Windhand played ONCE Ballroom – 12/2

Virginia doom metal band Windhand returned to Boston on Friday night during their tour with Washington DC’s Ilsa, joining up with locals Z/28 for a gig at Somerville’s ONCE Ballroom. 

Windhand have been among the more visible purveyors of tar-thick psychedelic doom in recent years, thanks to a series of widely acclaimed LPs and a genuinely outstanding vocalist in Dorthia Cottrell. They don’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to the genre, but they’re doubtless operating in its top tier. After headlining Cambridge’s Middle East Upstairs last summer, the band had no trouble filling out the larger space across town over the weekend. Once again, they delivered total riff immersion topped with Cottrell’s haunting laments. Windhand don’t have much in the way of stage presence, but the satisfyingly deafening wall of fuzz they conjure up renders that beside the point.

DC’s Ilsa favored the more aggressive side of the sludge spectrum, which made for an agreeable balance with the retro stoner rock stylings of Boston’s Z/28, a new project from former Grief and current Morne member Jeff Hayward.

Check out photos from the whole night below.