Descender at the Studio at Webster Hall

In typography, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline, as in p, q or y. Descender, however, is also a metal band made up of four Brooklyn-based graphic designers. Beginning with its first gig at the Lit Lounge in 2008, the band averages about two gigs a month at local venues and has released three EPs.

At the Studio at Webster Hall tonight, opening for Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, the band played a brief but impressive set. Drawing on hardcore and progressive metal influences, Descender shouted and pummeled through aggressive and abrasive songs that, like many progressive metal bands, sidestepped traditional verse/chorus conventions. Unlike similar bands that build energy by speeding up the pace, however, Descender performed slow burners, somewhat like early Black Sabbath. The raw but tightly-composed sound remained uncompromisingly thick and intense, as dense as a brick and as doomy as a moonless midnight. Descender performs next at Grand Victory in Brooklyn on August 31.