The Ongoing Concept and ’68
Tonight, Norma Jean are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the group’s landmark album O’God the Aftermath at the California Brew House in Rochester (402 W. Ridge Rd). To say the album was pivotal in the metalcore landscape would be an understatement. Norma Jean were some of the innovators in a field wrought with imitators, and their impact is felt all over today’s modern metal scene. I’d rather talk about two brilliant and vastly under appreciated bands that will be opening the show, though: The Ongoing Concept and ’68. Former Chariot and Norma Jean frontman, Josh Scogin, has teamed up with Michael McClellan to present a beautifully disjointed rock-hardcore hybrid in ’68. Picture pure-gravel vocals over discordant, violent riffage, and sinewy guitar lines. This here is music that is loose, blue-sy, soulful, and ferocious, all at once. ’68 display a kind of raw aggression that is missing from heavier music these days. And[...]