Gig Reviews

High Voltage Day 2

Words: A Harvey

Photos: Antony Roberts

Following another rather late arrival day 2 of this year's High Voltage kicked off for me with Gentleman's Pistols. Their bluesy rock tones provided the perfect start to the blistering midday sun. If you haven't checked out their new album yet head to Rise Above Records and purchase forthwith!! These guys have toured heavily over the last year (and continue to) headlining their own gigs as well as supporting every decent rock, stoner or doom band to hit our shores. This continuous roadtrip is obvious in the live show as they are now a seriously tight unit without losing the freeflow that would becoming sterile in delivery.

High Voltage Festival Day 1

Words: A. Harvey

Photos: Antony Roberts

6 things that ruled about High Voltage

1. NEUROSIS NEUROSIS NEUROSIS
2. It stayed sunny all weekend, unlike the downpours of Donington and Knebworth it made for an amazing dry weekend
3. Grand Magus being back in the UK again and playing a blinder of a set
4. They allowed the public to bring SLR's in onsite - more festivals should do this it makes it easier for smaller sites like us to cover them and get some shots. Serious Kudos to the organisers for this.
5. Judas Priest playing a 22 song set
6. Did we mention Neurosis?

Mogwai at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, 22nd July 2011

Words and Photos by Antony Roberts

The De La What many of you may be asking?  Where's Bexhill and why are Mogwai playing there?  For those of you none the wiser, Bexhill is on the South coast of England between Hastings and Brighton.  It's more famous for it's large population of old people than staging events by behemoths of post rock.  It had little going for it for years, but about 10 years ago the De La Warr Pavilion successfully applied for lottery money and has put it to good use with some serious renovation work and a new sound system.  Slowly but surely it's starting to draw in large names; Tricky, Beardyman, Heritage Orchestra, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have all played in recent years.  Early next year a certain ex-singer of Black Flag you may be familiar with is doing spoken word there.  It's a very small venue for the size of bands it's getting, so definitely worth a venture if you're able to get to it.

Black Breath/The Mire/No Coast/Chronos at Brighton Hydrant, Monday 11 July 2011.

Words: G. Lukes

Photos: Gemma Shaw (http://gloomylightsphotography.co.uk/)

Have you ever seen John Carpenter’s “The Fog“?  The movie depicted the town of Antonio Bay being invaded by the ghosts of dead sailors.  Leprous cadavers assaulted a seaside resort on their centenary, terrorising the residents and raining death on their parade.  Now, I can’t claim to have been there on that particular night, but I imagine the horror must have been somewhat akin to what it felt like the day Seattle’s Black Breath hit Brighton town, sullying the sunny coast with their murky brand of crossover, vomiting pestilence on your ice-cream and leaving a big steaming turd on your deckchair.

Sonisphere 2011 Review Day 3

Words: Nage

Photos: Antony Roberts

Day 3 for us started with Black Tide on the Saturn stage.  I wasn't familiar with them prior to this and they started with a competent cover of Hit The Lights which was enough to make me stick around to check out their own material.

Words: Nage

Photos: Antony Roberts

Day 2 for us started with Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine.  Lounge style covers of favourite (and not so favourite songs) seemed a good start to ease the morning in.

Words: Nage
Photos: Antony Roberts

Nage: I'd like to point out our photographer wasn't happy and didn't want his photos using but with no photo pass, and no-one else we needed something!  We're a young site, just 3 months old but with 1000 hits a week and rising we had to provide something!

EYEHATEGOD at Camden Underworld 26th June 2011

All words and photos by Antony Roberts unless specified

The British weather really knows when to throw itself at you.  A few weeks ago when I wanted sun I was stood in a field at Download festival being rained on for 12 hours non stop.  Now I was heading across the whole of London with a backpack full of heavy camera gear and it decided to be hot.  Not just any kind of hot, this must have been the hottest day of the year so far.

Terrorizer sponsored Seven Churches Festival at The Fighting Cocks, Kingston.

Words: Antony Roberts

Photos: All "metalgigs" tagged photos by Antony Roberts, non tagged photos by Gemma Shaw of Gloomy Lights

So a few months ago my friend Matt turned around and said he was helping put on a mini festival with Josh who works at Fighting Cocks.  Sounds good I thought but little did I realise what an amazing lineup they would end up putting together.  There's a serious amount of talent in the UK that is often overlooked and they wanted to put something together that showcased this.