OKLAHOMA CITY – It’s understood that October brings no shortage of Halloween horrors and fall frights, but in a year where the horrors have already been rolling out on a daily basis for months, we may all be needing something a bit more blunt, direct, and overwhelmingly heavy this season.
Well, if you’re looking for help screaming into the void this October, or if you just want to rattle your brain and blow out your ears for a night rather than filling them with more bad news, then some OKC stages have you covered.
From hardcore heroes to desert-swept stoner-rockers to industrial metal legends and heavy-hitting hometown breakouts, this next month is cranking up the volume and crashing the gates on venues all over town.
Modern Life is War w/ Inferna & Primal Brain – 89th Street – October 2nd
Modern Life is War might not exactly be a household name in every American home, but you can bet it’s a name known by every Midwest hardcore diehard.
Twenty years ago, their sophomore offering “Witness” broke through the noise to establish the Iowa outfit as one of the hardest hitting and most acclaimed acts in the early-millennium hardcore scene, and in the decades since, the influence of both the band and of that album have only grown.
To celebrate that anniversary, MLIW are hitting the road and breathing new fire into the album’s tales of economic collapse, emotional dissociation, and youth disenfranchisement that were already relevant in 2005 and are only more disturbingly resonant right now.
Joining them for the celebration-slash-funeral dirge are hometown firestarters Inferna and Primal Brain, two of the most burning and blistering bands of OKC’s own exploding hardcore scene.
For times, tickets, and more, visit 89thstreetokc.com.
Earthless – Resonant Head – October 12th
One of the most quietly influential and respected bands across the past two decades of desert-spawned psych-metal, Earthless sprang forth from San Diego with a bare-bones three-piece sound and an unyielding insistence on incredibly long-form, full-volume instrumental explorations that put even plenty of prog legends to shame.
Less concerned with “jamming” than with hypnotizing crowds through soul-shaking deep dives and relentlessly re-iterative riffing, the trio creates a distorted wall of fuzz-drowned psych-riffs and unstoppable, tumbling momentum that might well be the final boss of sun-scarred desert-rock.
Spin any of their bruising, hour-plus live albums and be left dumbstruck by how the comparatively small Resonant Head could possibly contain such a sprawling, monstrous sound.
For times, tickets, and more, visit resonanthead.com.
Fear Factory – 89th Street – October 15th
One of the most towering acts of 90s industrial metal, Fear Factory broke new ground when their bone-shattering sophomore record “Demanufacture” cranked up the electronics, the blinding speed of the drumming, and the conceptual explorations of dehumanization and apocalyptic tech paranoia.
Now thirty years on, and with those themes feeling as urgent as ever, the tech-metalers are hitting the road to remind everyone of just how right they were to fear the future.
Granted, like sadly too many bands of that generation, there is currently just one original member left – guitarist/founder Dino Cazares – after the shocking departure of frontman Burton Bell, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t still rip the roof off of 89th Street.
For times, tickets, and more, visit 89thstreetokc.com.
Fleshwater w/ Chat Pile – Tower Theatre – October 16th
All eyes this month are on hometown sludge-metal heroes Chat Pile as they ready themselves to storm the stage at the historic Tower Theatre in what promises to be one of their highest-profile local gigs ever, and potentially their very first in a corporate-owned local venue.
While that might not feel quite like Chat Pile’s usual scene – with the guys often preferring the packed, sweaty DIY spaces and underground clubs that let them go wild – their star has been rising beyond that capacity for the past few years now, and they’re supporting the equally explosive Fleshwater.
Playing in a similarly nu-metal-adjacent, atmosphere-thickened post-hardcore sound enhanced by the ethereal and reaching vocals of Marisa Shirar, Fleshwater are a perfect pairing to the ground-level grunge-metal of Chat Pile.
Will this be the moment that breaks Chat Pile into mainstream statewide recognition to match what they’ve accomplished in the global underground scene? Will singer Raygun Busch still go bare-chested in such an august and historic theatre? Will there even be a Tower Theatre left standing by the end of the night?
That all remains to be seen, of course, but it no doubt promises to be the OKC metal event of the season.
For times, tickets, and more, visit towertheatreokc.com.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
