Greenfield-based metal band to headline Saturday underground show

Members of the Greenfield-based metal band Gravis Somnia will admit to you that their musical genre is an acquired taste. It features frequent tempo changes with a driving, heavy, dark-sounding and hard-hitting feel.

The band members hope a concert they’re playing this weekend in Greenfield will end up turning some new fans on to the music that they love. Many of the lyrics have deep, hidden meaning.

Gravis Somnia is the headliner for the show that is 7-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26 in the basement of the Warren Cultural Center. Other bands are Mourning Veil, More Cheese and Mutually Assured Destruction.

Drummer Scott Tonnberg and guitarist Chris Tonnberg of Greenfield, bassist Jade Cole and vocalist/sadist Gabe Gonzalez make up Gravis Somnia.

The band has evolved much throughout the last three decades, transitioning to their current format only about three years ago, with Cole being the latest addition.

Gravis Somnia’s growth has been organic and has been moving forward, though they’re excited for new audiences in new places to become exposed to their music.

“A lot of people would consider our music death metal, but we just prefer it be considered metal,” Chris Tonnberg said. “With Gabe’s vocals, we can cover a wide array or variety of genres. There’s a lot of growling vocals you’d hear in death metal, but there’s also clean singing, spoken word, whispering, shreiking.”

Thaddeus Hawley, president of the E.E. Warren Opera House Association Board, is excited to start a concert series in the basement of the Warren Cultural Center. In the future, concerts featuring other genres are being planned.

“Where I’m going with this is we have an empty basement there that’s not being used for anything. We’re trying to do a stripped down version of what we do upstairs downstairs. Upstairs we’re only going to get bands that cost a large amount of money and in the basement we’re only going to be able to hold 100 people max, including the bands,” Hawley said. “This is going to be smaller bands, like our local band Gravis Somnia. Since I started talking about this on Facebook, I’ve had other bands reach out. I’ve got the next few shows lined up if this one goes well. We want to utilize every square inch of that building that we can. If we get them in downstairs for a smaller show maybe they’d be more interested in coming back for a bigger show upstairs.”