Digging Cape's 'Grave'

On Cape Cod, shit comes and goes. Busy in the summer, dead in the winter, and a few diehards hang on to see it all.

Same principle applies to metal on the Cape.

“A lot of bands come and go, but I’ve been playing in a lot of bands and hanging out with a lot of bands and there is a existing scene,” says Chris Crobar, guitarist and singer in Led to the Grave and honcho at Wastedge Booking.

And that scene will be on display Friday, July 27, at Chatham Village Hall, when Led to the Grave, Livver, Drysocket, Aborted Decency, and Twitch Angry take to the stage starting at 7 p.m. It’s one of just a couple of hometown shows for Led to the Grave now that drummer Jeff Moody is in Baltimore.

Crobar is musically cross wired with punk and metal; you see it in his Wastedge bookings and you hear it in Led to the Grave. Across the band’s recent spate of studio EPs and its live recording from Ralph’s Diner in Worcester, Led to the Grave brings together a hardcore ferocity with thrash-metal chops. It ain’t metalcore as you know it, but instead a fresh mash up of these styles that pair well.

“We try not to limit ourselves with a particular sound,” Crobar says. “We like punk, we like death metal. We like all kinds of stuff and our music is it all thrown together.”

“Sent to Burn,” the band’s E,P. from 2010 ( ledtothegrave.bandcamp.com/album/sent-to-burn), is a high-water mark for what Led to the Grave can do. The songs are a collision of dry drums, wiry guitar parts and scorched vocals. Songs stretch out to metal proportions, but the vibe is a focused hardcore beat down.

Led to the Grave has made five tours along the East Coast, but will likely slow down the road trips in favor of recordings its next full-length.

“I don’t like to rush things in the studio. I want to tighten up the sound and try to stay consistent with the releases,” Crobar says.

Good to see someone shaking the Cape on a steady basis.

The Chatham Village Hall is at 2567 Main St., Chatham.

Other shows on the radar this week include Hammers of Misfortune bringing prog metal from San Francisco to TT the Bear’s, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge, on Wednesday, July 25. Gates of Slumber, Eerie, and The Under are also on the bill.

Boarcorpse, Das Muerte, and Rozamov are at O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston, on Thursday, July 26, as part of the Born of Fire series.

Metal Thursday at Ralph’s Diner, 148 Grove St., Worcester, has Mausoleum from Pennsylvania and Engorge from New Jersey joining Blessed Offal and Untombed on Thursday, July 26.