Photo by Chris Cruthers

EJ Skinner plays bass and lead vocals in his band, This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours. This Door played among others during the Amalgamation show at the Chena River Convention Center on Saturday.

Synchronized headbanging, snarled vocals, huge gnarly guitar riffs, and… a keytar? The industrial madness of the Terror Train Orchestra was one of many highlights at “Amalgamation”, a multi-genre concert presented by Question Mark Records.

Upon entering the Chena Convention Center, the legitimacy of the event was suspect. The mother of Caleb Kuntz, Question Mark Records founder and guitarist for This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours, was collecting cash in a Ghostbusters lunch box. The sparsely populated Tribal Hall looked like it was host to a bad high school dance.

The wide-open ballroom–with its images of Alaskan Natives trudging through a picturesque landscape and caribou prancing about surely wasn’t your stereotypical rock venue either. My doubts were soon laid to rest as the room filled in and the music began pouring out of the PA.

The evening began with the fragile, gorgeous folk of Rebecca Menzia. Dressed for an afternoon on a 19th Century Mississippi River steamboat, she gently strummed her guitar and penned enchanting ballads.

The second act up was Until Death, a thrash metal group from North Pole. Their set signaled the beginning of rock domination for the remainder of the show.

M. Tentacles followed UD with an instrumental set of spacey noise rock jams. Their sound was all over the place, playing with razorblade math rock precision and then derailing into a fuzzed out Millennium Falcon mixed tape, bringing a post-punk bombast into the fray.

The Terror Train Orchestra was next on the bill with their unique fusion of industrial metal and campy new wave keyboard solos. Electronic beats from their third member, “Die Totmaschine”, kept the pace as the brothers Keller whipped their locks furiously. Hurling themselves from the stage and bantering with the masses between songs, the maestros of TTO were crowd-pleasers all the way to the finish line.

This Door to Remain, an obnoxiously lengthy band name, hit the stage poised to destroy as old-timey cartoon characters danced on a screen in the background. Leading off with a few songs recalling the ferocity of At the Drive-In, the band slowed down for a couple of ambient post-rock jams sans vox midway. All the while, Kuntz thrashed around like a goldfish on the kitchen floor…at least when he wasn’t fiddling with his 837 pedals. Noteworthy guest appearances came from Teddy Ruxpin, riding shotty for the set attached to a guitar strap, and Che Guevara on guitar.

As Dapsbefalen, the final band of the night took the stage, violence erupted on the floor. The death metal faithful were out in force to support the purveyors of all things vile and unholy.

Question Mark Records initially started as a scheme for founder Kuntz to get a tax break for a trip to the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, but it has since developed into a promotional tool for bands from the Alaskan Interior. It also provides an opportunity for all ages shows where the music and not the alcohol reigns supreme.

You can check out the all-Alaskan artists of Question Mark Records at questionmarkrecords.net.