JESUS PIECE

It’s time to see what Philadelphia has spawned for some LOUD music this week.

Jesus Piece are in Vancouver at very packed Rickshaw Theatre with Tripp James, Zulu, Scowl and headliners Show Me The Body.  Special thanks to F7 Entertainment for getting these shows to Vancouver!

I have been intrigued with this band for awhile now after seeing a few of their videos and being that they made the effort to come out here I thought it would be best to see how they do live.   The type of genre music they play, at least to my ears, are hardcore tinged with death metal and even some modern deathcore guitar.   So, its hard to paste them into a specific genre which I am sure it’s a comfortable place for them.   They currently have 3 EP’s and 1 full album in the discography but are set to unleash a new album very soon called …So Unknown (2023).

I see the lead singer who is Aaron Heard (appropriate last name) on stage prior setting things up with a fanny pack slung around him, prepping the stage with the others who are David Updike (guitar), John Distefano (guitar), Luis Apointe (drums) Anthony Marinaro on bass who also was playing with Scowl on the previous set on guitar.

They come out flying with “Curse of the Serpent” from their last album called Only Self (2016) which is a fairly short 2 minute song that gets them warmed up with the crowd.    Definitely a hardcore / death metal mixture that is reminisant of the band Code Orange as I heard with song 2 “An Offering of the Night” which is a  new one from the upcoming album.  No tricky keyboard work within this band however if you compare to Code.  But with Aarons growly screams, it is all there for death metal fans too without the slow rhythms that Death Metal typically contains.  Most of their songs are in the 2 to 4 minute range so that keeps the audience moving and interested.

Aaron is pretty maniacal on stage, pacing about while bassist Anthony is doing the Mario brothers like jumps.  They all move around and provide lots of energy to the fierce Vancouver crowd which makes it that much more fun to watch.   They hit 2 more from the upcoming album with Song 5 “Gates of Horn” and song 7 “Fear of Failure”.   Other highlights from the older album were “Neuroprison”, “Punish” and “Workhorse”.

After listening to this 10 song set, ending with “Conjure” (off the Jesus Piece EP), they put on a solid performance.  If I had one issue, it was the sound mix as it just didn’t sound right from me and that goes with all the bands that played this night.  From what I have seen in the few videos and live performances, the new Jesus Piece album (signed with Century records) is surely going to put them on the map.  Looking forward to hearing more from this band!