angelic fury of the final chorus—nothing follows that sting but a long, ringing fade, and nothing ought to. The vocals, dwarfed by towering guitars on 2004’s Panopticon, continue to creep up into a more conventional place in the mix, which annoys me—but that unfortunate choice is offset by the addition of a deeply excellent keyboard sound, as stately and penetrating as the 16-foot stops on a pipe organ. The album is big enough to climb inside and stand up in, and when Isis unfolds its songs to their full height onstage you can’t even see the top of them. Opening are the mighty Pelican and Cleveland’s sorely underappreciated Keelhaul, whose fourth album, Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity, is forthcoming on Hydra Head. a8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, 312-666-6775 or 866-468-3401, $18, $15 in advance, 18+. —Philip Montoro
ANTHONY HAMILTON On last year’s terrific The Point of It All (So So Def) Anthony Hamilton makes his most convincing defense yet of old-school southern-soul verities. Though he’s best known for singing hooks on hip-hop cuts and his own records use hip-hop production—looped breaks, programmed beats, guest raps—he flies in the face of hip-hop culture’s hedonistic materialism and mania for instant gratification, singing love songs where the words “courtship” and “relationship” wouldn’t sound out of place. Aided by a tight coterie of producers, Hamilton writes fully formed tunes, complete with choruses and bridges—no verse-hook-verse-hook structures here—and unlike many contemporary R & B singers he steers clear of empty melismatic fluff. His churchy vocals, precise and emotionally powerful, hark back to the likes of Bobby Womack and, to a lesser degree, Curtis Mayfield, but the total package doesn’t sound the slightest bit retro. Musiq Soulchild opens. a 8 PM, Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lake Shore Dr., 312-791-6190 or 312-559-1212, $47.50-$67.50. A —Peter Margasak
cSTAN MOSLEY Soul-blues singer Stan Mosley is clearly influenced by Bobby Womack, but he’s no mere imitator. His coruscating timbre is rougher than Womack’s, and the emotional fire that charges his voice—a combination of streetsy toughness and disarming vulnerability—is entirely his own. Mosley’s new album, I’m Comin’ Back (CDS), showcases his versatility as well as his chops: on up-tempo numbers he attacks the groove with leathery shouts that recall James Brown, and on ballads his choked delivery conveys both anguish and compassion. Though he mellows out on the bouncy, danceable title tune, his soft-edged croon has all the focus of his more aggressive vocals as he promises his lover he’ll mend his ways this time. His onstage demeanor underlines that blend of good-natured roguishness and heartfelt sincerity: his self-confidence stops just short of arrogance, and his warm smile and insinuating body language make it plain that, despite the gritty subject matter of some of his songs, this is a party for lovers. a9:30 PM, Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, 773-342-0452, $15. —David Whiteis
cDVORAK FESTIVAL See Thursday. The Emerson String Quartet opens tonight’s concert with String Quartet op. 51, followed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Midday Witch and Symphony no. 3. a7:30 PM, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, 312-294-3000, $17-$199. A
