Noise Pollution #62

The Streets of Philadelphia: Part I

I moved to Richmond, Virginia ten years ago this month, a decision I’m sure everyone involved in still questions and since then July has been the month I think I despise the most. Between the humidity, heat and mosquitoes, which all seem to have gotten worse the longer I’ve been here mixed with the lurch into middle age and the reminder of me not being as “fun” as I used to be, by everyone around me or what a disappointment I am I..I’ve lost what my point was going to be, other than it’s fucking hot and I hate it.

Richmond had a pretty vibrant scene when I moved here and I’m told it still does, I just don’t go out. But the loss of some of the key venues here, like Strange Matter, coupled with having a kid and a renewed sense of social anxiety since my psych retired, you get the picture.

This is more rambling than I honestly predicted. Oh well.

Before I moved I used to spend a lot of time in Philadelphia in the summer, mostly because bands that played MDF tended to swing through and, while I didn’t have the cash for the fest, shows were a different story. Last year I did three parts on some of the finest shows I’ve seen during the summer months over at Invisible Oranges (mostly #41) and I’d planned to go over a few more here, except I just did the research (halfway through) and found out I’d either talked about them before or they’re not until September, which I’m not sure counts.

This whole thing has been a wash that we’re experiencing together.

So what will we talk about this time? The thread that ties that in a bow, the city that was named after the movie where Will Smith got AIDs and his mom sent him to live with his auntie and the voice of Shredder in Bel Aire.

I could have gotten a few things mixed up there. Except Uncle Phil being one of the finest voice actors of my childhood. RIP.

Philadelphia became a second home to me in the late 90s through, fuck, even today. I’ve gone from attending big shows at spots like (the now closed) Trocadero and Electric Factory to my ex’s friends shitty band at a sports bar (too many times) to nearly getting killed at a VFW by skinheads to watching a new generation take up the fight at Kung Fu Necktie while the M Room was in sunset. Last time I was there (Kung Fu Necktie) was in 2023 for the Krieg “Ruiner” weekend I didn’t recognize hardly anyone, another changing of the guard.

It’s the one place in the world that I’ve watched generations come and go in an intimate sense. I watched the politics shift, the voices change and the aesthetics evolve. So for this one I’ve decided to pluck a few bands from each “generation” (as I see it) because few places have such noticable time stamps, like the rings in a tree.

I’ll classify these as I experienced them, I know there was shit before I came in, I’m not that much of a fucking solipsist. (as a postscript: the first ten years were so long I decided to do this in parts throughout the summer as the mood hits)

The First Generation: 1995-05

Annnd I’ve already fucked up. Shrouded Deity technically are from New Jersey, but it’s the part of the state that might as well by Philly and their guitarist/vocalist Jay Lipitz was in Insatanity who were based in/near Philly so…fuck you/me I guess?

This was probably my first black metal demo, alongside the In The Woods “Isle of Men” and, please don’t call the cops, Grand Belial’s Key’s “Goat of a Thousand Young,” and was definitely my first taste of underground American black metal. My memory of getting it is hazy, it was either through my ad for the zine I was doing or somehow came from Dark Symphonies like the aforementioned GBK demo did. Regardless, it was/is a really cool project that did one demo and likely called it a day, with the members going back to their main gigs with Insatanity, Mortal Decay etc. One of the more obscure USBM titles, one that’d be cool to see reissued with any additional material.

In 1997 when we were recording Krieg’s “Rise of the Imperial Hordes” and needed a drum, Jim Forbes (brother of Chris, who’s editor of the long running Metal Core zine) who owned Vortex Sound Studios suggested Frank from Blood Storm, which is a whole other story (possibly one of my favorite experiences doing a Krieg record), but through meeting Frank I also met other guys he was jamming with (which made up the Blood Storm lineup at the time) and got tapes of their respective projects, Perverseraph and Namtaru (which Frank also drummed on).

They both share similarities in sound (because they were recorded at Vortex, share lineups, etc) but the main differences, besides different vocalists, is Peverseraph is bestial and somewhat weird due to a Voivodian presence throughout wheras Namtaru is more, I don’t want to say “smooth” or “melodic” but I hope you get the idea. Or you could click on the fucking link.

