Portland doom greats YOB headline outdoor show in Oakland
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- One of stoner/doom metal's leading lights returns to the Bay Area Saturday when celebrated Oregon-based trio YOB shares the stage with tourmates Pallbearer and local favorites Brume and Grayceon in Oakland for an outdoor afternoon show.
YOB has rightfully risen to become one of the most respected bands in the metal underground since being founded by the Eugene, OR-based Mike Scheidt in 1996. Mixing in elements of droning psychedelia and progressive rock with his monolithic, Sabbath-influenced guitar riffs and intricate songs that usually stretch beyond the ten-minute mark, the epic tunes heard on such classic YOB efforts as Catharsis and The Unreal Never Lived show off the talents of a restless artist who has always pushed the boundaries of metal.
While YOB would split up in the mid-2000s much to the dismay of their fans, Scheidt would convene a new trio under the name Middian that explored a still heavy sound at decidedly faster tempos on their single album, Age Eternal. Eventually, the guitarist would reform YOB in 2008 with drummer Travis Foster (who had already played with the band for a couple of years prior to the split) and new bassist Aaron Rieseberg. In the decade since, Scheidt has produced some of his most indelible work with the band.
The Profound Lore imprint released The Great Cessation and Atma to wide praise, but it was the band's first disc for Neurot Recordings (the label founded by Bay Area experimental metal heroes Neurosis) in fall of 2014 entitled Clearing the Path to Ascend that brought the group a new level of critical adulation. Drawing on a wider sonic palette inspired in part by his more acoustically oriented 2012 solo album Stay Awake for Thrill Jockey Records, Clearing the Path to Ascend was praised by many as YOB's most cohesive and powerful recording to date.
Named the best metal album of 2014 by Rolling Stone and appearing on numerous year-ending "best of" lists, the four-song, hour plus collection delivered some of the most emotionally charged and evocative music of Scheidt's career without sacrificing an iota of YOB's trademark heft.
While best known as the leader and principle songwriter for YOB, Scheidt is a prolific musician who has been adding more and more diverse projects to his resume in the past decade. In addition to performing solo with acoustic guitar regularly and recording the album Stay Awake in 2012, he teamed with noted Bay Area guitarist John Cobbett (Hammers of Misfortune, Ludicra) as part of Bay Area metal band VHOL, who issued their ambitious 2015 sophomore album for Profound Lore, Deeper Than Sky, that garnered widespread critical acclaim for its eclectic mix of prog-metal and thrash. In 2016, Scheidt had a serious health scare after being diagnosed with the intestinal disorder diverticulitus. A sudden attack in January of 2017 led to emergency surgery that saved the singer's life, but slowed work on the next YOB album as he concentrated on recovery.
Invigorated by his brush with death and return to good health, Scheidt eventually emerged with some of his most triumphant songs yet. Released in 2018 on Relapse Records, Our Raw Heart opens with the majestic, uplifting anthem "Ablaze" and proceeds to deliver a mix of the songwriter's most intensely emotional and gorgeous tunes ("Beauty in Falling Leaves" and the soaring title track) balanced by his trademark chugging riffs ("The Screen" and the snarling crusher "Original Face") over the course of nearly 75 minutes.
While the pandemic has put a damper on touring activity for YOB, in 2021 the band unveiled a fully remixed and remastered version of Atma that was released through Relapse. Atma (Deluxe Version) features both the new mix of the album by the band's studio collaborator Billy Barnett as well as the original 2011 mix. The group is continuing its reissue campaign this year,
For this outdoor show in Oakland put on by Underworld Opera and Ungaffable Productions in partnership with the adjacent Line 51 Brewing outside the Oakland Metro at 3rd Street and Castro, YOB will be joined by adventurous doom merchants Pallbearer. Founded in 2008 by guitarist Brett Campbell and bassist/keyboardist Joseph D. Rowland while attending Central Arkansas University in Little Rock, the group came together in the wake of the duo's work in the experimental, synth-driven drone metal band Sports. After bringing second guitarist and drummer Devin Holt into the fold, the group caught the ears of labels with the self-release of a three-song demo in 2010 that showcased their monolithic style of metal.
