Carnifex
Die Without Hope
Released 7th March
Deathcore/Death Metal
Released via Nuclear Blast
As a person with minimal interest in Deathcore or any similar sub-genre, I thought it would be a dreary task to review an album that I didn’t think would be any different from the rest. Many might say that I jumped to conclusions way too quickly, they would all be correct.
Carnifex are one of the few bands of 2013/14 that have evolved in a truly infinite way. Having being criticised for being a Suicide Silence copycat in their early years, they have since matured and developed into something unique and unrelenting. I am quite simply astounded.
Upon first hitting the play button I was greeted with an ominous and haunting intro sample (which is always welcome) and Scott Lewis’ voice which comes bellowing through the speakers with the title of the opening track Salvation Is Dead. This is a fantastic choice for opening an album, quite simply because this particular song demonstrates and boasts Carnifex’s true inspiration and growth as songwriters. The main guitars have almost streamlined and simplified but give a clearer indication of what they are about and what direction they want to go in, however, the songs as a whole have been filled to the brim with surprises and breath-taking guitar solos which I would never have anticipated in a Carnifex album.
My personal favourite is Dark Days. This track really shines in terms of growth and citing their inspirations on their sleeves, is just truly incredible and I have not even started on the new production yet.
Signing to Nuclear Blast is the best move they have made. Their production has improved tenfold. The drums are twice as thunderous but still crisp, the new clarity in the guitars and bass is so much more gratifying than on previous productions and the vocals are just simply incredible. This album is a MUST for 2014.
Shuffling over to the other side of the greenroom, Jon tiptoed in amidst laptops, assorted wires and beer cans to sit next to Þráinn Árni Baldvinsson (pronounced ‘throw-an’), lead guitarist for Skálmöld, and drummer/vocalist Jón Geir Jóhannsson. The majority of Skálmöld are vocalists themselves, and their sound is an atmospheric blend of death metal with traditional Icelandic melodies and time signatures, featuring epic lyrical sagas about the Norse gods and historical wars. For fans of Tyr, Skálmöld is a perfect opener, and throughout the tour this relatively unheard of band has impressed the European masses.
Jon: Have you been to England before? I swear I’ve seen you once before here.
Þráinn: Yes! We played here once before in 2011 on the… Heidenfest tour I think it was. In the HMV Forum. Absolutely awesome- probably one of my favourite shows ever.
Jon: How do you find fans in England, are we crazy?
Jón: Oh yes, they were crazy then!
Þráinn: At that concert they were absolutely amazing, yeah- and the Forum has a lot of history as well. All of the bands play there, so personally we were really excited to get to play there as well. Before the show we got together and just said ‘let’s do this just for us’. Our intro started, and the whole place erupted – we were like ‘What?’ Nobody knew who we were. The crowd was amazing. Probably one of my favourite gigs ever, and I mean that.
Jon: I know a lot of bands say places like Mexico or Japan are awesome, but no one ever says England.
Jón: Well, we’ve never played Mexico or Japan before! We have a fanclub in Mexico, though. But, uh, we can actually tell you that in Italy, Hungary and Romania, the fans are pretty awesome – the bassist from Týr is coming into our interview!
Gunnar: Hi!
Jon: You’ve already said your piece about the new album and now Týr don’t have a singer because of it!
Þráinn: Did you talk about our new album?
Gunnar: Of course we did! You’re so rude!
Þráinn: So as we said, yes in Italy, Hungary and Romania, fans are really crazy – Italy have the greatest fans ever, man. But that particular show back at the Forum was great.
Jon: Now you use Icelandic poetic structure in your songs. Is this hard to stick to or do you prefer to structure your lyrics like that?
Jón: We prefer to use it. Our bass player who writes all the lyrics is a bit of a poetic nerd in a way. In some ways it’s more like mathematical problems, because you have to put certain letters at certain places and have rhymes at certain places, so it’s kinda like a linguistic Rubik cube that you have to solve. So it’s a challenge. And because of those rules, it’s more rhythmical. You say sounds at similar intervals, it’s easier to sing, and for people who don’t speak Icelandic, it’s like listening to an instrument. When we signed to Napalm Records, some people asked ‘are you going to sing in English?’ And we said ‘no way!’ Of course we were going to stick to our native language. In our songs we have an English story which you can follow as you listen to the lyrics.
Jon: Your latest album Börn Loka…
Þráinn: Yes, Children of Loki!
Jon: Why did you choose to write about this concept?
Þráinn: Basically we had an idea
Jon: Because he’s cool? [Editor’s note: Loki is not cool – Vidar is though]
Þráinn: Yes but don’t connect this with the Marvel thing! Basically we had three ideas, all the ideas were about two children travelling, and in the end our bass player had the idea of naming them after two of our kids…
Jón: We think the Children of Loki are really cool characters, and they are part of our Icelandic heritage, part of the old Nordic religion – mainly they’re just really cool characters. Especially the three famous ones: Hel, Fenrir and Miðgarðsormur. So, it’s a fictional story but we take parts of the old mythology and sagas and squeeze them in, but with different main characters.
Þráinn: We grew up with this; this is normal stuff when you’re growing up.
Jón: You learn about it in school, in kindergarten. It’s something children are taught as a part of their cultural history – you learn about where you’re from and as part of what your ancestors believed – not, like, ‘you have to believe in Odin’, but as cool stories.
Þráinn: But we didn’t have to make this cool, because ninety percent of everyone back home respects their history and thinks it’s quite cool anyway. We actually have kids wearing our t-shirts with our logos on, singing our songs in kindergartens.
Jon: That’s amazing!
Þráinn: Yeah, but I would have thought that kids in the UK would listen to Iron Maiden songs in kindergarten…
Jon: If only!
Þráinn: I thought you would be singing about Alexander the Great or Invaders or something!
Jon: If only we did! I think that should definitely be on the curriculum. I know you started off as Týr did, using folk music blended in with metal – do you still use that concept now?
Jón: When we started the band, the original idea was to have it a bit more folky than it turned out. In the first rehearsals, Baldur our guitar played flutes and mandolins and stuff, and then it kinda didn’t sound right, so he began to play the electric guitar as well. Today, we’re just playing heavy metal.
Þráinn: We don’t really think that we have to be ‘this type’ of metal, like folk metal. It just happens. For me, we’re just another Iron Maiden cover band!
Jon: I’m really interested in Norse mythology, but I’m really lazy and I don’t read at all. Could you recommend any reading that fans of Nordic metal can pick up to learn more about the history?
Þráinn: You have to read from the Völuspá and the Eddas, the beginning of the universe according to Nordic mythology. And then I think you should go into the old Icelandic sagas and the stories of the settlers. That’s awesome and brutal.
Jón: A bunch of people killing each other all the time.
Þráinn: Everyone who is alive today in the Western world is a pussy compared to the guys who were originally Icelandic settlers.
Jon: One day I promise you I’ll read the Eddas.
Jón: Do it! That’s basically where it all comes from.
Jon: Obviously I was interviewingTýr over there, and I asked them to teach me something in Faroese. Could you teach me something nice in Icelandic? Because Terji taught me some words that I couldn’t really say to anyone.
Þráinn: If you wanted to say something nice, to a beautiful girl or something, then you can say ‘falleg’, which means beautiful. You can also say ‘þú ert falleg’- you are beautiful.
Jon: What’s next for the band? Börn Loka was released last October, so have you started any further work?
Þráinn: We have started to write… It will be the best album ever! Our next task after we finish his tour is to do a couple of gigs with the Icelandic symphonic orchestra- we’re doing both of our albums and three shows that are sold out in a huge auditorium – 1800 seats!
