Destination : Heavy Chicago
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By Kelley Simms photo by Nathaniel Shannon
20 illinoisentertainer . com october 2023
hicago ’ s newest music venue , Avondale Music Hall , will be hosting its inaugural heavy metal festival Heavy
Chicago over the course of two weekends .
Headlining the festival on Saturday , October 28 , is Chicago ’ s beloved doom pioneers Trouble , which will be extra special as this will be the band ’ s first hometown show in five years . “ We are extremely excited to kick off the first inaugural Heavy Chicago Fest ,” Trouble guitarist Rick Wartell told IE last month . “ Chicago is our hometown , so it ' s always great to play here and we know the fans will come out to support the scene . We ' re really encouraging everyone to participate in all three days to make the festival as successful as possible .”
Also slated for opening night are San Francisco doom / stoner metal band Acid King , Madison , Wisconsin ’ s stoner rock band Bongzilla , and Chicago doom metal veterans November ' s Doom , topping off opening weekend with killer local representation . “ The bill is incredible , and the promoters have put a lot of work into curating an amazing experience for the fans and bands alike ,” Wartell says . “ Knowing some of the bands personally , we know it ' s going to be a lot of fun , and we ' re looking forward to seeing some bands we haven ' t had the chance to perform yet . We ' re also looking forward to seeing our fans and friends and putting on a really great performance .”
The following weekend , Saturday , November 4 , North Carolina Southern-fried sludge metal veterans Corrosion Of Conformity will be headlining , preceded by California space rockers Nebula and Milwaukee ’ s The Crosses — featuring die Kreuzen singer Dan Kubinski for an “ all die Kreuzen ” set . Local bands Speedfreak and Dust Biters will open the show . The following day , Sunday , November 5 , concludes the festival as the legendary DRI will grace the stage with a headlining set celebrating 40 years of Crossover , preceded by grindcore legends Repulsion ( the band ’ s only show of 2023 ) and Chicago ’ s “ murder metal ” maestros Macabre . Death Metal , Embryonic Autopsy , and The Suffering will open the show . When the Heavy Chicago promotors invited Corrosion of Conformity to headline Day Two of the festival , the band immediately said yes , as the members are always pumped to play Chicago .
“ Chicago ' s always been fun ,” guitarist / vocalist Pepper Keenan exclaims during a recent phone interview . “ I think I ' ve played the House of Blues more than any place on Earth . We always have a great time in Chicago , and it ' s just one of those places that we usually end up feeling worse ( the next day ) than when we got there !”
IN PUNK WE TRUST
Formed in 1982 in Raleigh , North Carolina , by teenagers and childhood friends guitarist Woody Weatherman , bassist Mike Dean , and drummer Reed Mullin , COC were massive Black Sabbath fans with hardcore influences such as Black Flag , Bad Brains , and The Dead Kennedys . The band ’ s 1984 debut album Eye for an Eye , featuring vocalist Eric Eycke , consisted of raw , energetic , sped-up Sabbath riffs with crossover / thrash metal tendencies . By the time of their follow-up album Animosity the following year , Eycke was gone , and Dean took over lead vocals and created a noticeable difference to the band ’ s musical vocabulary with a more tight and concise direction while also adding more thrash metal elements to the musical mix .
“ We had done a show with Slayer in ’ 84 in Baltimore — it was our first time playing with Slayer – and ( Tom ) Araya said he was going to hook us up with their label ,” Weatherman remembers during a recent phone interview . “ A few weeks later , ( Brian ) Slagel from Metal Blade had hollered at us , and we wound up going out to Los Angeles to record one of the sides of the Animosity record . It was a big leap studio-wise , gear and professionalism . We had Bill Metoyer , who was a pretty prolific producer for Metal Blade during that time . It was a different world than ( being ) in the little basement studio we had for the Eye for an Eye record . And it sounded better ; it was better production . So I think that just played a big part of it .”
A NEW CHAPTER
By the dawn of the 1990s , there were more changes about to come for COC . The band welcomed new vocalist Karl Agell and guitarist Pepper Keenen into the group , expanding it to a quintet for the first and only time in its career . The band also dropped its punk influences and adopted a new sludge / stoner / groove metal sound that would change the band ’ s musical direction from here on out . “ That was the first record I had done with the guys ,” Keenen reflects . “ I was living in North Carolina playing guitar 24 hours a day . We must ' ve lived in the practice room . We had a little momentum , and all the pieces of the puzzle were getting close to being finished . We did that record and had a lot of ammunition with it . We just changed direction . The scene was getting kind of stale , and we just went a different direction .”
With prolific producer John Custer behind the knobs of Blind ( and every COC album after it ), the band took another step forward with its sound . “ We just tried to make moves forward every time we head to the studio ,” Weatherman explains . “ We spent a hell of a lot more time , production-wise , songwriting and everycontinues on page 22