A L F S LIVE IN E A CHURCH story and photography by: Carmelo Española It’s not too often that I see a metal band play in a place of worship. The Brooklyn Masonic Temple hosted Immortal. The First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia had Nachtmystium. Sunn O))) performed at both these places, along with the Cathedral in Norway. Some bands on occult-friendly labels like Nuclear War Now! and The AJNA Offensive refer to their performances as “live rituals”.

So when False, a band from frostbitten Minnesota, moved their show from a punk house in Indiana to a church in , I jumped at the chance. False was already playing when I arrived. I anticipated that they would headline the show, which also included a Spanish grindcore band and two local crusty black metal bands, but the lineup was shuffled at the last minute. A person at the door collected donations, just like at a Catholic mass. This time, though, the donations were for a worthy cause. From the get-go, False pummeled the audience with layers of atmospheric dissonance. They did this without pretention and hesitation. What separates them from most black metal bands is that they avoid the trappings. I only saw one black metal shirt, for Urgehal. There was no corpsepaint, bulletbelts, or bondage gear. Instead, six talented musicians stripped down their chosen genre to its purest form. I’ve always been cautious about keyboards in black metal, but this key- boardist minimally accentuated the dual-guitar riffing. The drummer pounded his kit hard hard, despite cymbals cracking in several places. The bassist kept the low end audible. The singer prowled the floor like a feral wolf. These layers resonated from the beat-up sound system, evoking desolate Midwest fields during a violent blizzard.