Jón: So that’s going to be a lot of work, and hopefully we’re going to release that as a DVD. Hopefully it will be released just before Christmas; we’re doing the gigs in November.
Þráinn: And then we have theatre work!
Jón: We basically have December, January and February off, and then we’re going to start rehearsing to make our first album into a live theatre production: there’ll be actors and re-enactments on the stage of the stories in between the songs, and hopefully we’ll record an album next summer!
Jon: I love everything you’re doing- so many bands get stuck in a rut of recording an album and then going out on tour, and it seems like you’re really creatively branching out. Thanks – I think that’s everything!
Jón: They better bloody well start teaching Iron Maiden songs in kindergarten!
Perhaps one of the greatest folkish/Nordic/younameit line-ups aside from the European spectacle of Heidenfest graced The Garage this past Saturday evening: behemoths Finntroll were joined by Metal Blade’s Týr, who are touring their latest album, and were supported by Iceland’s Skálmöld for an evening of sweltering debauchery and a raucous good time.
A long time fan of Týr himself, Jon caught up with Týr before the gig as the crowds started to swell up Holloway Road.
Absent for most of Týr’s interview was lyrical mastermind and mythology nerd Heri Joensen, who popped in his head for a few questions before ducking out, but Jon sat down with bassist (and comedian) Gunnar Thomsen, lead guitarist Terji Skibenaes, and new recruit drummer Amon Djurhuus.
Jon: Ok, introductory question: tell us something interesting about yourself!
Gunnar: I’m a plumber?
Jon: Everyone knows you’re a plumber!
Gunnar: And a diver!
Terji: Only perverted things come into my mind… I hate driving cars!
Amon: I can actually play the harmonica!
Jon: Is the harmonica going to be on any Týr records then?
Amon: No way! Never ever!
Jon: Gunnar, I saw you wearing a Trollfest t-shirt the other day; they’ve covered Toxic by Britney Spears. Aside from the new covers of Iron Maiden and Pantera on Valkyrja, out of any genre, what would you cover?
Gunnar: I would probably cover a Deep Purple song – I would never go so low as to do Britney Spears!
Terji: Pop song? I thought about it the other day! Chicago, It’s Hard to Say I’m Sorry – it will just be me in a one man show.
Jon: You went for a quite a power metal vibe in Valkyrja; Liv Kristine, singer from Leaves’ Eyes, joined you in ballad Lay of Our Love – have you thought about collaborating with any other musicians?
Terji: No, I don’t think we’re going to do that.
Jon: I know you don’t align yourself with the folk metal scene, but a lot of bands use unconventional instruments- maybe not harmonicas, but accordions, violins…
Gunnar: Yeah, that’s never gonna happen – an orchestra, maybe… that could be something!
Terji: No violins though…
Jon: I know Valkyrja has just been released, but have you started doing work on the new album?
Terji: Only demos so far.
Gunnar: They sound amazing, absolutely brilliant!
Jon: Do you have a concept that it might focus on?
Terji: No, we don’t know yet…
Gunnar: We’ll do a cover track by The Bee Gees maybe… we’ll put a nail in our balls and- (quiet, high-pitched wails)
Jon: That could be your stage performance next tour… Now – you cover modern issues; for example, your anti-racism song Shadow of the Swastika. Do you think any cultural values from Norse mythology are still relevant today?
Gunnar: That’s what Heri does with lyrics – he takes old situations and compares them to new situations because they’re quite similar. So it kinda draws a line between the two.
Jon: Do you like singing about modern issues or would you prefer to stick to singing only about mythology?
Gunnar: If it was up to me, we’d sing songs about cars and planes!
Terji: Sex, drugs and rock and roll!
Jon: I think Shadow of the Swastika was a good response to the criticism you faced from people under the misconception you were a right-wing band.
Gunnar: Yeah, that whole thing came totally behind our backs.
Jon: So from the new album, what’s your personal favourite – you know my favourite is Lady of the Slain, which I believe you wrote, Terji!
Terji: Yes I did! Mine is Another Fallen Brother.
Gunnar: It’s difficult to say, Valkyrja is my favourite- maybe because I wrote that! No, it’s difficult to say. I like the whole album.
Terji: Mare of My Night!
Gunnar: Mare of My Night is my favourite, yeah!
Jon: That was so embarrassing to listen to… just listening to the lyrics…
Terji: Did you blush?
Jon: I did! Listening to it on my own I thought ‘you can’t say that, Heri!’
Gunnar: Good! I think that’s where we should go! Getting brutally honest!
Amon: I think Mare of My Night is my favourite, too. I love playing it live- it’s a pretty cool live song.
Jon: (Mathias from Finntroll is lounging on the sofa in the background behind Terji) What’s your favourite song, Mathias
Mathias: What favourite? No, I do know the songs! I listen to it every day! Uh, probably Mare of My Night, too.
Jon: Are there any songs you recorded but couldn’t use for Valkyrja?
Gunnar: This was what we had. We never actually record more songs than needed.
Jon: So Amon, have you ever been on tour before?
Amon: Yep, I’ve been on tour with Týr two times before – this is my third – and with Heljareyga (Heri Joensen’s side-project) also. It’s going good.
Gunnar: We bully him a bit – we’ve tried to break him in (whip crack sound)
Terji: Gunnar thinks we bully him, but we actually bully Gunnar!
Gunnar: I’m used to it!
Jon: I know a lot of fans were upset Kári (Streymoy, previous drummer) left, but the fans that have met you have said you’re cool, Amon – you’ve got our support! Can you teach us to say something in Faroese?
Terji: Spina. Spin-hora. Sperm whore.
Jon: Would that help me to pick up a guy at a bar?
Gunnar: That would probably work on me!
Jon: Wow – next question! I’ve been listening to you since I was fifteen – so five years now. And I have to Admit that when I first started listening to you, I hated you!
Terji: Usually people do!
Jon: And now I run the UK fanpage on Facebook- funny how things change. When did you first realise you were getting noticed? I know Valkyrja is having great success in the charts and with critics alike.
Terji: Probably since after By the Light of the Northern Star was released.
Jon: I know a lot of places in South America are crazy about anything Nordic-themed, do you find you have a good reception there as well?
Terji: Yeah, a lot! (Gunnar says ‘No’) Gunnar’s never on Facebook; he doesn’t know!
(Heri Joensen wanders over from the corner)
Jon: Do you want to tell us about any lyrics you’re working on?
Heri: Uh, well Terji and I have talked about some stuff, and that’s all that’s happened so far. I don’t think we should mention it yet…
Terji: No, not yet.
Heri: Turn the microphone off!
Terji: Our manager will kill us…
Gunnar: No, it’s about big elephants in Africa, and the situation with the pelican that flies off and mates with the flamingos. It’s very disturbing.
Jon: I think you’re going to have to write that now! (Heri tries to run away; Jon pull him back) Stay here – there’s another one! I know a lot of my friends are starting to form bands and write lyrics about their English heritage. Do you encourage that, and how can people who are interested in that best go about interacting with, or writing about, something personal to them
Heri: I think that in the Faroes at least we have a very direct connection with our heritage, so when I started to write lyrics I didn’t have to dig very deep to find anything, and there was no artificial angle to it. I can imagine if you grew up in England that
Jon: It would be more about learning what you know from history lessons
Heri: Yeah exactly. You have to be into that sort of thing to know anything about it, but still I would encourage anyone to do it. I like it when music sounds like where it comes from and also has mythological subjects related to a band’s heritage, if you’re into that kind of thing. So when everything isn’t so internationalised.
Jon: I must say though I love the new African animal direction you’re taking, and Terji was also telling me about wanting to cover musical theatre…
Heri: I’m now officially out of the band!
Amon: Elephants in Chicago!