Signing to noted metal imprint Profound Lore the following year, Pallbearer announced itself as a force on the underground ever since releasing their celebrated seismic debut Sorrow and Extinction in 2012. Weaving elements of psychedelia and progressive rock into their tuneful epics that highlight guitarist and main composer Campbell's melodic vocals, Pallbearer earned rave endorsements from such mainstream music outlets as Pitchfork, Spin and NPR.
The quartet -- rounded out by the addition of current drummer Mark Lierly after the recording of the band's debut -- has continued to push the boundaries of the genre, recording the equally acclaimed follow-up Foundations of Burden with celebrated producer Billy Anderson (Sleep, Neurosis, Swans, Melvins) and touring with fellow metal luminaries like YOB and Tombs.
The band further refined its mix of doom, prog and psychedelia with its most accessible effort yet, 2017's Heartless. With Rowland adding more synthesizers and Campbell delivering indelible vocal melodies throughout, the album ended up on numerous "best of" lists that year. While the group would not release a follow-up until the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020, Pallbearer's fourth effort Forgotten Days -- their first for new label Nuclear Blast -- once again earned the quartet universal acclaim.
Late last year, Pallbearer celebrated the tenth anniversary of their landmark debut Sorrow and Extinction by performing the album in its entirety along with selections from their other albums at the Chapel in December. Also on the bill is acclaimed San Francisco doom trio Brume. Formed in 2014 by relocated British expatriate guitarist Jamie McCathie (formerly of the London-based sludge band Gurt), bassist/vocalist Susie McMullan and drummer Jordan Perkins-Lewis, the SF band quickly made a mark with the release of their debut EP Donkey.
Using the monolithic sound of Sabbath as a jumping off point, the trio still managed to put a unique stamp on doom thanks to McCathie's creative riffs and McMullan's soaring melodic vocals. The band also proved it drew on a wide range of influences than the typical doom crew with a sledgehammer cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's plaintive folk ballad "Even If Love."
The EP was subsequently picked up for a limited CD release by British label When Planets Collide, leading to a deal with Dutch metal imprint DHU Records. On its 2017 follow-up effort Rooster -- recorded with noted sludge/doom engineer and producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Sleep, Buzzov*en, High On Fire) -- the band's sound made a quantum leap forward with longer, more dynamic songs full of soulful crescendos that took listeners through an emotional arc few of Brume's contemporaries could match.
Greater acclaim followed the album's release, earning Brume comparisons to such established acts as YOB and like-minded, female fronted bands Windhand and local stoner doom legends Acid King. The trio was invited to play high-profile shows across the Atlantic, appearing at Desertfest London in 2018 and opening for High On Fire during a string of European dates last year.
The band has remained in productive mode, releasing the MMXIX split with Seattle outfit Witch Ripper on DHU featuring another remarkable cover -- an ultra-heavy recasting of the Leadbelly song "In the Pines" that most people know from the Nirvana version on the band's MTVU Unplugged in New York album -- prior to issuing its second full-length Rabbits in 2019. Its first recording with new label Magnetic Eye Records, the album delves further into moody atmospherics that evoke the cathartic sounds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Portishead as much as Sabbath. The band also expands its sonic palette on the gorgeous new effort, incorporating more layered vocal harmonies and new instrumentation including piano and cello courtesy of Grayceon's Jackie Perez Gratz on the somber "Blue Jay."
Live appearances with Gratz and the developing chemistry between the musicians led the cellist to be invited to become an official member of the group. She is contributing to Brume's forthcoming new album that's currently in the works amid recent recording sessions at Oakland's Tiny Telephone Studio. Gratz performs double duty on Saturday with her cello-driven, post-metal group opening the show. Grayceon resurfaced in 2018 after a long hiatus to release IV, its first new album in five years. More recently, the band issued Mothers Weavers Vultures on Translation Loss Records in 2020.
YOB with Pallbearer, Brume and Grayceon
Saturday, June 24, 3 p.m. $35
3rd and Castro in Oakland
