With great anticipation, most of the metalheads in Houston crowded into the White Oak music hall to catch a massive bill headed by one of the most stories names in black metal, the inimitable Beherit. The excitement was memorable.

For those who have never been there, White Oak is more like a mainstream venue: big speakers, lots of staff, functional bars and toilets, and actual rules, which makes it a bit odd for a metal venue but rather comfortable, thanks in part to the powerful air conditioning.

The show began with True Iron Will who brought out a hybrid between mid-paced black metal and 1970s punk with just a hint of RAC, a solidly professional show with songs that were designed to sound good instead of simply ranting like most political or emo punk.

They were followed by Unholier, who might be of greatest relevance to Pentagram (CL) fans for this type of early heavy metal done up in necrotic form with underground metal technique, like Mortuary Drape fused with Nunslaughter. High energy and really antique vibes.

After that came Morbosidad, the band that it seems many of the audience were there to see, which plays a type of black metal based on dramatic statements like GBK, basically the first track from Drawing Down the Moon mixed with Exhumed and Krisiun, a variety of war metal that makes a grand statement and then returns to the same three riffs.

After this Imprecation took the stage with a very professional show that sweated the details without it being obvious, having the integration of all songs into a coherent whole like the last EP but with a focus on both old and new material, giving a precise and energetic performance that packed in songs like machine gun fire but since their songs are distinct from one another did not become a monolithic wash.

Finally some time after midnight Beherit took the stage. NHV has been trying to combine his interests in ambient music and black metal for some time, and did so here by wielding the microphone like Avicii while triggering sound effects and manipulating tones through a complex-looking panel.

A three-piece band covered the black metal side while NHV handled vocals, creating an interesting fusion of Satanic techno and black metal. In my view, the black metal fusion works best when the digital elements serve as a lead instrument and the black metal becomes a backdrop, reducing drums and vocals to timekeeping so that guitars can lead and within that, keyboards and sounds can develop themes through texture.

The result was one of the more interesting shows of recent vintage. The classic Beherit songs shined through but were enwrapped in a variety of other sounds, offering both an enhanced context and another instrumental voice.

The band banged out a mixture of classic and newer black metal songs without much commentary, creating a comfortable suspension of disbelief and savage detachment. In my view, the area NHV wants to explore peaked with Celebrate the Dead, where digital instruments served like a lead instrument within the framework of black metal.

Somehow the normie audience has discovered Beherit, so lots of dudes rolled off of Reddit and showed up, which led to moshing by people who clearly did not know the songs while giant clouds of weed vape floated up from the audience.

The venue has a naturally awkward sound profile so they tend to overpower amplification, especially bass, creating a type of shuddering reverb that often washed out the material. On the whole, it was a legendary show, mostly for the work of Imprecation and Beherit.

Tags: beherit, Black Metal, houston, imprecation, morbosidad, true iron will, unholier