Around the time I was running a small distro called “The Gate” and took copies of both. I received a letter from Gothic Records asking about Krieg, but if I remember correctly I thought I had some kind of deal elsewhere because I’m shortsighted and can be a dunce, so I declined but I sent both Perverseraph and Namtaru demos in Krieg’s place, beginning years of these two seeing CD pressings from various spots, including together on World War III Records, a label supposedly funded by Dr Dre. Anyway they’re both great recordings. Namtaru has been active again the last few years and operate their own imprint, Plague Demon Records. Perverseraph’s been somewhat quiet. I’d love to reissue “Savage Messiah” on vinyl when that check arrives for being a charming boy.

Another related project was Black Pentecost, which released one “official” record on Gothic Records in 1999 but whose name hung heavy over Philadelphia for years after. Basically America’s Abruptum, this was ritual black ambient before that whole thing became whatever you’d call it today. This was one of those projects spoken about with hushed reverence (or open mockery by the thrash/death metal crowd) for practicing what they preached. There’s some deep dive on Youtube that I’ve linked, mostly so I remember to watch it myself later.

By this point there’s a decent amount to choose from while running the risk of overdrawing from the well. Bloodstorm was the obvious center of the Philadelphia black metal scene for quite some time. Born from ex Goreaphobia bassist/vocalist Chris Gamble (who doubled as a live Absu member) in 1994, Blood Storm has been the most consistent band from these days, with a lot of releases continuing to this day. I’m also pretty sure they’re the band I’ve seen live the most of the course of thirty years, probably fifteen or sixteen times at this point, which almost always surpasses their recordings. Anyway I’m linking my favorite song of theirs, from their first record “The Atlantean Wardragon",” the album that made me want to record at Vortex in the first place.

So, at this point I need to figure out an ending. I could go a lot of different ways, from the second Deteroriate record that flipped their death metal roots into a melodic and biting black metal ripper, to complaining about the bands that somehow opened every tour that came through Philly (looking at you, Chaos Theory) to the stoic, pagan metal of Darkest Grove but I’ll end this on two very different bands.

Probably a band that has more of a legacy in stories, controversy and the lineage of where members went next is Evil Divine. It’s one of those bands that encapsulate a moment in time, similar to Lord of All Desires, albeit less theatrical. This was the moment in time when the biggest threat to black metal was Cradle of Filth and Nuclear Blast Records etc. You know, the fucking halcyon days.

Evil Divine had that Cradle of Filth-ish meets Mortician influence, a vampire subplot, and a youthful immaturity that gave the music a lot of charm . Also the song I’ve got the link set to, “Blood”, gives Symphony of the Night vibes. It’s very much a child of the 90’s American scene.

My address I’m sure is somewhere online if you want to alert the authorities about me writing this next bit.

Crucifier were a discovery through “The Wine of Satan” comp and through my abuse of the Wild Rags and Elegy mailorders to grow my demo collection I picked up “Unparalleled Majesty” and “Powerless Against” tapes. Crucifer were, to my ears, a blacker Incantation, with more agonizing/dramatic vocals in places and a lot of earworms in the riffs. It was murky and boulder heavy. Eventually I would end up seeing them a few times when I was frequenting the Hartleys/Connections shows in northern New Jersey in the early 00s alongside bands like Hemlock and Deceased. Crucifer were black metal to me in the same way Nunslaughter were-very death heavy, steeped in the 1980s and unrelenting live. They were from outside of Philly but, like Shrouded Deity, were deeply rooted in the city. I’m sure everyone has their opinions but I never really felt they were a political band in anything but association. I’m sure that will get me crucified (LOL PUN) but I don’t really care, Crucifier are an important part of American black metal history, regardless of how people feel.

Also, if you weren’t careful you might have accidentally ordered the band Crucifer from Wild Rags and gotten a decidedly different experience than you expected.

From the period around 03-05 it felt like the Philly scene was starting to fragment, with a lot of diminishing returns. There was the whole PABM (the first one, anyway) thing, a fairly strong shift into rightwing music and politics that had always been there but was much more apparent and eventually the appearance of drugs, which was a lot more of an issue from 05 onward. But this first ten years was also my first ten years involved in music and while I could speak of how similar things occurred nationwide, Philadelphia was where I spent most of my time. It’s with age and hindsight that I can see the generational shift, which we’ll get into whenever I write part II.