As I was in the Turf Club in Saint Paul waiting for an evening of doom metal to get started, I got into a conversation with a fan at the front of stage. Talking about recent shows and ones upcoming, she finally just said “Man, everyone is touring right now!”. It was absolutely the correct assessment, and in this prelude to Rocktober, there was still a ton to catch. On this Monday, Pallbearer was bringing the noise with a fascinating line up.

BleakHeart was first up and the Denver based band plays a doom alt rock, a sub genre I must confess I don’t have a lot of experience with. They have several albums, including 2026’s A Stone Thrown to Silence, which has clear guitar work and a reverb heavy, but good singing on the vocals. The quartet (vocals/keys/electronic music, guitar/vocals, guitar/steel guitar, and drums) came out with a long opening instrumental that slowly built into the sung and increasingly sharp guitars (this was a harbinger of much of the evening). It was a nearly surf sludge feel, but those low key vocals (sad to see the vocalist in a surgical boot) kept the pace slow and hypnotic. The drummer was nearly hidden behind the biggest wall of amps I may have ever seen at the Turf, but the band seemed non-plussed as they continued their marathon numbers (we crossed the 15 minute mark still on song number two). The way these numbers built towards the crashing drums and dual guitar thrash was impressive and the best of banter “I know it doesn’t sound like we’re happy to be here, but we really are” was brilliant. A switch to steel guitar was super effective and may be the first time I’ve seen it used without evoking a folk Americana or country vibe in the least. The repeated guitar motif kept that wonderfully downer tone front and center. Their fourth and final song had the heaviest and loudest opening and those flanking guitars were key to the close. As they headed off stage, it was clear that BleakHeart had been an inspired choice to open the evening.

We moved to progressive death metal with Vermont band Ordh. They took their time to record and release their debut album, with 2026’s Blind in the Abyssal Realm capping a five year journey from the band’s inception. The quintet (vocals/guitar, guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) were ready to roll and this was fast paced, with the full growled vocals. A full set of monstrous ooh’s were the onset of a wailed set of guitar work complete with full head banging from the front four (and much of the crowd). Thrash mode was set to max and this was voluminous in every sense of the word. I was a little depressed to see we had another band with a member in a boot, but in both cases it didn’t seem to impact the performance. The title track of the album had that dark guitar(s) entrance before opening into a brighter metal sound with the bass growled lyrics over the top of it. This was all about the guitar work, and as they either quieted down to rope the audience in, or soared to bring the full noise, Ordh was locked in. After they all held guitars aloft, they rolled into their final song and it was a blistering pace, with the drummer almost in wallop mode. Ordh had effectively raised the temperature and given it their all.

Last up to the Turf Club stage was Pallbearer, a doom metal band from Little Rock, Arkansas. They have trended towards both prog rock and alternative sounds more recently in their career, which perfectly explained what otherwise might have looked like an eclectic mix of bands for the evening. They have five albums, including 2024’s Mind Burns Alive, but they also recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of their highly regarded album Foundations of Burden, which was given a remastered release in 2025. We caught the band on Day 1 of the Milwaukee Metal Fest in early June. The quartet (vocals/guitar, vocals/bass, guitar, and drums) rode a deeply musical doom metal. Those two vocalists punctuated the slower paced, but fully amped guitar sections in a satisfying way on the opener Worlds Apart. As they set in to play Foundations, it became clear that they were playing the entirety of the Foundations of Burden album in order. The thrum of the guitar work on that song was crushing and the clear, lower tenor sung vocals were a good contrast to that deep, strong work. These song were, as the saying goes, “a marathon, not a sprint” as they averaged nearly ten minutes each and calibrating to the various sung and instrumental sections within a number showed a patience by Pallbearer. Those songs blossomed under the unhurried openings and that slow build key lyrics hit harder than they might have in a shorter version. The Ghosts I Used to Be had a guitar intro full of longing if that makes sense. Ashes was the exception to the rule, a short and emotive number as the bassist nailed that opening “we willed our hearts” lyric that then opened into full metal ballad. Having finished up the album, they closed on Love You to Death (a Type O Negative cover) and Pallbearer had delivered the anniversary show in style.