100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 29: The Ludovico Treatment
Ladies and gentlemen, and all local music enthusiasts, welcome back to the fourth annual outing of our year-end daily local music spotlight, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’ll be showcasing a new band or artist on the cutting edge of the Northwest, presented by Verity Credit Union. Make sure to check the #100Bands100Days hashtag at Twitter daily to stay on top of all the bands featured, and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter and NW_Music_Scene as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored Northwest-based musician and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s installment of this journey leads us off the beaten path, to Arlington, WA, to look at one of that burg’s best metal bands, The Ludovico Treatment.
The Ludovico Treatment isn’t for the faint of heart. If you like your music forgiving, and not supplied with ample amounts of dizzying riffs and pounding drums, move along. The Ludovico Treatment is a band that can sometimes ride the line between rock and metal, but prefers to always leave it all on the stage, whether they’re indulging in a bad-ass metal song with one rapid-fire passage after another, or a softer-edged hard rock song with impassioned lead vocals taking center-stage. Drummer Jay Sheeler’s battering drum work is present throughout all the band’s material, as are the speedy, intense guitar and hard-edged five-string bass brought by Conrad and Brendan Gruener, respectively.
Released in July of this year, Four Hymns for Humility’s Funeral is The Ludovico Treatment’s newest studio album, and one that showcases how much this band is capable of when their heads collide. While the record kicking off with a 12-minute behemoth of an opening track may scare some of you off, the album is more than willing to hit you with some of its most punishing and convincing material within this lengthy track. The album only grows more and more from there, as later songs introduce lead vocals, which offer a new dynamic and emotional tone. Fans of progressive metal will find a lot to love in The Ludovico Treatment’s music, as will fans of more traditional heavy metal we’ve come to know and love.
(Listen to Four Hymns for Humility below; you can keep up with the band via Facebook.)
Submissions for 100 Bands in 100 Days are still open to any Pacific Northwest band interested in submitting. If you would like to submit for a chance to be featured in this segment, consult this link for more information on how you can do so.
A huge shoutout to Verity Credit Union for doing so much for the music community and for being such a great partner.
