Table of Contents
The Caverns: A Unique Sonic Environment
This past weekend in Pelham, TN, Pallbearer singer-guitarist Brett Campbell looked upwards at the ceiling of a cave packed with people and declared, “We’re gonna try to get this to collapse tonight.” Importantly, this statement wasn’t just a throwaway comment; in fact, everyone present fully understood it represented a distinct possibility given the sheer volume and power of the music about to be unleashed within that confined underground space.
The Caverns is unique in itself, a very different music center, steeped in a large natural cave that bypasses the earth’s surface. This vast underground area becomes a place for many different kinds of musical events held regularly. Its amazing natural characteristics also come very close to people’s eye: there are small drops of the water falling from the cave top, the walls give out a wonderfully harsh and irregular rock, and the air is so thick that it can be compared to a Delta swamp, the humidity, however, is not less. However, while you are being left with a cool breeze at the cave’s entrance, this nice feeling turns out to be completely misleading.
Almost unbelievably, I assure you, the temperature inside goes up drastically and becomes intensely hot very quickly. The Caverns, at the same time, under these difficult conditions, is still one of my top places in the world to go and have a live music experience. In the end, it is somewhat mystically a certain way of the old natural rock architecture of the earth mingling with the heavy, hard, loud sound that this force of nature is what the audience indeed witnesses, a deep, nearly primordial physical response, that is the reason why the combination keeps them coming back for more.
Pallbearer’s Heavy Onslaught Begins
Then, Pallbearer walked onto the stage a little while before 8:00 pm and without any delay, they were totally into their trademark slow, sludgy, and deep heavy musical unearthing. As a result, their music really sounded like a very dense and viscous liquid that was slowly dripping into and absolutely filling your whole body, indicating a total and absolute surrender to the overwhelming heaviness of the sound in that small space. So much, they picked up the pace with “Silver Wings” from their 2020 album Forgotten Days. This energetic beginning very quickly set the mood for their entire show, producing a continuous cycle of the ocean’s movements; these were quite unstoppable sonic waves that forcefully hurled you in all directions without giving any respite.
Crushing Weight and Unexpected Freedom
Although the actual cave ceiling thankfully did not crumble down on top of us, the entire audience was visibly shaken and left genuinely breathless by the end; Pallbearer’s massive sound created an immense, almost physical pressure that seemed to press in aggressively from absolutely every side. Yet, interestingly, within those long, sprawling musical passages they crafted, moments of surprising freedom also clearly emerged. Specifically, ascendent rhythms were deliberately given space to spiral powerfully upwards (well, as far upwards as possible within the rock confines of a cave, anyway!), and brilliant, extended guitar riffs stretched out for immense, seemingly endless distances, masterfully dealing in sounds that were both brutally heavy and strangely, unexpectedly beautiful at the very same time.
Pallbearer’s Commanding Performance
For almost an entire hour, Pallbearer played their impressive set, skillfully combining songs from Foundations of Burden, Heartless, Mind Burns Alive, and Sorrow and Extinction into their performance. Thus, this assortment allowed the crowd to have an extremely detailed outing with their whole discography. The huge sound waves, which were going very strong from each wall of the venue, made the deep vibrations that could be felt inside the crowd’s bodies. In addition, the total crowd of bodies turned into one huge, slow-moving beast that was completely synchronized, and people were able to move in perfect step.
This unified movement surged forward as each thick, goopy guitar riff and every thunderous musical climax exploded from the stage. Ultimately, this created a relentless flood of crushing loudness and incredible sonic weight. The melodies themselves stomped and lurched around aggressively, sometimes clearly displaying hints of dramatic southern rock flair and the fierce, fast energy of thrash metal. Significantly, they seemed to call upon the wandering spirits of their musical heroes, the very ghosts that always live within this type of heavy sound – and within the live setting, experiencing this connection felt incredibly exciting.
Blood Incantation’s Eventual Onset
Once Pallbearer were done with their performance, it was quite a while before Blood Incantation took to the stage. The wait was so extensive that the whole crowd slowly started to display signs of visible discontent and impatience (although maybe that feeling was just my own!). Eventually, however, the band members took their positions on stage, dramatically framed by two huge, towering obelisks, and immediately launched into their complex, otherworldly metal chaos. They started powerfully with “The Stargate [Tablet I]” and then proceeded to play the entire lengthy track list from their 2024 album, Absolute Elsewhere.
Honestly, I understood that recreating this challenging and intense collection of songs live would pose significant difficulties. Nevertheless, the band accomplished it flawlessly, without a single mistake. Throughout their set, the bass guitar sound was especially loud and clear, thumping heavily and slithering smoothly through the music like some ancient, primeval serpent moving within that dark, foundational space.
Blood Incantation’s Cosmic Metal Inferno
Meanwhile, Blood Incantation launched directly into the complex, interwoven stories told by “The Stargate” and “The Message”. As a result, the stage became a fiery, blazing hell made of drumming that was relentless and pounding and guitar sounds that were intensely searing and evoking pure apocalyptic dread. At the same time, vocalist Paul Riedl yelled and screeched violently into the very long void, and amazingly, it was as if that very void was retreating and moving away a bit. Furthermore, drummer Isaac Faulk, who was celebrating his birthday that very night, delivered a continuous, powerful war cry through his thunderous kit. Simultaneously, Morris Kolontyrsky, the guitarist, and Jeff Barrett, the bassist, went for it with two perfectly synchronized, deep, and heavy string assaults.
So, the total sum of their sheer volume was gigantic, and the general impression was that the sound was just as visually connected to Lovecraft’s frightful, alien myths as to the complex music of Dream Theater-like bands or the electronic soundscapes of Tangerine Dream. As a result, during the whole set, their cosmic twisted metal experiments fused with synthesizers, powering their performance that loudly and clearly declared their rank as one of the most vital and innovative metal bands, going on to shift the genre boundaries constantly.
Completing the Absolute Elsewhere Journey
After successfully finishing the complete Absolute Elsewhere album experience from start to finish, the band immediately turned and plunged headfirst into “The Giza Power Plant”. This particular song is a stunning piece of progressive metal that perfectly captures the raw ferocity and dynamic energy found on their studio recordings. Following this, they boldly ventured into “The Vth Tablet (Of Enuma Elis)”. This track served as a kind of throwback, deliberately recalling the intricate, noodling guitar eccentricities of classic thrash metal and the enormous, heavy weight carried by those foundational influences, which the band shifted and manipulated effortlessly.
As the crushing riffs during “The Vth Tablet” extended powerfully and washed over the entire audience, every single one of us in the crowd moved completely together in perfect unison, totally consumed by the sound. It felt exactly like we were participating in a ritual, actively offering ourselves up to whatever mysterious, unseen spirits might have been hiding within the rough, shadowy corners of the venue, imagined as some ancient, craggy cave.