Terji: That’s the new album title!
Jon: Recently, fanclubs have grown amazingly for Týr. After your gig in York, I started the UK fanpage from a computer in my hostel. Now I’ve seen the Italian fanclub, the Polish fanclub, and of course the US fanclub getting lots of likes on their pages… What can fans do to help you guys?
Terji: I think talk to the local promoters… When they see more people asking for us, then it will most likely happen
Gunnar: And spread the word!
Terji: And hello to Týr Fans in the UK! Thank you for everything!
Astrohenge, Revoker and Turisas 02 Academy Islington, London 10th October 2013
After a series of botched attempts to stay all the way throughout a Turisas gig, this would be my third attempt at seeing the Finnish supergroup live in London. Arriving at the O2 Academy Islington late, and wandering up to a sparsely populated floor, I realised I had missed first supporting act Astrohenge. I didn’t particularly want to see either support, to be honest, and actually feel a little bit sorry for groups who need to support a group as highly anticipated as this warpainted northern rabble. The sea of red-and-black faces, plastic Viking helmets and synthetic furs lounging around with beer cups firmly clasped in hand was testament to the fact that everyone was here for one reason, and that any other supporters could get on with it.
Revoker, a band with a frontman whose accent was confusingly Welsh, were up before that, however. They weren’t terrible, either, and had I been less eager to see Turisas I might have fully been able to enjoy them! Aggressive and dangerously charged deathy-thrash is their game, with standard tracks like the brawling Stay Down and the shouty Great Pretender proving enough of a hook to get the crowd fist-pumping, even if no pits were started. For a Welsh band sitting in the shadow of the gargantuan Bullet For My Valentine, their track record is impressive enough: they’ve worked with Skindred and have been previously signed to Roadrunner Records. Well worth a listen in the future- and their ‘just good music’ vibe was certainly an omen of things to come from our headliners…. [3/5]
Turisas– with a fashionably long wait- hit us next, after anguished cries of ‘Battle Metal!?’ echoed around the room for half an hour. Opening the set tonight was a track from their latest album (the oddly named Turisas2013) For Your Own Good. A powerful song in its own right, the sound was impeccable and Turisas’ entrance met with a swelling crowd – however, it was clear that the songs from their latest album aren’t their strongest or most well received in the flesh. Musically, songs from Turisas2013 sound great- solid, catchy, jumpy and more hard-rock than metal- but seeing the band live leaves little doubt that their real power is behind the grittier, harsher songs of previous albums. A Portage to the Unknown followed, bombastic, crushing and ridiculous like the Turisas we know and love, and the place went crazy for the anthemic To Holmgard and Beyond, which induced the most intense jumping I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of. But new releases Ten More Miles and Piece by Piece, whilst good songs, lacked the same energy. Picking up the pace from the new album, and a song that I had hoped would be performed live as it truly is a ‘live song’, was Greek Fire, undoubtedly Turisas2013’s most ‘metal’ track, rising and falling in a roaring crescendo and sparking a whirl of flying bodies across the floor. Another odd one, which didn’t get the reception I was hoping for, was No Good Story Ever Stars With Drinking Tea, a fun little drinking jig that translated well on stage; penultimately, ‘We Ride Together’ was a soaring, feel-good tune and was the last of the new tracks to be showcased. However, matched with the epic As Torches Rise and One More, there was no contest as to what was most preferred.
The setlist for the night provided a varied crowd with a range of songs to choose from- old school fans like me and new converts both got a healthy mix- and with Turisas as energetic on stage as ever, Mathias gliding around the stage and throwing punches to the air, the show was of little fault. Telling, however, was that the lulls in the night (if you could call them that when the crowd was still chanting and singing) were from the new album. [4/5]
Týr, Skálmöld and Finntroll The Garage, London 6th October 2013
I first started listening to Finntroll when I was 15. My mum took me to a Heidenfest show for my 16th birthday, and I guess you can say that was my slow descent into the underworld of folk metal.
The line-up tonight is one I’ve been excited about for a long time, and one that personally I think fits very nicely together: Skálmöld from Iceland with their melodic, relentless chug you can bounce around to singing in ancient Icelandic poetic metre; Týr showcasing their new venture Valkyrja, an album-worth of fast, genre defying metal; and the legendary Finntroll, revered in folk metal circles from Mexico to Australia. Their new album Blodsvept was released in March this year, and it follows on from the dark-carnival Danny Elfman-cum-black metal Nifelvind. Blodsvept is no less eclectic: surprise kazoos and banjos mix in with brutal guitars and lead troll Vreth’s rich vocals. Always ready for a party when these guys are involved, I prepared myself for mayhem.
From seeing them again on this tour, Skálmöld, who open for us, receives a warm welcome from the audience. Despite only having 30 minutes, the band makes a distinct and explosive impression. Featuring mostly songs from their new album Börn Loka (Children of Loki), Skálmöld open with the grinding and dark Fenrisúlfur, before keyboard anthem Gleipnir thunders out to a rapturous reception. The much more synthetically folky song, Kvaðning, and the only song from 2011 debut album “Baldur”, ends their stay on stage- and the crowd are left gasping and chanting for more. [4/5]
“Are you ready for Týr?”Skálmöld lead singer Björgvin screams. ‘Ready’ is a brilliant understatement;Týr is arguably my favourite band of the evening, and since seeing them in York, I’ve waited for them to tour again anxiously. The lights dim after a few moments, and their set begins slowly, the red haze overhead throbbing until the clash of the mighty crowd-pleaser Hold the Heathen Hammer High leads to the band striding on stage. The setlist has changed very little over the tour; however, Heathen Hammer and scream-along Valkyrja single Blood of Heroeshave remained constant, one after the other whipping up the crowd. I may have nudged lead singer Heri Joensen into performing my favourite track off the new album live, and being the gentleman he is, he doesn’t disappoint- and even manages to make Lady of the Slain better than it is on the album, galloping along with neck-breaking speed, and providing my favourite track that evening- even with the prog-metal magic of Sinklars Vísa. An acquired taste for some, Týr have been consistently good every time I’ve seen them, and with this performance at The Garage they cement themselves as a must-see. [5/5]
After a half-hour wait at the bar, pressed arse-to-chest with strangers like sardines in a net, I break free and run to the front as the Blodsvept starts, the crowd surging forward as the all-too familiar forms of Finntroll– steampunk-clad and pointy-eared- take the stage and bear down over us in glee. After a punchy start, dressed to impress and lapping up the energy, they begin Nifelvind opener Solsagan, evil to the core. The combination of songs from all of Finntroll’s manifestations smash the misconception that Finntroll is just a ‘fun’ gimmick band. They switch alternatively between crunching black metal dug up from the darkest depths of the earth and jumpy dance favourites like En Mäktig Här, famous for steel-pan snyths, and the jig-inducing Under Bergets Rot. Finntroll leave no room to catch a break, and a few songs in the room is stifling, with smiles plastered on drenched faces. Catching sight of flashes of bare chest, Vreth refers to those in the middle fondly as ‘those naked guys’, before calling for an even bigger moshpit. At their last UK gig, Finntroll made sure some oldies were on the list- and they seemed surprised at how much their back catalogue was appreciated. Knowing that we like them, Svartberg makes a comeback with much arm waving and swaying, and Jaktens Tid itself with its added joking is forever a firm favourite, starting snakes of conga lines around the venue.
Lest I die an early death from heat exhaustion, I leave before what I’m sure is Trollhammaren evidently shutting the place down. I consider myself now a Finntroll veteran, but this is a gig I will fondly remember as being one of their best. The crowd was ecstatic for all bands, and funnily enough for an easily-annoyed bastard, the pit was a fun, sweaty, elating experience. [4/5]
If you’re looking for a good time when this assortment of mythological creatures and long-departed warriors trample through the UK, you’d better go and see them. And if you’re staunchly ‘too cool’ for dress-ups, heroics or swords and sorcery, you’re missing out on an awesome time.
