HP Community Pick is a semi-regular blog series where community members have the chance to highlight a show they’re stoked about. This pick is brought to you by Mark Earnest (of Kanawha and Manchild) on the Sumac show on July 1st, 2024 who played with an absolutely stacked bill including White Boy Scream and Rile. Here’s is what he had to say.

When I first saw that SUMAC was playing on Monday July 1 at Holland Project, I was both pleased and shocked. To me, it’s a band that should be playing in a much bigger room in this town, with their pedigree as longtime Pac NW noise-metal geniuses par excellence. Hooray for us who love SUMAC, though. We get to witness what will undoubtedly be a powerful and emotional performance more up-close and personal than we ever imagined.

Let’s backtrack about this band. SUMAC started 10 years ago and features Aaron Turner as guitarist and vocalist, and it is an extension in many ways of his work in the progressive metal bands Isis and Old Man Gloom. That means slower-leaning but brutally heavy rock with a definite jones for putting a surprise around every corner in its epic songs.

Turner brought on quite the ringer rhythm section for his lull-vs-squall style of music: supremo bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch, These Arms Are Snakes) and dexterious drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists). That means that, between them, hardcore punk, crust, drone-noise, post-rock and progressive metal styles can all be thrown into the SUMAC stewpot – plus some other influences that are unexpected and you have to hear to believe.

SUMAC has a new album coming out this week called “The Healer,” and the first track from it – called “Yellow Dawn” – is a great chance to get a feel for what these three dudes are achieving in this genre if you haven’t checked them out. They definitely have their own lane and it’s a wild ride.

Joining SUMAC at Holland on Monday July 1 are White Boy Scream, a one-woman noise project from Cali that’s really hard to describe (except that you’ll feel something deep), and Rile, a kick-ass metal-punk hybrid in the tradition of its native SLC’s louder scene. Bring hearing protection and an open mind (that might very well be blown by night’s end).

–Mark