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Vengeance Creek bassist Tim Francis
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Metal School: Old vs. New

Central Oregon’s metal scene blooms mostly in the area’s dive-iest bars, where bands like Snap Point, Open Defiance and Thorns of Creation share stages week in and week out. But occasionally, one of our local metal combos emerges from its dusky lair with a shiny plastic disc to show the world.

This year, two heavy bands rolled out albums, and they come from vastly different ends of the metal spectrum. Early in the year, Vengeance Creek dropped its self-titled debut on a local listenership that must’ve collectively felt the back of its neck, wondering if that old mullet was still there. The Creek loves old-school, ‘70s and ‘80s metal, and you can hear it in the squealing guitar solos, Ozzy-ish vocals and atavistic feel of “Vengeance Creek.”

And in November, the music-theory wizards in Tentareign unveiled their first album, “The Power Between.” Muscular and brooding, the record might be a little more hard rock than true metal, but one thing is for sure: it’s jammed full of zigs and zags — funk bass lines, wicked rhythmic shifts — that let you know Tentareign’s musical viewpoint is so progressive, it might just be from the future.

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