Black Elk know a thing or two about delivering a pummeling.



The Portland band's 2006 self-titled debut was a lesson in the finer points of aural bloodletting, mixing equal parts Melvins' guitar sludge, Unsane's groovy thud and their own angular, math-rock buzz.

Sorta like Refused (apocalyptic dynamics nudging approachable) and Jesus Lizard (frontman absent boundaries) and Slayer (pride in craft seething coiled aggression), but still not really like them at all?even the enlightened metal circuit can't easily explain Portland's Black Elk. Bristling musicianship bent toward ineffable muse doesn't lend itself to capsule reviews. Imagine the cut/cut/cut and [...]

Black Elk live at the 2007 PDX Pop Now! festival. Audio Cinema Aug 3rd-5th.

It ain't all pretty melodies and whiny vocals here in Portland. The flourishing metal and heavy music scene is breeding bands like Black Elk. Noisy, aggressive and well, angry, Black Elk don't fuck around. The Vanguard met up with the band at their rehearsal space and waxed poetic about Portland's music scene, upcoming tours and the recording of their debut album released in November.

BLACK ELK, DIESTO, ROANOKE
(Ground Kontrol, 511 NW Couch) It?s fitting that the release party for Diesto?s stellar Isle of Marauder will take place surrounded by a ring of video games. The local quartet?s sprawling metal is ripe for the escapism that Ground Kontrol?s quarter-hungry bounty has to offer, right down to the cover of Marauder, which depicts some sort of winged pterodactyl with feathered wings and skeleton talons primed to fuck some shit up. The music follows suit with an endless array of thick metal guitar riffs that drown everything else out in a hazy sludge of noise, the lone exception being the desperate screech of vocalist Chris Dunn, who sounds as one might when reaching one?s bloody fate in the clutched grasp of a prehistoric bird of prey. EAC

MP3:
Diesto - Marauder

So there's a whole lotta bands out there with the word "black" in their names. Let's just do a random sampling from this week's music calendar...
Blue Skies for Black Hearts
Blackheart Whitenoise
Black Elk
Big Black Cloud
Black Brown
Night Was Black
Dark Black
DJ Blackout
And in a cutesy move a lot of venues book similar-sounding bands on the same night. This is so not cute. Don't even get me started on all the "I Am" bands: I Am Ghost, I Am the Arm, I Am the Ocean, I Am the Avalanche, etc.
Is it just me, or are most band names starting to sound the same? I wonder what the new trend will be. I'm going with "I Am the Puce," or maybe "Magenta Dog Autumn."

[VILLAINOUS METAL] At least half of the songs on Black Elk's self-titled debut are about people being killed, a theme that vocalist Tom Glose credits to a love of comic-book villains that dates back to childhood: "The heroes, I just thought they were cheesy," says Glose. "They fall in love and stuff, but the villains [...]