Brimstone Coven

A different kind of entry for the log. Halloween night, I was at home handing out candy, and the moment the foot traffic died down, I grabbed a jacket and walked out the door. Brimstone Coven was playing the Irish Pub in downtown Weirton — a couple of minutes from my house — for a "Hometown Throwdown" the day after Halloween. Went solo. There was no way I was missing this one.

If you don't know Brimstone Coven, they're a Wheeling, WV doom and occult rock band — '70s-style proto-metal with a heavy Sabbath, Pentagram, and Zeppelin lineage, three-part vocal harmonies, and that witchy Appalachian air over the whole thing. They had just released their new album, The Light Shines Not for Thee, the week before this show, so this was a hometown gig with brand new material to roll out. The Irish Pub is small and intimate in a way that's perfect for that band — the riffs feel even bigger when you're standing ten feet from the amps.

The reason this one was personal for me, though, is the guitarist. Corey Roth — Brimstone Coven's founder and the guy who started the whole thing back in 2011 — is an old friend of mine from way back in my college days. We played a lot of shows together back then — I was in a band called The Ellen Degenerates, and he played in Once Again. He was also in 3 White Kids, a hip hop novelty act that was an absolute blast live and something nobody who saw it ever forgot. To watch the same guy go on to build a band that ended up signed to Metal Blade, putting out album after album of legitimately great doom rock, and headline a hometown room full of people there to see him — it's the kind of thing that hits a little differently when you've known the person for that long.

The set was everything you'd want from Brimstone Coven on a hometown Halloween-weekend night. Heavy riffs, those big harmonies, fresh material from The Light Shines Not for Thee alongside the staples from Black Magic, What Was and What Shall Be, and the rest of the catalog. The crowd was full of locals — friends, family, longtime fans — and that energy makes a small-room show better than any festival.

Heading back home afterward, thinking about how lucky we are to have a band like this within driving distance, and a place like the Irish Pub willing to host them. Glad I made it down. Proud of Cory.