They’ve been kicking around the miserable, destitute slum known as the Manhattan heavy underground for a couple years now, throwing their post-metallic indulgences in the face of unsuspecting rockers, headbangers and those who just happen to be wherever they are for whatever reason. I’ve seen Brooklyn‘s Alkahest test the endurance of audiences at Ace of Clubs, the Cake Shop and Lit Lounge over the course of their tenure together, and with their self-released debut full-length, Milk and Morphine, the five-piece bring that balance of ethereality and the aurally caustic to bear. An Isis influence in the guitar work of Nikhil Kamineni and Jonathan Powell is impossible to ignore, as the kind of lumbering angularity of many of Milk and Morphine’s riffs can be traced to mid-period albums from that (ultimately) Californian act like Panopticon or its landmark 2002 predecessor, Oceanic. As that album approaches a decade since its release and critics online and in print distance themselves from the hyperbole with which they once lauded post-metal’s crushing ethic (myself included – shit just got tired), it’s worth noting that although Alkahest are well in line with the classification, their aesthetic isn’t wholly dependent on it.

As someone who has watched the band mature over the course of the past couple years (and who, in the interest of full disclosure, considers drummer Rajah Marcelo a personal friend), I’m glad to see that the elements outside the post-metal norm that Alkahest has proffered on stage made it onto disc as well. There is a Euro-doom sense of drama to the later moments of a track like “Gaius” and a blatantly emotional woefulness to the earlier title cut that post-metal largely eschewed in its peak, favoring instead a pseudo-intellectual or psychological commentary. If that’s the avenue that vocalist Chris Dialogue has taken here, he’s done a good job of burying that fact. There are no printed lyrics to Milk and Morphine, and as he trades off between low growling and high-pitched, close-to-the-mic blackened screams, it’s damn near impossible to know what he’s saying. Where Dialogue really separates himself is in the presentation of his vocals. The music behind him is clean, and at times his voice seems like he’s about to be swallowed in it, but he nonetheless is able to do what few screamers in metal can, and that’s convey an emotional range through his vocalizations, however searing they might be. On the five extended songs of the album, he doesn’t once veer into clean singing, and yet anyone not outright prejudiced against screams will be able to sense the passion conveyed on the opener “Sixtus.”

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It had been years since I was last in the Cake Shop, but upon my arrival I found it much the same as I’d last left it: upstairs a coffee bar that sells LPs and limited this-and-thats, and downstairs a basement venue not unlike other venerable Manhattan stops I’ve come across over the years — Lit Lounge, Ace of Clubs, The Pyramid all spring to mind. Christmas lights hung around the stage, giving a festive air, which was appropriate for Kings Destroy‘s record release show for the brilliant And the Rest Will Surely Perish. I got there in time to see the band soundcheck, and they sounded tight, guitarist Carl Porcaro playing through a broken wrist and not being held back by it in the slightest. Everything came through clear, so they broke down and eventually the show got going.

Maegashira opened. There was a lot of friends, a lot of emotions and a lot of feedback. Then it was over.

I couldn’t remember if I’d seen The Brought Low since they put out Third Record earlier this year, but even if I had, I was certainly more familiar with the songs this time around. During the course of their set, they played the first four songs off the album in a row — by the time they got around to the ultra-grooving “My Favorite Waste of Time,” I was both drunk and so happy I couldn’t stand still — as well as cuts from their prior self-titled and Right on Time offerings. They’ve always been a live band in my mind, and since they went power-trio, they’ve only gotten better. Their garage rock side comes out more in their sound, but they offset it with thicker tones and occasional breakneck speed. However long it had been, it felt like too long since I’d seen them. What a band.

As they do, Kings Destroy pulled in a good crowd for the release show, and they positively killed. They were slower than the last time I saw them, and it seemed like the band had purposefully taken a step back to examine what they were doing live, to bring it more in line with the album. It worked. Porcaro and fellow guitarist Chris Skowronski played together with the kind of unspoken chemistry you can only have when you’ve shared a stage with someone for years — because they have — and bassist Ed Bocchino‘s tone is quickly becoming one of my favorites in doom. Couple that with the refined crash of Rob Sefcik and the increasing confidence of Steve Murphy — now firmly in command of the room — behind the mic, and you’ve got the makings of a classic.

They’re reportedly at work on new material already, but stuck to And the Rest Will Surely Perish for their set. I’m not sure when I grabbed it, but at some point in my stupor, I grabbed their set list and it went as follows: “Medusa,” “The Mounty,” “Planet XXY,” “The Whittler,” “Stung,” “Dusty Mummy” and closing with “Old Yeller,” leaving only “Two Tons” from the record unplayed. Even when Porcaro broke a string, they kept going. He got another guitar and was back in it in no time, and no momentum was lost. These dudes are pros — and I’ll be totally honest — they make me wish I had a real label, with distribution and promotion and all that happy crap, because they deserve to be heard.

The crowd thinned out some after Kings Destroy, leaving Alkahest to close out the night in the basement. I continue to be a fan and intrigued to see where these guys end up stylistically, since every time I see them it’s a different kind of experience. Frontman Chris spent a good portion of the set writhing on the Cake Shop floor (which didn’t look clean), leaving the stage to the rest of the band, who filled it amply. They were a last-minute replacement for Mighty High, whose drummer’s special lady had a baby the week prior, but Alkahest made the best of it and capped off a great night in fittingly aggressive fashion. Their balance of tortured vs. angry vs. ambient has not yet ceased to fascinate.

