Floor @ The Barbary.

Text and images by Chad Sims.

Sometime after midnight at the Barbary, the heavy riffs began. A few minutes later they stopped. Floor’s guitarist and vocalist Steve Brook’s amplifier had ceased functioning. After a brief delay and changing of amps the riffs resumed.

Floor is a Miami, Florida based doom metal band with a penchant for melodic vocals. The band had broken up in 2003 with Brooks going on to form the pop metal group Torche.

Floor had a brief reunion in 2010, and last year they announced that they would be releasing a new album. This album, Oblation, dropped just a few weeks ago. Despite forming in 1992, this was only the band’s third full-length album, but that does not mean they don’t have a prodigious output considering the 2009 compilation of their singles, EPs, splits, outtakes, and live performances, Below & Beyond, was 8 CDs long.

I am not entirely sure why the show was all ages and started at 10 PM on a Tuesday night, but those who stuck around to see Floor will tell you it was worth it. Floor’s low tuned guitars let the audience not just hear but feel the riffs to the center of their beings, however the heaviness of the music is not all about anger and aggression. Instead Brooks’ sung vocals float over the riffs and create a soft counterpoint to the epic riffs.

Hopefully, the next time Floor comes to town they will play at an earlier time and with better maintained amps so all-ages will actually get to experience this great band. On the other hand, some of the band’s banter is definitely not for all-ages (there was some discussion and pantomime of mustache rides at one point).

Hot Victory and Darsombra opened the show.