Scorched-Earth

Friday, February 6

The moniker Scorched-Earth abridges the full range of horrors this band unleashes. A song lyric elaborates: “Scorched earth, black wind, hellfire.” When translated from “sorcerers’ speak” to “hard-rock subgenres,” that list reads “death, black metal, thrash.” Since 1995, the group’s founder, spiked-armband-clad intimidator Terry McCorriston, has blended these elements in his hellbroth cauldron, cycling through crust-punk tempos, dual-guitar harmonies and double-time doom riffs. In Memorium experiments with even darker shades of black, using scratchier vocals, grimmer guitar tones and unsettling blast beats. Mysticism Black, featuring Old Nick from the mighty Ceremonial Castings on all instruments, sounds less like a solo project and more like “solitary confinement,” with forlorn melodies and howls of bleakest agony. Happiness-extinguishing aesthetics aside, this bill should leave spectators giddy about the strength of the local heavy-music scene.

Fri., Feb. 6, 9 p.m., 2009