Yet another Heavy Metal Genre: Alternative Metal

The El Corazón/Funhouse music venue is turning out to be one of my favorite places in Seattle: it's not too big of a venue but it's not crowded either, it has a yummy pizza place nearby (perfect for a quick bite before a concert) and it has some interesting bands. Last night I went to check out yet another genre of Heavy Metal: "Alternative Metal". The best I could understand about it is that it is a version of Heavy Metal that is not mainstream and as such does not need to follow the dictates of big record labels, and it can add some different touches to your regular, run-of-the-mill Heavy Metal.

To open the concert I got to watch Conquer Divide, a new(ish) band composed only of young women (although last night they had a guest male vocalist in addition to the their regular vocalist) that seems to bring together a bunch of different music genres: Alternative Rock, Post Hardcore, etc, etc, etc. What I can say is that they have a nice sound and it was cool to watch them.

They were followed by the headliner, 10 Years (which is an interesting name for a band), which brought the "Alternative Metal" to the concert. To my ears, it did sound like Heavy Metal, with some aggressive vocals, but with a more melodic quality, more musicality than just your regular pounding of guitars and drums of Heavy Metal. It sounded quite nice! That was very well complemented with an amazing display of powerful lights, carefully coordinated with the songs (as you can see in the pictures). I enjoyed them very much.

The thing about the El Corazón/Funhouse is that the two venues occupy the same small building in Seattle and are accessible to each other (in fact, they share the bathrooms). What is cool about that is that, by buying a ticket to a show in one of them, you can watch shows on both of them, if they are having simultaneous events. Therefore, yesterday I made my way to the Funhouse and I could see this upcoming band from Idaho called "Dirt Russell", that seemed to really emphasize the "independent" and "out there" aspect of a small independent band, but sounded cool as well.

All in all, it was a night with a lot of music, and I'm very grateful for it.











Location: Seattle, WA, USA

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