Really cool that Velnias actually gets to tour with Esoteric. Saw them the other night open for StarGazer. They put up a good show.

I'm thinking about going to this on Saturday as it's only $10 and my previous plans got cancelled.

I just got home from the show at The Metro Gallery in Baltimore, MD. It's the furthest I've gone for a show in a while. Two hour drive and I'm fucking tired... but Esoteric was incredible. One of the best performances I have ever seen.

I arrived at Baltimore around 6:00 PM... Doors are open at 8:00 PM, so I meandered about Baltimore trying to think about how awesome it would be if a dragon came and took me up to the sky so I could see more Baltimore in less time but this is just the drucks giggling in. Grand diner I found. It was Lost City Diner, no longer lost because I found it! It was right there, next to some other place, a third place, a theater of sorts, and a parking garage, then a drycleaner and then The Metro Gallery. This place was space and spacey, retro-futurism so I had a root beer float.

Oak was the opener, local doom band from Baltimore. They only did two songs, both over 10 minutes long. The first was very drone influenced and raw. Heavy. Bass guitarist really thundered the place up. Song changed tempo, sometimes into death metal. The second song was less drone influenced, more funeral doom. Melancholic guitar chords, very slow... still heavy.

Saturnalia Temple was really good! Interesting sort of stoner doom, the first song was fully reverberated and echoed throughout, producing a very interesting rhythmic effect, the other two songs were standard stoner/doom fare. I will check them out.

Velnias was the least doomy, because of their Cascadian black metal influences. They put on a wonderful performance - three songs, each conjoined into one single performance. Only candles provided illumination. The songs were picked from each era of the band - past, present and future, so I got to hear a new one they have yet to record. At times very melancholic and melodic with the acoustic sounding bits. Great atmosphere.

They played five songs:

Disconsolate
Aberration
The Order of Destiny
Cipher
The Blood of the Eyes

It was one hell of an experience. Nothing I can say can truly do them justice. I'm tired g'night.