Haunting the Space: The Old and New Worlds of Occult Rock Conspire
Occult rock has seen something of a renaissance over the past 15 years. The biggest 21st century name in what was arguably the first form of heavy metal music is, of course, Sweden’s Ghost, who crept out from their mountain top castle to redefined the sound of ‘70s dark arena rock (Blue Öyster Cult, mid-’70s Black Sabbath) for the new millennium’s generations of hard rock heads and goths. Songs like “Ritual,” “Rats,” and the wonderfully chipper “Mary on a Cross” are already rock n ’roll classics that owe as much their home country’s pop behemoth ABBA as it does to King Diamond.
Kadaver, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, and Orange Goblin are among the plenty of other old-school-style acts who yearn for an older time when Hammer Horror and B-grade gothic films were viewed in living rooms within a thick atmosphere of smoke and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was constantly on the turntable.
The two nights I enjoyed my favored spot of the Space Ballroom in Hamden featured acts who are reminders that a love for vintage horror, Halloween, witchy women, and classic rock clichés (which I, as a former ‘indie kid, ’as I reluctantly admit that I was, tend to appreciate more and more these days) are still viable avenues of rock and metal to remind of and reinvent.
Before briefly getting into The Obsessed, who headlined the Space on April 11, I would like to give a shout out to Nashville’s Howling Giant, one of the night’s openers who combine the technicality and complexity of Iron Maiden with the primitive predilections of stoner metal into a harmonious fusion.
This was the second time I had seen The Obsessed, and it featured doom metal royalty Scott “Wino” Weinrich. Their groovy, blues-based downer rock played to a smaller crowd that night than when I saw them in Frederick, Maryland, in the summer of 2021, but the frights remained perfectly pleasant. While there may not be too much variation between songs, what they lack in diversity of music they more than make up for in the kind of classic metal riffs I respond to with glee and thumping rhythms that secure the weight of Wino’s songs.
This show was a taste of the ‘older’ world of occult rock, a creed Wino has been an integral part of since joining Saint Vitus for the second record “Born Too Late.” I wouldn’t have figured he’d change direction staggeringly over the decades, all the while rock and metal on a whole has. But plenty of younger bands are still keeping the flame of ‘older ’rock alive and presenting it in a way that is fresh, vital, and largely free of cynicism and coattail riding.
Some of those bands are interested in the witchy vibes of Coven and early Sabbath, albeit with a sense of humor. That applies to Halloween metal quartet Acid Witch, the second act of the April 18 show. Throughout the smokescreen performance, Slasher Dave sang with a witches cackle conditioned for songs inspired by their favorite horror films, as a cloaked figure with a monster mask tossed gummy worms into the joyous crowd. It was a fun and whimsical part of the night that would add much relief, contrary to the seriousness of a lot of metal bands, even in stoner and doom.
The undeniable highlight of the two nights overall was Ruby the Hatchet, who closed out April 18 with a reminder (and is a recommendation for all classic rock fans reading this) to everyone in the room that ‘70s rock has never gone away: it just needed time to marinate in the underground for a new generation of its disciples to reinterpret it for a new time.
The show began with a wonderful surprise when keyboardist Sean Hur, guitarist Johnny Scarps, and the dynamic vocalist Jillian Taylor opened with an MTV Unplugged-style set that opened with “The Change,” the first song on their latest album Fear is a Cruel Master. The group then swapped for electric guitars, and the evening achieved its peak.
Like a troupe of Cimmerians living in a beautiful Eastern European castle, the band’s muscular and gloomy rock called back to the most underrated hard rock acts of the 1970s. One of the highlights was the performance of “Gemini,” which possesses a sense of urgency and proto Euro-metal melodicism similar to “Rock Bottom” by UFO. The clear influence of Blue Öyster Cult couldn’t be obvious (Taylor has the band’s logo tattooed on her wrist). There were other moments that demonstrated an indie - stroke of delicacy matched by the edge of the ‘70s metal, like the Mazzy Star-meets-Sabbath dirge of “Valley of the Snake.”
The band’s stomper “Killer” was possibly the best moment of the show, reminding me why I forwent attending the merch table in between Acid With and Ruby to remain towards the front. Why? Because that song is, well, what the title is.
I’ll end with this: With drummers Taylor Hawkins and Roger Taylor either no longer with us or no longer vital in the current musical landscape, Jilian Taylor is the only performer with the name “Taylor” to whom we should be giving praise.
Find out about upcoming shows at The Space Ballroom at spaceballroom.com.