Pallbearer

There wasn't much doom at Heavy MTL, so Pallbearer would have stood out simply through song length and stylistic divergence, even if they hadn't delivered a ground-shaking set (to way too few people). Their minimal crowd banter seemed endearingly uncontrived, even if the pauses between songs were an awkward touch too long. And for a band whose pace moves so heavily and slowly (by a half hour in they had finished just three tracks), their songs and performance emit shockwaves of vitality. The tortured wails of vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell were spot on for all but a short break in "Foreigner," and he and fellow guitarist Devin Holt traded a couple of powerful solos. But Joseph D. Rowland, at centre stage, did the most rocking out, to the point of causing a minor cord mishap in the final song and throwing down his bass as the show ended, chasing the doom with a touch of amusing melodrama as Pallbearer's forty minutes wrapped up disappointingly soon.