The Ibanez RG is probably one of the most recognisable and iconic guitar shapes in the long history of the guitar. Its sharp points and beautiful curves give it elegance with a touch of venom. Through its many iterations, the RG has been the workhorse model of choice for guitar players around the world, from jazz to metal. In the metal world it has secured its standpoint by morphing its uncompromising playability to suit the needs of six string players, seven stringers and 8 string djentelmen alike. The range of options is vast on this particular model, with hardtail versions for players who want absolute stability, and vibrato models for those that want to drop bombs and scream the place down.
The Iron Label series has been a welcome refreshment to the ideas of building the shred machine. The series combines all the features and playability of the existing models, the variety of fixed bridge or double locking vibrato units, string count and gorgeous looks with that one thing we all find hard to swallow when we look for our guitars; affordability. Ibanez threw it all on the line and created an affordable, reliable, uncompromising weapon of maximum shred, and have been reaping the rewards.
This particular model, the RGIR27E, is one of two 7 string examples on show within the body shape. Its main feature is the double locking EDGE-ZERO II Floating vibrato unit. The other version of this is a fixed bridge affair, denoted by the F in the model number (RGIR27FE). Both feature EMG 707 pickups for the ultimate sound of brutality, a 25.5 inch scale neck to handle not only the standard six strings with outstanding stability, but cater for the low B string with ease. It aptly manages to retain the string tension, whilst allowing great articulation of the low notes. If you find that low B isn’t brutal enough for you, slap some heavier strings on and tune down to A or G and unleash a fire breathing monster of death and destruction, and it will even hold a low F with a good amount of accuracy, (and a damn good set up job).
The EDGE-ZERO II is a development of the original Ibanez Edge series of double locking vibrato units, and it certainly lives up to the reputation built by it’s forbearers. Because of the unit being double locking (strings lock at the bridge and at the nut of the neck) the system allows extreme changes in pitch, both up and down and tuning stability is rock solid. As the strings terminate at the locking saddle on the bridge, the transfer of vibrations through the bridge to the body is a direct transfer. This allows the guitar to sustain notes whilst being manipulated by the vibrato, and harmonics can be held for extended periods of time. The fine tuners on the bridge allow for precise tuning when the strings are locked down, and allow quick tuning changes if a string slips out of tune. As if that wasn’t enough, the bridge is a recessed floating affair, so the strings can be pulled sharp and allows for all sorts of musical devilry.
The neck on the RGIR27E is fast, flat and wide for all kinds of shred play. The unfinished Maple feels extremely comfortable and rigid, combined with the Bubinga stripe running through the centre to enhance the rigidity and tone of the neck. The older Ibanez necks were a combination of Maple and featured a couple of Walnut stripes and were a multi-ply neck configuration, that were superbly sturdy, and featured some of the thinnest neck profiles imaginable. This particular neck feels ever so slightly thicker, but still feels amazing to play, both from a lead standpoint and a rhythm perspective. With a 400mm radius, the neck is fairly flat, and that allows for lower string heights, so the super low action is a breeze to play with. Some people find these necks hard to adjust to, because they have had to compromise with other necks, which are rounder, fatter and harder to contend with. Ibanez have given the best of both worlds and taken the neck into another dimension. A Rosewood fret board warms up the sharp attack of the Maple, whilst keeping the clarity of the notes. The absence of fret markers can be off putting at first, but take comfort in the fact that the side markers are visible even under stage lighting, so you shouldn’t get totally lost whilst wandering around slaughtering innocent victims with your brutal shredding.
The audio department is covered with the addition of one of the best, if not the best, active 7 string pickups on the market today, the EMG 707. The 707 has been the pickup that companies have tried to emulate for many years now, and some consider it to be the only 7 string pickup worth talking about. EMG asked their line up of 7 stringers what they were looking for in a pickup and almost all of them reported back saying “We want the 81 in a seven string format”. And thus it came to pass that the 707 was an 81 with a bit more, and gave rise to the demonic soapbar pickup that adorns the guitars of some of the best guitarists who utilise the un-natural 7 string guitar with great destructive power: players such as Jeff Loomis, Rusty Cooley, Dino Cazares, Christian Olde Wolbers and many more besides. Because of the ceramic magnets inside the 707, the notes are crystal clear, and have a remarkable bark and bite under crushing amounts of gain. The 9 volt battery that powers these pickups allows for true power, (there is even an 18 volt mod to soak the power and give even more output from the guitar).
When choosing a body wood, most people overlook Basswood as a cheap, undesirable wood. But as many more companies offer Basswood as a body wood choice nowadays, it is becoming a very popular choice among Pros and bedroom shredders alike. Lighter than mahogany, but just as full sounding, but with more emphasis on the lower end with a well defined mid range, Basswood is an excellent compliment to a maple neck. Add in the EMGs and an EDGE-ZERO II Bridge, and you are ready to decimate your audience with the first note.
Finally, we get to the all important bit of price. For most signed artists, endorsements will either pay for, or discount their instruments. For us mere mortals who can’t even get money off our shopping, this is a dream, one that is very rarely achieved. We scrimp and save just to afford a set of strings most times and purchasing a new guitar only happens when a store has a sale, or someone we know has had enough of their axe and wants their newest toy (or needs to buy toys for the new arrival in the form of a screaming, puking firstborn). Quite easily the best thing about the Iron Label series is the price range. The standard fixed bridge 7 string is offered, without it being a sale or having a big discount, for the miniscule price of £515.00 at Andertons music store in Guilford (online prices/store prices may vary). The EDGE-ZERO II version is priced at the tiny price of £599.00 at Andertons (again prices may vary) which is an amazing price for such quality craftsmanship and for a guitar that will rip audiences in two.
And so to recap, the IbanezIron Label RG, in either version, is a great addition to your arsenal, whether it’s your first 7 string or just another weapon to use. The Ibanez Iron Label series has you covered.
Skyforger, Wolfchant and more
The Duchess, York
22nd September 2012
Much to my regret, I didn’t make the first day of Warhorns Festival. However, on Saturday I was in York bright and early, determined to make up for lost time. Since the gig wound up starting around half an hour late anyway, I managed to get an excellent barrier vantage point for what turned out to be a unique opening performance, courtesy of two one-man bands that had joined forces and found some session musicians just for the occasion. England’s Aloeswood, the project of Ravenage‘s Danny “Dagstyrr” Downing, had teamed with North Carolina’s Desiderium (whose mastermind Michael Rumple had flown himself in at frightening expense to be here) for a one-off joint show that I felt privileged to witness, since apparently Aloeswood at least never intend to play live again.
Which is a great shame, because their half of the set was stunning. Aloeswood‘s sound is on the more reflective, moody side of the pagan metal style, defined by unhurried rhythms and flowing, lyrical guitars, filled with texture and interleaved melodies. While it’s always difficult to sing someone else’s material, Michael threw himself into the vocal parts with a will and his voice fitted well, leaving Danny free to give all his attention to his guitar – indeed, one highlight of the ensuing performance may well pass into metal myth. When during new track Winter Michael handed Danny a small metal spanner, we were all a bit confused. When Danny promptly applied the spanner to his strings, producing an absolutely amazing eBow-esque lead break that went on for several minutes, our jaws dropped in awe.
