Big Find at the Iron Horse
Three-piece metal borne from the black church of Iommi
Three-piece metal outfit Big Find opened the show for the It Hurts to Be Dead EP release party at the Iron Horse and it was clear to me from the first note, the black church Tony Iommi founded with Black Sabbath is alive and well in North Texas.
Bassist and vocalist Jason “Duder” Cooper draws on the bass-heavy approach employed by original Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler to flavor Big Find’s metal with dark ingredients. Cooper plays distorted power chords through a pretty monstrous bass cabinet, flooding the room with bass, while handling vocals, too. Cooper impresses me as a student of his instrument; a bassist who could easily take over a performance, like Geddy Lee or Les Claypool.
Big Find is a little bit difficult to categorize, which I think is the hallmark of great original music — they’re a little bit Black Sabbath, a little bit Sepultura, with some modern Doom-metal leanings.
Guitarist “Coach” Cody Tucker was deep in the mix during the performance I saw but managed to shine. With the low end full of distorted bass progressions, Tucker was free to run wild with leads as if he had a backing guitarist, and the sound remained full while he soloed.
Combine the talents of Cooper and Tucker and you have a heavy, classic black metal setup, with a dominating bass and a cacophonous wall of guitar sound. The magic, in my opinion, comes from the timekeeper — Dustin “Eazy D” Bowen.
Bowen is a commanding drummer with a great sense of timing and technical proficiency, however, what really surprised me was his sense of groove and use of unconventional percussion. If I’m not misremembering, there was one extended bit where Dustin used a jam block (a modern version of the wood block) which is pretty common in Latin percussion and salsa music, not so much in doom metal. There were moments of Big Find’s performance that were almost… tribal, thanks in large part to Bowen’s timekeeping.
A friend told me Dustin also plays in the band Bluelight Special and I’m making a mental note to see him play with them, too.
I felt fortunate that I got to see Big Find as the first of three acts, when the crowd was still light and I could get close to the stage for photos. Big Find is loud and heavy and not for everyone, but clearly talented enough to be playing later in the evening.
I reached out to Big Find for this story but did not hear back, so I hope to catch up with them next time. If you enjoy the FallstownFUSE, please help me lift up these artists with a free or paid subscription.
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They were great Saturday night! I won’t miss another show of theirs