Tonight: Black Cobra + Lo-Pan + Omotai + Funeral Horse (New Video!)

Gotta keep it quick, I’m afraid, but I wanted to point to a particularly badass show this week that happens to not be on the weekend, but rather tonight, Wednesday, September 3rd. There’s a full, full slate of stomping, skull-crushing doom(-ish) metal goodness thundering onto the stage tonight at Fitzgerald’s, and honestly, every damn playing is pretty great.

I was fortunate enough to catch two-man San Fran band Black Cobra a couple of years ago when they opened for High on Fire, and while I’d never heard much of ’em before that night, they impressed the hell out of me. I’ve seen plenty of loud-ass two-person bands over the years, but these two guys pretty much reset the bar in terms of both volume and intensity, playing so loud I was forced to keep my distance (and my earplugs in) and creating an aura of menace despite their relatively small stage presence.

Touring openers Lo-Pan I’m less familiar with — although they get kudos for the Big Trouble in Little China-referencing name alone — but I like what I’ve heard so far off this 2011’s Salvador. They’re far less doom than their compatriots, coming off more like a straight-up, old-school rock/metal band, complete with tough-yet-melodic vocals; they make me think of Priestess, The Sword, Red Fang when they’re (relatively) sober, or, probably more than the rest, of MonstrO. Both bands combine heavy, rough-edged guitars with melodic, yell-along vocals and technical, semi-prog song structures, and that’s something I’m always down with.

Now, I have to admit that while I like the out-of-towners, it’s the locals here that really make me grin like an idiot. I’ve talked about {Omotai} many, many times in these here pages, so I’ll make it brief and just say that the band is fucking titanic, massive and powerful and atmospheric all at once. They’re what ISIS might be like if they didn’t do the death-metal growling (and cut short some of their songs). I used to think they were like a pack of giant monsters roaming the landscape, but these days, with a bit of a “cleaner,” sharper-edged sound — and in the wake of Pacific Rim — the image I can’t get out of my head is of giant robots fighting giant monsters. So take that for what it’s worth, and trust me when I say it’s a compliment.

Last but absolutely not least, there’s {Funeral Horse}. I’ve yammered about these guys quite a bit, too, but I’m psyched as hell to see Jason, Paul, and Chris still rocking the fuck out, pounding away at Houston’s collective soul like a big-ass hammer made of solid basalt.

Oh, and now they have their first-ever video, for “Stoned and Furious,” which debuted last month on Decibel Magazine‘s Website. It’s strange and silly, almost an homage to videos and movies of the ’80s, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun, not to mention a great, great, murky, menacing mess of a song. Enjoy:

That’s it, y’all — get on up to Fitz tonight and bang your head.