And then, after three tracks, Michael threw off his shirt, swapped places with Danny and announced “We’re now a completely different band!” Enter Desiderium, purveyors of an ambient-tinged, atmospheric black metal sound that followed surprisingly smoothly from Aloeswood‘s songs. Sadly it was obvious at once that this material had been less rehearsed (unsurprisingly, given the problem of the North Atlantic being in the way of any prior gatherings) but even so, the songs still came through and the passion that Michael threw into his performance was inspiring to see. I also had the pleasure of briefly meeting him and shaking his hand at the end of the set, and for my pains was gifted a copy of Desiderium‘s first album An Image of Solitude on limited edition cassette(!) Thank you Michael, if you read this, I was genuinely thrilled by that.
The challenge of following this demented double-bill went to Scotland’s Morlich, who are an alarmingly young-looking collective peddling a melodic folk/black metal sound that promises a great deal of potential just waiting to be fulfilled. While they’re a little short on stage presence that’s a skill that tends to come with experience, and their guitarist Corvus possesses a real gift for conveying emotion in his solos. Definitely ones to watch – and a source of more free music, as they were giving away demo CDs for their new album at the end. Thanks lads, can’t wait to hear the final version!
Third up were Shallow Intentions; whose set I got completely caught up in and really enjoyed, as they play an accessible brand of fast, rattling, danceable viking metal – complete with costumes and warpaint – that’s tailor-made for enthusiastic headbanging and horn-throwing. Their technical excellence wasn’t the best, unfortunately, but their charisma and energy carried them across a few minor missteps without too much trouble and they got a warm response from a cheerful crowd. A fine, entertaining performance with no pretensions.
Following this were Ireland’s Celtachor, who were the only band of the day who really didn’t work for me. Part of this was because their already aggressive sound was being mangled by the PA into a nigh-impenetrable wall of noise and I was having trouble actually hearing the songs, but given that, their frontman’s Celtic berserker routine proved more of a hindrance than a help. His glaring and exhortations were so vigorous that he really seemed at times like he hated every single one of us, and the intimidation factor that resulted wasn’t helping my attempts to focus on the music and pick out what was going on. Eventually, half deaf and not much the wiser, I admitted defeat and retreated to the back to catch my breath.
However, next after Celtachor were one of the main reasons I was here in the first place: Ravenage, the band of Warhorns organiser Glyn “The Heralder”. And truly, they did not disappoint me. With a newly energised lineup, having recently replaced their bassist and got keyboardist Windrider back after a lengthy hiatus while he toured with Alestorm, they opened up with all dials set to eleven and never slowed down for a second. Thankfully the PA issues that had afflicted Celtachor seemed to have disappeared, and they blasted unhindered through such anthems as Viking Dream, Northbound Part I, and the inevitable More Beer, and also finally gave us Northbound Part II which we’ve all been waiting for ever since Part I came out. The best thing about the set for me, though, was finally seeing them with Windrider, as he’s been absent at both previous Ravenage shows I’ve seen (no disrespect of course to the legendary Articus, who’s been filling in!); watching him play his heart out, eyes closed and hair flying, was beautiful to see, and it was immediately clear how much his presence adds to their performance. A truly triumphant return to form for one of the best rising bands in English metal.
Indeed, Ravenage effectively headlined the British Isles section of the night, since the top tier of the bill had been reserved for those bands who’d come a good deal further to play. First came Belgium’s Angeli di Pietra – defining themselves as “powerfolk” and with no fewer than seven members including both male and female dedicated vocalists, they won the crowd over in the space of about five seconds flat with their charm and energy. While their chosen genre tag is certainly apt, they never let the power metal side of their sound get over the top and the results were gloriously melodic while still heavy enough to keep the Warhorns crowd entertained. Despite the number of people they were squeezing onto the Duchess’s crowded stage they even managed to move around and make some use of the space, which also impressed me. And I’ve seldom seen a band so visibly overwhelmed by a crowd’s welcome for them – summed up when vocalist Guy was teaching us the words to the singalong for Onwards to Asgard, and after a single round of “Onwards-” “-TO ASGARD!” shook his head in amazement and declared “That was perfect, let’s go!” An equally unanimous and correct response greeted the demand “Whom among you is the one they call Spartacus?”, leading into a track called, of course, “I Am Spartacus”, and occasioning plenty of laughter and cheering in the process. Fun, heartwarming and a welcome breath of fresh air, I’d be delighted to see this band again if they return to our shores.
Equally excellent, though requiring a swift change of mental gears, were Germany’s Wolfchant. I wondered what was up when the entire front section of the stage was cleared of all but a single micstand, but when Wolfchant came crashing on, all became clear. Their thunderous, no-frills, pagan Metal-with-a-capital-M sound is huge and so are they, even the smallest and slightest of the band having a physique that wouldn’t disgrace a pro wrestler. Like Angeli Di Pietra they have two dedicated vocalists, in this case both male; I’d consider that excessive in most bands, but Lokhi and Nortwin are an amazing team, throwing the vocal lines to each other with split-second synchronisation and performing as a seamless double act to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Even a cover of Grave Digger’s Rebellion didn’t slow things down, overclocked until it sounded perfectly in place. Definitely the wildest it got all night, the air dripping with testosterone, fury and pagan pride, the front rows going berserk (including me) and the whole thing culminating in a near riot both onstage and off when what seemed like half the performing presence at Warhorns were invited onstage for a storming performance of Never Too Drunk. If you ever get the chance to see this band live, don’t miss it; the experience is a treat.
Physically demanding as Wolfchant‘s set was, I’d hardly got my breath back by the time Skyforger came on. Foolishly I’d abandoned my barrier spot between bands and discovered I couldn’t get it back, as every Latvian fan present (of whom there were an impressive number) had charged down to the front while I was gone. So I saw Skyforger from three rows back, which was fine. What might have been less fine was the fact that they’ve recently lost their folk instrumentalist, meaning that the Skyforger you get onstage nowadays is doing with guitars everything that used to be done with traditional instruments; but as it worked out, I was delighted to realise that with the folk gloss partially lifted from their powerful, epic sound, lurking underneath is a huge helping of classic eighties metal influences ranging from Slayer to Iron Maiden. They sounded flawless, and you would never have known they hadn’t been playing that way for their whole career. Their stage presentation is inspirational, too – richly dressed in medieval-style costume, frontman Pēteris resplendent in his black and scarlet, they dominated the stage with the confidence and presence of veterans, needing no theatrics to support them.
And apparently, there’s crowds, there’s partisan crowds, and then there’s Skyforger fans. The front rows were lapping it up with an obsessive devotion, and there was even a large Latvian flag making the rounds a row or two back. The acclaim that greeted tracks like the beautiful Migla Migla, Rasa Rasa was deafening, and to hear a crowd singing along in flawless Latvian in an English venue made me proud to call myself a fan of this amazing, borderless music that we call heavy metal. Skyforger and their fans truly exemplified the spirit of the Warhorns Festival, and I can’t praise them enough. A perfect end to a perfect night.
So in closing, I’d just like to extend all thanks and honour to Glyn and Marc who organised this amazing event, and I can’t wait for the next gig under the Warhorns banner.
The Black Dahlia Murder, Carcer City, Heart Of A Coward & More
Leeds University Union, Leeds
30th June, 1st July
Saturday
Since Ghostfest started back in 2005, it has become one of the biggest metal-hardcore festivals in the UK. The initial festival only consisted of one stage over 2 days and was held on Leeds Cockpit’s smaller stage. In the 7 years since then, Ghostfest now boasts a 2700 capacity venue with 3 stages at the Leeds University Union and has showcased upcoming bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, Architects and Your Demise as well as established acts like The Black Dahlia Murder and Suicide Silence.
This years festival kicked off on the Impericon Stage with Manchester’s kings of gore Ingested. Their lightning fast beats and guttural vocals were mediocre at best, but their fan favourite Skinned And Fucked gained much appraisal from the crowd and warmed up the pits for the rest of the days bands.
