This Little Underground

Few bands push intensity and emotion as equally and seamlessly as Orlando’s Gillian Carter. That ability for explosive catharsis has long kept them one of the area’s leading and most distinctive forces in heavy music.

While they’ve been steady presences on the live circuit, the band hadn’t released any new original material in nearly four years. Just recently, though, they dropped two releases in very short order totaling three new songs. This material — the first batch of tracks that were all mixed and mastered in-house by singer-guitarist Logan Rivera — is a long-awaited continuation of Gillian Carter’s extraordinarily dimensional brand of rock extremity. But while this torrent pulls from their usual mighty headwaters of posthardcore and screamo, some of the new stuff shows fresh metal edges.

This new heaviness is especially salient on the two-track Songs of Summer release. After an onslaught so heavy and dense that it leaves you breathless after only 45 seconds, opening track “Terminal Brain” drops into and rides out on a wicked, chugging metal breakdown. The hatchet grooves further make their way into “Quit Trying. You Failed” — an epic cliff dive that features falling skies of guitars above and furious beats below.

Then, only two weeks later, Gillian Carter quickly followed that up with an even newer single, “Healers of Dead Praise,” a widescreen song that’s as melodic as it is tornadic. It’s a deluge of crushing force and colossal beauty, a feat made even more extraordinary by the fact that the song was crafted in its entirety by Rivera alone in a single day.

While Gillian Carter’s output was sparse for a spell there, they’re back out the gate with a roar beginning with these fresh releases now streaming everywhere. They lead up to a new full-length album planned for this autumn on Skeletal Lightning, the label that’s also home to Rainer Maria’s Caithlin de Marrais and fellow Floridian highlights Zeta and Dikembe. Speaking of, Gillian Carter’s next Orlando show will be on July 17 at Will’s Pub alongside Dikembe and Zeta.

I’m always preaching about not overlooking the opening acts, and this week demonstrates why. If you go out, be safe, be cool.

Purity Ring, Ekkstacy: The infrequent output of Canadian electro-pop leaders Purity Ring already makes this show a special event. Considering the five-year gap between their latest album and its predecessor on top of the COVID pause that already delayed this show, this appearance will come amid peak anticipation. But pay particular attention to opener Ekkstacy, a bright young Canadian who was among an incredibly illustrious list of featured guests (alongside the likes of Nine Inch Nails, JPEGMAFIA, Xiu Xiu, Ho99o9 and Street Sects) on the recent two-part collaborative project DISCO4 by experimental L.A. daredevils HEALTH. Ekkstacy’s own shimmering music deftly spans electronic and rock with a melodic instinct that’s gorgeously understated. (7 p.m. Friday, July 8, Plaza Live, $25.50-$45.50)

BY BAO LE-HUU

GILLIAN CARTER | PHOTO BY WILLIAM POWELL

Foxing, Greet Death: St. Louis post-emo band Foxing stunned a packed house when they were here in 2018 with a breathtakingly more expansive new sound. From their sweeping 2021 follow-up album, Draw Down the Moon, we should expect more of the same. But be sure to show up early and check out opener Greet Death, an excellent Michigan band whose indie rock injects slowcore introspection with shoegaze wingspan. (6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9, The Social, $18)

Crowley: One of the most inspiring things about the Orlando music community is its ability to rally for one of its own. Well, this urgent benefit is for Mick Crowley, an esteemed garage scene veteran best known as a member of the Tremolords (formerly the Hate Bombs) and an all-around nice human. He’s currently battling cancer and could use all the funds and love we can muster right now. It’ll be a total party stacked with a rousing four-band bill of the Tremolords, the Chotchkies, the BellTowers and Kissing Betty. So let’s give him all the emotional and financial ammo he needs now to keep fighting. (5 p.m. Sunday, July 10, Will’s Pub, $10 or more donation)

baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com