Heavy Metal. Loud, fast, emphatic, pulsating, high energy … the lights … the fake blood … the chaotic rhythms of the mosh pit, the stench of stale beer hanging in the air and a floor sticky with the same. This is what I’ve been up to lately. All because of my step-son Julian, who decided this year to join a Heavy Metal band with the sublime moniker of Burning the Impurities.
I will confess that once you got away form old school Metal like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple or 80’s hair bands like Mötley Crüe and Guns ‘N Roses my knowledge of Metal in all of it’s various incarnations was limited to say the least. So I am as surprised as anyone to be writing about the Detroit areas newest Death/Thrash Metal band.
Julian or “the young master” as I had started calling him, was a promising violin student until about a year ago when he abruptly lost interest. His dad had a bass guitar and it wasn’t long before he started fiddling around with it to amuse himself. Turns out the guy had more then a bit of talent and when one of the bands in his high school broke up, as high school rock bands tend to do, he found himself auditioning as the bass player.
Now the young master or perhaps Master J is a heavy metal bass god with two gigs under his belt, both of which I had the pleasure of attending. The interesting thing is that the band is good. I say this without a hint of bias or enthusiasm. Having played in rock bands for a good part of my early adult life I can spot a quality act when I hear it and these guys are the real deal. The band takes an authentic approach to their sets made up entirely of original material. The music is loud, Marshall stack loud, highly aggressive with less blues, more showmanship and a huge dose of brute force.
Lead singer Dan Whitenton demonstrates a vocal style ripped straight from a counter culture that requires the voice to be a definitive display of emotion as it’s proof of authenticity. Anyone who has ever heard someone tell them, “it’s not what you said, it was the tone you said it in” will understand exactly what that means when they see Dan’s performance because when he roams a stage it’s never what he says, it how he says it that makes it all come home.
The guitar duo of Jack Waddell and Greg Misiak compliment other other perfectly as a balance of power and finesse, like a well trained athletic team they feed off each other demonstrating how a result can be more then the sum of its part. This goes double for the rhythm section of Julian Pacella and Ron Etters who cascade though bone shaking rhythms and precision riffs with equal aplomb. Together this band seems to hit the holy trinity of heavy metal; speed, power, and precision. With all the head banging, Hair flinging, nuclear bomb dropping panache anyone could ever want. All from a band where 4 of the 5 members aren’t old enough to vote.
Introducing Burning the Impurities…
more pictures below the fold ….
The entrance of the gladiator
Lead singer Dan Whitenton, the shy and retiring type
Guitarist Jack Waddell hammers out a rhythm
Guitarist Greg Misiak shows off some flashy technique
Heavy Metal Bass god “Master J” Julian Pacella
Ron Etters the double threat of speed and power
Master J shows off his headbanging.
Jack head bangs back
If you get a camera you get back stage …
Heavy Metal mom’s reminding you to Drink Responsibly (HMMILFs?) …
Click on the link below to see a short video clip of the bands performance at the Ritz
(Warning … very poor quality sound due to limitations of the video function on my little camera)
Hey Rick, glad to see you posting again. I was starting to wonder if the Earth swallowed you up or something, especially with all the material our wacky politicians have been serving up.
Before I forget, can you email me your number? To make a long story short, I had to get a new SIM because I lost mine in Damascus the last time I was there, and as much as I hate to confess, I don’t have your number memorized.