Over on the Monster Stage, Scottish five-piece Heavy Hands failed to keep the same level of energy in the crowd. I could only feel that their set would have been much better if the quality of the instruments was at a respectable level. However, the crowd was just treated to fuzzy riff after fuzzy riff. Whether this was a fault with their equipment or the technician, I don’t know. But I do know that Ghostfest could have had a better start than it did.
Following Ingested, Heart Of A Coward took to the main stage. Their melodic blend of groove metal received much earned applause from the thousands in the crowd. As well as tearing the place apart with ground shaking breakdowns and circle pit initiating riffs, they also made the sure the audience was having a good time. At one point, their vocalist asked for lines of head bangers which ascended into half of the crowd being linked together and head banging in sync with HOAC’s unique brand of metal. So far, they were the only band to truly show the weekend’s potential carnage.
My first time to the smallest stage in the venue, the Time Will Tell stage, was to see Welsh metalheads Continents who I must say were disappointing. Technical difficulties during their set didn’t help either, but I expected more from them. Many people amongst the crowd still moshed and danced, but I don’t think their energy was reflected in the band.
After seeing rising stars Silent Screams on a much smaller stage in my home town, I decided to watch them on the Main stage to see if they could emulate their performance on a much bigger stage to a far larger crowd. I was impressed to see how far this band have grown, but I still find what they offer rather droll. I found their set rather boring, but much of the crowd enjoyed breakdown after breakdown after breakdown. The crowds movement and energy drove the band to push their performance to match, but there is only so much you can do with such repetitive material.
Another band I had also seen in my home town was Scottish Hardcore quintet Grader, and they always put full effort into their set. This performance was no exception, but unfortunately the crowd never fully connected. I felt sorry for them as they gained unenthusiastic applause after each song, until their hard hitting anthem Keep Love blasted out and many of their fans (including me) stormed to the stage to sing along. However, I felt that their set could of gone much better if the crowd matched their on stage effort.
The next band I saw were post-hardcore band Heights. They had recently received a lot of controversy after their vocalist was kicked out and replaced, which caused quite a stir amongst fans who felt the band wouldn’t be the same. However, the crowd went wild for them at the Impericon stage. Songs such as Lost And Alone and Forget ripped the crowd apart with walls of death and circle pits. Their performance showed that they don’t care what people say about them and that they’re just there to give a good show. I couldn’t agree more with them!
Australian legends Comeback Kid were the next band I saw. Despite their huge fan base and roars from the crowd, I felt that their set was one long build up to nothing. Their breath taking hooks and drops just didn’t have the same appeal as they did on CD. However, a surprise appearance from Your Demise vocalist Ed McRae did add a little extra element to their set, but I don’t think they ever fully impacted as well as they were expected to.
Over on the Time Will Tell stage, Liverpool heroes Carcer City were one of the best bands of the day. They kept the crowd moving throughout their entire set with their enchanting riffs and stomping breakdowns. Despite some of their set being a bit repetitive and predictable, this clearly didn’t matter to either sides of the barrier. Both the crowd and the band worked in harmony to deliver a mind blowing set.
The headliners on the Monster Stage were welsh hardcore crew Brutality Will Prevail, and I must confess myself as a huge fan. I also noticed on my travels around the venue that many people were wearing their merch or ‘Purgatory’ (their record label) merch. It further became clear that Purgatory is more of a family than a label. BWP played a rather sloppy set. Their rhythm guitarist had to keep checking what the other guitarist was playing, which is very unprofessional in my eyes. It wasn’t brought to our attention whether he was a stand in or not, so I just presumed that he hadn’t rehearsed as often as he should. However, the crowd for BWP was phenomenal. The ‘Purgatory family’ was in full effect and made sure the venue was erupting from start to finish. Whether the band deserved such a response is a different matter, but their fan base were extremely loyal and made sure they had a warm response.
Michigan giants The Black Dahlia Murder headlined the main stage, but failed to reach the same level of response. Their performance was flawless and this was reflected in the emotion of some of their dedicated fans, but many of the members of the crowd were self professed ‘hardcore kids’ and weren’t massive TBDM fans. However, the band made sure they delivered an astounding set list of huge songs and gave their full effort into their performance. This was greatly appreciated by people who were actually there to see the band.
Despite starting with a few poor bands who could have played much better, Ghostfest went to a great start with bands such as Heart Of A Coward and Carcer City showing the huge potential that could be offered on the second day.
Sunday
After a good nights sleep in a cheap hotel and a belly full of chicken, I was more than ready for part 2 of Ghostfest. However, just like part 1, it went of to a slightly disappointing start. The last time I saw Polar, they destroyed a local venue in my hometown. Once again, they smashed their way through a bone crushing set of huge beats and rock riffs. But it appeared that much of the crowd drank a little too much or didn’t get enough sleep the night before as there was barely any movement for their groovy set and what appeared to be a sympathetic applause between songs. This was no fault of the bands though and they looked like they were enjoying their set.
One of the reasons I had wanted to go to Ghostfest was to see Demoraliser. There was much anticipation amongst the crowd on the Impericon stage as the band appeared to have technical difficulties while setting up and had to delay their set. However when they finally did start their set, the technical difficulties continued. They were so bad that guest vocalist Scott Kennedy’s (Bleed From Within) appearance was ruined due to his microphone not being turned up on the sound desk. This was clearly no fault of the bands and they still went on to infect the crowd with their spine tingling riffs and heart pounding breakdowns. They received one of the best crowd responses of the weekend, at the expense of a few fans. For example, one over enthusiastic fan ran past me after having a piercing ripped out of his nose in the pit, and I heard that someone at the front of the crowd lost a few teeth.
Next on the main stage were TRC and they were easily one of the most entertaining bands of the weekend. As well as blasting out classics such as ‘Define Cocky’ and ‘H.A.T.E.R.S.’, they also treated the audience to small bouts of humour between songs and also expressed their feelings on the current state of the music scene. TRC’s set was inspiring to say the least, and the crowd went wild for them. They couldn’t have asked for a better response.
Over on the Monster Stage, Breaking Point, another member of the Purgatory Family, followed in Brutality Will Prevail’s foot steps. The only difference was that Breaking Point’s set was less sloppy. Their hardcore grooves had the crowd going mad and for those who weren’t in the pit, the band played with immense energy and put on a good stage show.
When I saw the Ghostfest line up, I was very confused to see Dubstep-metal band Astroid Boys as they differ far from any other band on the festival. However, they turned out to be one of the best. Their amazing blend of dancey dubstep and breakdowns were a breath of fresh air from the constant metal and hardcore that Ghostfest had to offer. And the pits were far from normal too. Seeing fans hardcore dancing to dubstep is one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed. Overall, seeing Astroid Boys is an experience I will never forget.
All Shall Perish were a band that I wasn’t too excited to catch, but I’m glad I did. Their set was absolutely flawless. The solos sent shivers down my spine due to the sheer perfection of them. However, the constant riffs seemed repetitive and became boring after a while but the die hard fans of the band had the time of their lives.
After seeing them twice before ripping up 2 separate venues, I was curious as to how the lads in Odessa from Birmingham would react to playing their first set at Ghostfest. Despite playing on the smallest stage, they were quite easily main stage material and I would happily place a bet on that they will be on the main stage within the next few years. Their set did become quite tiresome after a few songs, but that didn’t bother anyone as what they played was top quality. Their riffs complimented the vocals so well and the breakdowns made the room move like an ocean. They are definitely one of the bands that Ghostfest will be proud to say it showcased in years to come.
