Gig Reviews

First up at the Roundhouse were Texans Warbeast, a band signed to Phil Anselmo's label Housecore Records back in 2010. With a new album due out in February the band were keen to air some of the newer tracks and so the set was split between songs from the forthcoming album and their debut. I'd only heard a track or 2 before tonight and, whilst Phil obviously rates them that highly he signed them, I found them to be fairly dull. Don't get me wrong, the pedigree and history of the band members is steeped in metal and they are all very accomplished as musicians. The guitarists were shredding solos, and the drummer's fills and rolls were tight; however it 

Bestowed with an unenviably early time-slot, Cerebral Bore fail to disappoint. It’s been over twenty-four months since “Maniacal Miscreation” was belched into creation and the band have rarely left the road; burning rubber across the globe and tearing thousands of Americans a new one every night on their recent tour. By comparison, a couple of dozen south-coast punters must seem like easy pickings. Som’s monstrous gurgle and growls echo around the cavernous spaces, punctuated by the pounding guitar-work and technical noodlry of Paul McGuire and company during songs such as “The Bald Cadaver“. If ever there was a reason to wolf down your roast, this is it. Just don’t expect to keep it down. Unrelenting and sick as fuck.

American thrash/death whippersnappers Revocation have weathered the tempestuous sea of hype that accompanied their arrival over five years ago, arriving intact with album number three; their sophomore for Relapse. Slowly hollowing out their niche in the scene, they attack

For once the Borderline's air conditioning system was working, making it less of a stifling cavern than usual. Good job too as the temperature was guaranteed to rise with a gig by one of the most beautiful women in modern rock music, both in a vocal and visual sense. Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen first came to prominence as front-woman of The Gathering and is also well-known for her collaborations with Canadian maestro Devin Townsend, including his most recent album “Epicloud”. Anneke also has an album of her own to promote, “Everything Is Changing”, released in Janauary this year.

Before that, opening act Death Letters make a crashing rock sound with strong melodies and vocals vaguely similar to Placebo's Brian Molko and Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria. The Dutch duo are like an all-male metal White Stripes, comprising drummer and guitarist/vocalist. It was a shame to only catch their last two songs, and the final song builds from a gentle melody and mournful vocal to impressively loud crescendo.

American death metal titans Immolation and Sweden’s very own black metal warmongers Marduk; two perfect paragons of scorching sacrilege over the last couple of decades. Seemingly a world apart, brought together in The Underworld. Surely a match made in hell?

But first, the support, and a late arrival meant missing Dead Beyond Buried. France’s Forgotten World are a curious case, drenched in corpse paint, they look as grim as Satan’s testicles. Yet, close your eyes and you are left with a melodeath band with a

A surprising number of Bloodstock-ers were up early on a Sunday, i.e. before lunch, and shook off their hangovers in glorious sunshine to the sound of Canada's Kobra & The Lotus. They are influenced by classic British metal and blonde-maned vocalist Kobra has a powerful set of lungs on her. Maybe she was having an off-day but her range seemed a bit limited and her use of wobbly vibrato did not compensate. After a couple of songs it became irritating. (NH)

Meanwhile another female-fronted band were well and truly rocking the New Blood tent. From Ruin, winners of the Dorset leg of Bloodstock's battle of the bands contest Metal 2 The Masses, had already impressed on the Jagermeister acoustic stage on Saturday. This was a proper loud show and they were excellent. Mixing traditional metal with elements of thrash, the guys on the instruments make a great sound.

Bloodstock 2012: Saturday

Words by Nicholas Holmes, Gary Lukes and Antony Roberts

Benediction walk on stage (or should that be hobble - Dave Hunt had a broken foot) to greet us for what they described as "a Death Metal breakfast".  Well "please sir can I have some more?", because if breakfast was like the set Benediction treated us to then I'd be jumping out of bed every morning.

BLOODSTOCK DAY ONE - FRIDAY

Our Friday commences with Swedish heavy metal Vikings GRAND MAGUS, kicking into “Kingslayer” beneath the rare combination of a Swedish flag and the sweltering sun. There‘s something familiar and reassuringly kick-arse about the music. “Hammer of the North“ turns into the world’s biggest pub sing-along, while “Like the Oar Strikes the Water” could be Judas Priest on a longboat. As an impressively hairy JB swings 

BOA 2012 has come and gone.  The weekend flew by and so much fun was had, so many friends new and old were met, so many pints were drunk, and so many voices were lost singing along to a line up straight from the pits of hell.  Between shooting and covering other gigs this week, and fulltime jobs in the daytime we've gathered our thoughts from this year's spectacular festival.  Gary Lukes kicks off proceedings with the bands we got to see following our late arrival on the Thursday, with the rest of the weekend to follow shortly.  

It’s not clear whether the promoter’s built their webpage on an ancient burial site, or the tour bus just happened to run down every black cat in the vicinity of the M23, but tonight’s concert seemed to have been plagued by bad fortune from the very beginning. After being shuffled between numerous venues over the last few months, the show finally found a home in Volks. Albeit a home that then invoked a last-minute 10pm curfew on everyone. Thus, the co-headliners were cajoled into sharing the final hour. 

 Pythia + Mortad + L Sol Tace

 London Borderline

 30^th June 2012

Yes, yes we are late with this review, but sometimes computer demons get the better of all of us. Nick Holmes made the trek with  Tess up to London to see Pythia, and with a set due at 17.20 this Friday on the Sophie Lancaster Stage at Bloodstock we felt it was  an appropriate time to get the review up to give you an idea of Pythia in anticipation of BOA 2012.