Gig Reviews

Due to full time work commitments I arrived disappointingly late and Sahg were already playing to a somewhat small but enthusiastic crowd in London's Underworld club.  It was great to see a band going for it regardless of the lack of audience, head banging side by side, throwing their guitars skywards, they fully rocked out.  By set closer "Echoes Ring Forever" their enthusiasm was rewarded, the 40-50 people that had made the effort to get down early were...

The Garage brought shelter from the gloomy rainy Sunday for doom fans this weekend yet London decided to be fashionably late.  Witchsorrow took to the stage with roughly 40 people spaced out inside it's large interior.  Opening with "Aurora Atra" the 3 piece break the normal stage mould with drummer Dave and his kit sandwiched between Nick and Emily front of stage.  It made for an interested show, rather than being buried at the back I could watch him smack the hell out of his kit right under the front house lights.  Witchsorrow may not be breaking any ground with their material firmly routed in traditional doom but if it ain't broke, then why fix it?  Witchsorrow do it well, throwing up a good mix of Sabbath and Vitus vibes, some extremely slow sections, and some faster paced full rock out moments.  Thankfully for the band as the set went on the venue started to fill...

London's Diesel King have been a regular fixture on London's gig scene since their inception in 2010, but somehow i've managed to miss them until tonight.  They open the proceedings at the Camden Underworld, and for once it's good to see a large crowd has actually made the effort to get down early and see the support bands.  As lead singers go Mark O'Regan is bloody massive, all muscles and aggro, the embodiment of the bands huge, monstrous and pounding sludgy metal.  Despite the ferociousness during songs he builds a rapport with...

At a time when even long established metal media seem inclined to push floppy-fringed, full-body-inked formulaic screamo/deathcore (whatever the fuck that means) at their readership, it is heartening to note that the kids are not all taken in by such bollocks.

Motorhead have never fitted in. Anywhere. Lemmy stands by the mantra of being “rock n' roll”, never identifying his band as heavy metal. His audience has always comprised a motley crew of punks, crusties, metal-heads, thrashers and...

Last time I saw Obituary was 18 years ago and during my teenage years 3 albums were on constant loop on my old faithful tape player, Slowly We Rot, Cause Of Death and The End Complete.  As soon as they announced a tour playing songs exclusively from those first 3 albums there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to miss the tour on it's UK date. 

With my wallet still bleeding from 2 gigs in the last 3 days (Neurosis and Scott Kelly) it was time for another 3+ hour journey from the doors of my full time job to the

Satan's hollow, wow, anyone who's been will know the care and attention to detail which has gone into the venue, a huge sculpted Satan overhangs the DJ console, the walls and columns are all decked out like hell itself, with wrought iron work, the name Satan's Hollow is clearly very apt.

Knowing nothing about Ascent prior to the gig I wasn't overly concerned about getting stuck in traffic due to the bad weather and missing the start of their Instrumentalist set. However, as soon as I arrived I was kicking myself, apparently playing only their

Remembrance Sunday and what better way to spend it than with our allies the French, and one of their finest exports in the form of Goijira backed up by fellow country men Klone and Trepalium.    

First support band Trepalium sounded like they are from the 90's and never moved forward.  I'm not saying old school is a bad thing, heck give me some early 90's sounding death metal and i'm a happy man, but this was not Swedish Death Metal, it was groove metal.  Even if they were not my cup of tea, the audience lapped them up, and they certainly put on an energetic live show.  Singer KK  bounced around the stage dreads a flailing barking out lyrics whilst the guitarists flipped genre's like they were going out of fashion.  They tore stompy groove laden hooks into jazz interludes, mixing in little elements of funk and beyond, there were riffs that I swear could have been taken straight from the "Pornograffiti" era Nuno Bettencourt school of guitar and brutalised through a distortion pedal.   Heavy, happy, and bouncy but not my thing.

We’re back in the labyrinthine halls and corridors of Leeds University, looking forward to a day full of good music and wondering where the bloody hell the toilets are. For one day, the masses of the great unwashed are supplanted by a legion of black clothes and lank hair. It must be Damnation. 

It‘s barely past lunchtime, but the third stage in The Mine is already melting under the crusty roar of Ravens Creed (apostrophe be damned). Dedicating a nasty “Stand Up and Be Cunted” to the early crowd, the band blast like the bile-spewing bastard sons of Venom and Discharge. The heaving thrash n’ groove of tracks like “Bloodbath” bulldozing the cobwebs of last night‘s pre-party with the force of a thousand Alka-Seltzers.

Northampton’s Atrocity Exhibit walk onstage under an unbearable hail of feedback; and things only proceed to get more repulsive. Attacking the growing numbers with relentless bursts of

A year ago Devin Townsend had barely finished a four-night run of London gigs bringing together his then most recent albums and playing them in full. Without a pause for breath an even grander spectacle was announced in the English capital for a few days before Hallowe'en 2012. Exact details were vague but the poster alone was enough to create a huge buzz of excitement.

Fast forward almost twelve months and the big event was approaching fast. At quite short notice two warm-up shows were booked to try out some of the songs on latest album “Epicloud”, a few as yet never played live to an audience. So far north without quite being in Scotland, knackered from jet-lag and the previous several weeks touring the USA with Paradise Lost, it would be understandable if Townsend and the band were shitting bricks. Talking to some of the fans it seemed some of them were on their behalf!

It was almost Hallowe'en and the dressing up had started already. The rather camp surroundings of Sound Circus were suitably decorated with skeletons hanging off the walls and the punters made up an amusingly costumed mix of good, bad, ugly and hilarious. It was also another special occasion. The first ever British show for American band Huntress led by self-proclaimed witch Jill Janus. Would it turn out to be a trick or a heavy metal treat?

Before that two local female-fronted bands started the night off and it was unfortunate to catch only the last part of Drallion's set. They mix death metal with flourishes of industrial and the occasional melodic keyboard licks. Blonde vocalist Beckie has a thunderous growl and also sings cleanly in the softer moments. Definite potential there.

Next up were Stagnant Breed. A name I had seen on lots of posters locally but never managed to catch. It was a pleasantly brutal surprise. Musically there were sounds of technical death