{"id":17588,"date":"2015-01-15T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=17588"},"modified":"2015-01-14T21:22:05","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T02:22:05","slug":"the-best-band-in-michigan-is-blackgate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/the-best-band-in-michigan-is-blackgate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Band in Michigan is Blackgate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in August of 2014 we asked you to help us find the best unsigned bands in America<\/a>. After listening to hundreds of submissions, we finally narrowed down our pick for the Great Lakeiest state in the union. The best unsigned band in Michigan\u00a0is Blackgate<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The band has been around for less than a year, but that’s all it took for Blackgate\u00a0to crush their fellow Michiganders underfoot in this here contest. Unlike other recently-somewhat-prevalent\u00a0words ending in –gate<\/i>, Blackgate is not stupid as fuck.\u00a0Blackgate rules. Disclaimer – they might<\/em> play power metal. Wait up, though.\u00a0Detractors of men in floral leggings needn’t worry; for there is nary a flower to be found here. The guys in Blackgate\u00a0play heavy\/power metal with hair on its chest. Their system is age-old and grounded in the endless power of the riff, and guitarists\u00a0Matt\u00a0<\/strong>Cremeans\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Roger Victoriousaccordingly <\/strong>(guess which one of them is the\u00a0longhair)\u00a0have no shortage of them. Every song gets more than its share, often driven by a thrashy aggression that sometimes recalls\u00a0Stormrider<\/i>-era\u00a0Iced Earth<\/strong> only without the shitty, embarrassing, shitty, shitty shit shirts<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Persuader<\/strong> without the\u00a0Hansi\u00a0<\/strong>impersonator.\u00a0Drummer Ryan Lunsford<\/strong>\u00a0deserves some acknowledgement here too; he knows just what to lay down in order to make each\u00a0passage\u00a0sufficiently\u00a0cogent, and good riffs become ironclad in his care.<\/p>\n

David Cuffman<\/strong>\u00a0is his own beast, leading the charge with a lordly midrange wail. I’m picturing him in a cape. I’m having trouble not picturing him in some sort of cape. His melodies arrive at\u00a0catchiness\u00a0without relinquishing\u00a0the necessary metal grit, and at his most theatrical he somewhat resembles the great\u00a0Harry Conklin<\/strong> (ex-Jag Panzer<\/strong>, now\u00a0Satan’s Host<\/strong>) – check out the harmonies in the chorus of “Caesar” or “I Am The Night” if you don’t believe me. Fucking trust issues.<\/p>\n

I ran into something of a problem designing this post – but it’s admittedly a pretty good problem to have. I couldn’t figure out which track to include – they’re all worthy of the Toilet (visitors please note the upper-case “T” <\/em>and understand this as a confusing and stupid compliment). I’ve determined throw the whole\u00a0Blackgate\u00a0<\/em>EP in here. Headbangaccordingly.<\/p>\n