Yearly Archives: 2012

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