Butcher's Blog

TUESDAY, OCT. 16:
Autumn brings us the fall equinox along with the darkening of days and an appropriately timed Butcher show. I don't like art spoon-fed or obvious especially when it comes to my heavier audio appetites. Ditto for Butcher, fronted by avant-photographer-artiste Camella Grace (spiraleyes.com) and powered by the primal thunderism of drummer Sasha Popovic. Infiltrating the duo with his spatial guitar work is Phil Trujeque along with new bassist Joe Nagy. "Run On Water" is a teeth grinder, played on days when I've just had it with the struggle of all things mundane and need some fucking backup. Often ferocious yet filled with feminine power, Camella can wail like an aqueous siren or spit out a blistering metaphorical tirade ("Black Dahlia"). Don your cosmic armor and join her Joan of Arc-esque vocal crusade that simultaneously strokes a coiled serpent while weilding a deadly, beautiful sword. There will be little reprieve when these expressions blissfully shimmer around your aura and then relentlessly demand access into your skull. Veins of Butcher's influences do surface in the deep: brilliant stoner psychedelia a la Kyuss, mammoth Melvins bottom end and the sparse atmospherics of an experimental Dead Can Dance. But the band takes these mercurial elements and transmutes them into their own alchemical gold. And you don't get no gold without the fire, my friends, which is why you need to experience them live…now. (TT)