The Patient Mrs. drove me back to the valley, and certainly I wouldn’t have made it without her. I gave back some of the evenings Newcastles in the form of a short and sweet-tasting vomit session, then crashed out, my ears ringing, my body sore, and my stomach already looking forward to the omelet that would necessarily follow in the morning. I wouldn’t have traded any part of the night for anything in the world.

It was disappointing to roll into Ace of Clubs and find out Valkyrie had pulled out of the show. It was a family emergency, so you couldn’t really hold it against them, and with no shortage of killer bands left on the bill, the night would be more than salvageable. Any evening that gets topped off with an Earthride live set is alright by me.

I was at Alkahest‘s first show, and I’ve seen them three or four times since, and every time I do I get something completely different out of it. This time the guitars were played up in the live mix and the post-metal aspects of their sound were what came through most, but what I think is really fascinating about Alkahest (aside from the complexity of their pedal board arrangements) is how the rhythm section refuses to just do the Isis beat — you know which one I’m talking about — and leave it at that. It brings something new to the sound and makes them less derivative than they’d otherwise be.

Performance-wise, they were more subdued, especially vocalist Chris, who stood still most of the set and seemed to let the music wash over him, allowing for only occasional flareups of turbulent energy. One thing that’s remained consistent about Alkahest these last several months is the drama in their music, so that covers a lot of ground other bands might leave to thrashing around on stage.

Fuckin’ Admiral Browning. I know I’ve seen them before, but this might have been the first time I was lucid enough to actually remember what they were like, and mein gott, they fucking killed. Heavy, technical, grooving, they did it all, and they did it instrumental, and they demolished the unsuspecting Manhattan crowd almost immediately, as though dispatching them with a wave of the hand. It was sick. I reviewed their Magic Elixir EP a while back, but I hereby revise my position: the recording doesn’t do them justice at all. You need to see this band.

Only thing was they went on a little long, but beyond that, they were a highlight of the night. It seems like blasphemy to say any band playing with Earthride might be heavier than they are — because how could such a thing be possible? — but Admiral Browning were the most potent power trio I’ve seen in a long time. Totally righteous, totally unpretentious, just blisteringly heavy and so loud my earplugs seemed to be rendered useless. Yes, yes sir.

It was The Resurrection Sorrow‘s show, and as per usual, they had the biggest crowd of the night. I don’t know where they find these people, or how they get them to come from whatever dance club they were previously at and see at least part of a doom show, but then, their sound borders on a kind of post-Pantera groove metal, so that might have something to do with it. Needless to say, if I knew how to draw people like that, I would be too busy doing so to figure out The Resurrection Sorrow‘s methods.

And what a magical world that would be.

You couldn’t even get close to the stage — hence the faraway picture — and I know I wasn’t about to elbow past the steroid dude with Spartan helmet tattooed all around his head, so I stayed in the back and watched from there as they covered Ozzy‘s “Believer” from Diary of a Madman, bassist Alex Coelho making the most of its stomping lines. They’re obviously not without their commercial aspirations, but The Resurrection Sorrow are good at what they do, and I’m not going to hold that against them just because I prefer bands no one else likes. They played to their crowd and their crowd ate it up.

Earthride vocalist and Maryland doom legend Dave “Sherm” Sherman (Spirit Caravan, Wretched) showed off his new Motörhead tattoo, and the band ran through a monstrously heavy set of tunes from their albums Earthride, Taming of the Demons (the title track was a highlight), Vampire Circus and the latest, Something Wicked. I took some video which you’ll find below. Sherm rode the riffs of Kyle Van Steinburg with his arms up, chopper-style, and indeed, it was the evening’s high point. Yeah, it still was a bummer Valkyrie had to pull out of the last two nights of the tour, but even with some technical problems midway into the set, Earthride more than justified the trip to the city.

How into Earthride was the audience that stuck around? Well, there was moshing, which you almost never see at a doom show (and I would argue rightly so). Chris from Alkahest was headbanging so hard I thought he’d give himself a concussion, and Alex Dementia from The Resurrection Sorrow jumped on stage several times. It was like it was a birthday party for The Riff, and we were all having our cake. Tired from a long day of driving, I didn’t think I’d make it through the whole set, but they kept me there right to the end, and when it over I was glad to have stayed.

I had the good fortune Monday night to show up at Lit Lounge in Manhattan just in time for this week’s installment of the ongoing Precious Metal series to kick off with a set from Brooklyn‘s Alkahest. Newly formed and playing their first show, the five-piece spilled off the stage, with screaming vocalist/keyboardist Chris in the front buried among the sizable crowd. When I went to get my second (and final) beer, someone took my spot and I was relegated to watch the rest of the set from the back, so much of his hunched-over performance was lost to my line of sight.

Nonetheless, in actually hearing Alkahest live, as opposed to just listening to the five demos currently posted on their MySpace, I was able to get way more of a sense for their European influences. Think Katatonia, Paradise Lost, etc., and blend that style with the rhythmic tidalism of post-metal. They didn’t play for long, only a half-hour or so, and it was their first show, so while they looked happy to be there no one was bouncing off the walls, but they sounded tight and more importantly, like they were going to get tighter.

Expect to hear more about them in the months to come. With a sound built on a unique combination of elements and a drive to get on stage (and in front of it) and the strength of Brooklyn‘s current metal scene, Alkahest should be well worth keeping on the radar.