Another band that I had seen (and enjoyed) before was Bury Tomorrow and they were even better and heavier than ever before. Their breakdowns and bass drops were surreal and Daniel Bates’ vocals sounded refined and perfected. As well as cheering on the crowd, the moved around the stage and put on a great show. Bates also spoke to the crowd about how they shouldn’t care what other people think about them, which was very inspirational and added an extra dimension to their set.
Martyr Defiled were also a main reason as to why I looked forward to Ghostfest. On CD, they are one of the most brutal upcoming bands out there. Their live experience doesn’t differ either. Before the band had even begun playing, a pit had opened up without them asking and it didn’t cease until the end of the set. Crushing anthems such as ‘The Act Of Sedition’ are proof of why this band are going places and how their live process shows no signs of calming down.
One of the most anticipated bands of the weekend were Your Demise, and they didn’t disappoint. After their recent album tore fans apart because of the pop-punk vibe, there was speculation amongst fans as to whether they would actually be any good live. Apart from Ed McRae’s ‘on and off’ vocals, the band played a belter of a set. By mixing in both classic songs such as ‘Burnt Tongues’ with new songs like ‘These Lights’, their performance was surprisingly refreshing. However, it was evident that McRae’s singing voice is his best attribute.
Emmure are a band that a much like marmite; you either fall in love with their style, or you hate the band entirely. This was clear amongst Ghostfest’s inhabitants. I tried to keep an unbiased view on the band and I must admit they did perform well. Despite a bit of sloppiness here and there, they were by far one of the heaviest bands of the weekend. Like a lot of bands this weekend though, they were very repetitive. Drop tuned breakdown after drop tuned breakdown became tedious, but their fans seemed to love it and they had some of the biggest pits of the weekend.
The headliner on the Monster stage was Defeater, and there could not have been a better way to end the festival. A huge and loyal crowd formed to watch the band, and their singing for Defeater’s set was deafening. Their emotional brand of hardcore was inspirational to say the least. Defining songs such as ‘Dear Father’ and ‘Cemetery Walls’ had me, and the rest of the crowd I’m sure, in awe. Half way through their set, they stopped for a play through of tearful acoustic song ‘I Don’t Mind’. Vocalist Derek Archambault’s voice was inaudible for much of the song due to the crowd singing along. This was something that he generously thanked, as it is an artists dream to see hundreds of fans singing the songs you wrote back at you. If that wasn’t a good enough reaction for the band, after their set the room echoed with the sound of “one more song”. And even after an unexpected encore, they were still asked to play another. Unfortunately, they didn’t return to the stage for a third time.
After experiencing Ghostfest 2012, I began to understand the effect of it and what it stands for. As pointed out by Bury Tomorrow’s vocalist Daniel, it is festivals like this that inspire fans to support local music and even start bands of their own. Ghostfest also made me realise that over the last 7 years, the metal-hardcore scene has only become bigger and bigger, and currently shows no sign of simmering down. Bring on Ghostfest 2013!
After watching Demoraliser destroy people during their set on the main stage, Sam Axup and Alex McGougan decided to interview them and find out how they felt their set went and to see what they have planned for the future!
How do you think your set went?
Sam Jarvis (guitar): The crowd enjoyed it but some of us felt that we were a bit off and it wasn’t the best we could do.
MatOmbler (drums): We had a few technical difficulties from the start because we didn’t use our own gear. It’s not the best excuse but things like Jarv’s (Sam Jarvis) guitar cut out and it took us ages to get Nath’s (Nathan Smith) guitar working at the start and then something else went tits up. The first half was riddled with technical difficulties but I think the second half was decent. The crowd reaction was fucking ace.
Are you looking forward to seeing any other bands tonight?
Sam: I’m looking forward to seeing Defeater, I haven’t seen them yet. I’ve listened to them for ages and I’m glad I’ve got the chance to see them here. Emmure, purely because they’re heavy as fuck.
Mat: All Shall Perish, and maybe a bit of Emmure.
What can you tell us about the new album?
Sam: It’s heavy. Full of riffs. It’s different to our old stuff that was more two step parts but now we’re more melodic.
Mat: Compared to Conveyance and Reform Repent Revenge, it’s got a hell of a lot more melody and harmonizing compared to just two step bits and beatdowns. It’s probably the best thing we’ve written so far. We can’t wait for everyone else to hear it.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Sam: We’re touring with Deez Nuts in August, that should be good. We’re hopefully going to tour Europe as well in August as well after the Deez Nuts tour. And then we might have something panned in September involving UK and Europe.
Mat: We’ve got a couple of one-offs just scattered around as well.
What made you want to start a band?
Sam: We were all in bands ages a go and it was all the same band apart from Mat. Then Nathan went off to Uni and started writing loads of stuff and we thought ‘lets do this as a summer band’. Then we did a few gigs over the summer and it picked up really well from there so we wanted to carry on doing it. Then Ombler joined half way through the year after our old drummer left. He puts on gigs so we played gigs for him, barely getting money for the bridge toll.
Mat: I found out about these guys and put them on a show and we got talking through that and when their drummer left, they rang me up and asked me if wanted to fill in for the Post Mortem Promises tour. Then after that I stayed on for full.
What advice would you give to other upcoming bands?
Sam: Just give your stuff away for free. If you record a small EP, make loads of copies and hand them out for free at gigs or put them up for free download.
Mat: Have as much stuff up as you can for free. There’s no point starting a band page with nothing on it. The first and most important thing you need to prioritise is getting tracks up there for free.
Sam: Yeah, the worst thing to do is make a band page and be like ‘hey guys, check us out, we’re in this band. We haven’t got any tracks up’. Don’t do that. Get tracks up and dish them out.
Mat: At the end of the day, if someone checks out your band page and you’ve got no tracks on it, they’re not going to check it out again. What you want them to do is check out your page, they hear a track: ‘cool, this is fucking ace’. Then they’ll check it out again. Just give everything out for free, people don’t pay for things. They either can’t afford to or they don’t want to so give everything out for free and give away free CDs and downloads and try and get your name out as much as possible.
Did you party last night?
Sam: Erm, yeah, a bit, a bit too much. I had to go to bed quite early because I was pretty fucked.
Mat: There were a lot of miscellaneous pharmaceuticals going around so we were in a pretty reasonable state by about one in the morning. Then it got to the point where we thought ‘right, kinda needed to chill out a bit’. Dex (James Dexter, vocals) stayed up till six and woke up at about eleven so it was a pretty fucking rough night last night, it was a laugh.
Are there any other upcoming bands you want people to look out for?
Sam: The Departed, they’re from Grimsby too and they’re really good.
Mat: Malevolence, they’re heavy as fuck. Never Cry Wolf likewise. Desolated, The Colour Line, all our mates really. People really do need to check our more bands from the UK just come down to more shows. If you see that there’s a show on in your town, go to it instead of just sitting at home on Facebook. At the end of the day, the more people that come, it’s better for everyone. People have more fun if there’s a load of other people there and the bands have more fun and it gives. It also gives confidence in local promoters if theres a big turnout. I’ve seen people bitch on Facebook saying ‘oh, no big bands come to my city’ blah blah blah. If they want big bands to come to their cities, they need to support the smaller bands because that in return gives confidence to local promoters who become willing to put their balls on the line for bigger bands. I could rant on for ages but I won’t!
Lazarus Syndrome
Flatline
Released March 2011
Melodic Metal
Self-Released
Lazarus Syndrome are a five piece melo-metal outfit from Liverpool, whose influences include Queen, Slipknot and Metallica. The band recently played Download Festival.
