By Levi Wright
While Jazz Fest will take place this weekend, jazz isn’t the only musical genre people can find in Iowa City. If they’re into “death core,” also known as “progressive metal core,” they can hit up a fix at Blue Moose, 211 Iowa Ave.
At 5:30 p.m. June 30, Born of Osiris — a band from a Chicago suburb, Palatine — will headline the venue along with four other metal bands: Volumes, Betraying the Martyrs, Widowmaker, and Doppelgänger.
The artists come from all over the world. Betraying the Martyrs is from Paris, for example, and Doppelgänger has members from Iowa. Each of the bands brings its style of metal to the stage, drawing inspiration from different places.
“Anytime you take a genre like metal and branch out in different styles, kind of like the variety among colors, one it just kind of shows there isn’t a status quo with playing metal,” said Doppelgänger drummer Christopher Deets. “When you play metal, there is this big, sort of judgment that it is going to be loud, fast, and heavy. And you can’t understand what’s going on essentially, but in metal, I think, and mainly progressive metal, there are likes of progressiveness in death core, metal core, and stuff like that.”
Doppelgänger strives to make its music sound the same live as it does digital. So fans have an idea of what to expect at the group’s shows.
“As far as the sound, we try to nail it note for note when we play,” Deets said. “At the same time, I think some of the parts are more intense live just because it’s part of the experience being at the show. Being in front of the drums and the amplifier helps some of the moods with the angrier rifts. But as far as performance goes, we try to nail what we sound like on the record every time. That way people will recognize what we are doing.”
While anger is one driving force of the music, there is more to the genre, one band member said.
“I think most metal has a little bit of anger that everybody is trying to play,” said Alex Coats, the Doppelgänger guitar player and songwriter. “Everybody is trying to get a little bit of anger out through their music as well as some more melodic stuff that is a little more emotional. We have a couple of different clean guitar parts, so it’s not just a straight barrage of anger the entire time. There are hills and valleys to the song structures. It’s a little all over the place.”