Forsaken initially starts off sounding very much like it could evolve into a death metal track with heavy, down tuned guitars and bass, growly vocals and good solid drumming with some handy double bass footwork from Matt Gregson. Instead, after the first verse and into the chorus, we are greeted with very melodic guitars and some great ‘clean’ vocals by Peter Ford. My initial listen to this did take me by surprise but, in a good way, really quite original I thought. Then after the chorus it’s back to the deathly style vocals for another verse, closely followed by a slightly extended chorus and afterwards, moves into a cool lead guitar section that’s executed very well. After this, it then moves into a rather delightful section which has some great guitar licks, shortly followed by the chorus. Overall, I thought of this track to be a very memorable one and really quite catchy.
The next track, Devoured By Conflict, is introduced by some clever guitar work and cymbal stabs – kinda reminding me of early At The Gates – then, with the vocals, progresses into an anthem of total and utter rage, with Peter screaming ‘need to get this poison outa my head’; this guy sounds angry. We are then introduced by some clever guitar work by Jamie and Mike along with some great vocal work by Peter, switching from ‘clean’ vocals to growls. At this point the track reverts back to the intro at the beginning, tearing down and destroying anything that may happen to unfortunately cross its path. With another heartfelt repetition of the chorus we may get the impression that these guys are upset about something, very upset, and they are not scared to shout about it… And so ends track number two.
A Path Less Travelled without a doubt is certainly the most melodic track on this EP, guitar wise and vocal wise too. Peter Ford is a great vocalist and this track contains some excellent vocal melodies and harmonies. Also some very good tom work by Matt Gregson in unison with Tom Parkers bass work, really quite impressive. After a repetition of verse and chorus we are then pinned up against a wall with more of Peter’s ferocious, deathly style vocals; the only time to make an appearance in this track but, don’t despair, this is a great song and in my opinion, stands well above the previous two tracks.
Last but not least, Blameless Creator a song that is much faster than any other on the EP, and after a short guitar intro, the ensemble come blazing in with guitars on fire, snare on double-time and vocals that Cannibal Corpse would certainly be proud of. The guitar riffs on this partially remind me somewhat of early Kreator, and I like that very much. There’s great vocal and guitar harmonies again during the chorus along with some great drum work by Matt. After another verse, chorus and bridge, we have the privilege of an alternative chorus which signifies the end of track 4. This track is another favourite of mine.
Overall, I find this a great EP. I can see a promising future for these guys.
Goatwhore, 3 Inches of Blood, Angelus Arpartriad & Havok
Moho, Manchester, United Kingdom
9th May 2012
Moho Live in Manchester is a venue which gets mixed results and after finding out that this gig would be here I was apprehensive. They can be very hit and miss with sound and the room itself is awkwardly shaped meaning short people such as myself can often miss out. However, tonight the crowd is a small and friendly affair in which I can navigate myself to a good vantage point easily.
The evening starts with the energetic Havok, looking like they’ve just rolled out of the Bay area of San Francisco circa 1985. And despite the giant gothic entrance music (which is rather jarring after listening to what comes next), they are pure and utter thrash. There are plenty of elements that sound like other trash bands, for example, you can’t help but think of Tom Araya when vocalist David Sanchez screams and there is a good measure of Testement thrown in there. But these are certainly not bad things. Havok are strong and entertaining, just watching the passion from the small audience is proof of that.
What stands out strongly with Spain’s Angelus Arpartriad is the fantastic drumming. Victor Valera’s choice of rhythm and style elevates their standard clean thrash to another level. Once again, the enthusiastic crowd are enjoying every minute of this set and the first circle pits of the evening begin. Angelus Apartriad and highly enjoyable and compliment Havok’s dirtier thrash with their own melodic and well written style.
Now Goatwhore is the band I was looking forward to. “Blood for the Master”, their most recent album was simply excellent and bridged the black and death elements of their music even further. Vocalist Ben Falgoust prowls the stage as if looking for someone to tear to shreds. And the music itself does just that. It is blistering and brutal and everything you could possible want in Blackened Death metal. The set doesn’t let up either, with very few gaps between songs, the sounds crash through even more powerfully. The new songs work well with older tracks and all of the executed tightly and efficiently by a band getting stronger and stronger.
Canada’s 3 Inches of Blood are a fun band, their cocktail of power and thrash is somewhat akin to Manowar and are enjoyable to watch. 3 Inches of Blood are very different from the previous three bands but they pull out a strong set even if the songs occasionally blend into one another. The audience that is left are as energetic as they were for previous bands, if not more so. The warrior imagery and calling to arms of the metal brotherhood are a lot of fun and are played very well this evening. Having admittedly not known much of 3 Inches of Blood tonight I find that I am impressed and am looking forward to seeking out more material from these guys.
The sound tonight has been much better than expected and the bands even more so. The metal community is known for its tight-knit camaraderie and this was definitely seen tonight. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and the bands were all extremely strong and enjoyable. If only all gigs were as enjoyable.
Before their gig at Moho in Manchester, we met up with Ben Falgoust, frontman of Goatwhore for a bit of chat about all things metal.
Jade: How is the tour going so far, are you enjoying it?
Ben: Yeah, the tours going really good so far, a lot of good feedback with all the bands in general. They all offer something different to the tour, a different kind of impact
Jade: It’s good to have diversity
Ben: It’s not too diverse, just within extreme music. Each band offers a different element of that. From 3 Inches of Blood to us to Angelus Apartriad and Havok, everyone has an extreme element from their different kind of genre within the extreme metal scene.
Jade: How are you enjoying Britain? Are the fans treating you well?
Ben: Yeah, so far so good. Two shows in and we still have about five to go and then we head back to mainland Europe and finish off over there. So yeah, everything is going pretty damn good so far.
Jade: How do you find the European crowds? Do they have a different atmosphere to the US? Do you notice any big changes?
Ben: Well yeah, I think that out here the people are more, nothing against America, but they are more dedicated. If they’re into it they have been into it a while, follow close-knit to it and keep it pretty much as close to them as possible.
Whereas in America there are a lot of trends and fads and things go and people come in and out of things. But out here and in Europe if you’re into metal you’ve always been into it and have it set for the rest of your life .Where in other places it’s more of a fad and people are in and out of it
Jade: Where do you like playing the most? Have you found somewhere you like playing more than others?
Ben: As far as that goes every place offers something different, as far as the interaction with the crowd and how we’re perceived as a band and everything, I don’t necessarily have a favourite, I have certain places that I had a really good time playing but that depends on how the crowd comes out and reacts, you can’t really set aside a city as being the greatest city to play or anything because we can easily go back to that same city and it not be as impacting as the last time.
Jade: Different groups of fans
Ben: Yeah, exactly, also it depends on the tour you do. Personally I’m out here to enjoy what I do be there two people of two hundred I’m still going to perform to the same amount as I would, no matter what. You can’t upset even the small amount of people that show up rather than making sure that you always have a huge number of people out each time.
Jade: Growing up, which bands inspired you to start a band?
Ben: There were a lot of different things, it varies in different styles from like Judas Priest to a band like Cro-Mags to Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, I was into a lot of things when I was growing up.
All these little things within these bands have a role in what you want to do, what you want to evolve to do as far as bands go. And just certain aspects about them you want to pull off, like what they’ve done in a live setting or what they’ve done on certain records or what they’ve done as individual artists. It plays such a big role on how it influences you and everything.
Internally we have a lot of members that are into a lot of different things and we don’t like to pigeon-hole ourselves into one bracket, we like to be open because we are so open as far as metal goes. So when people ask us to explain what we are, we are like, we’re a metal band.
Of course people have their genres that people like to put things into and have labels to recognise things and sometime it pigeon-holes you into a spot and you have to work your magic to get out of that spot on a tour that’s a little bit different and get in front of that person that wouldn’t take the chance or the risk with you, you know, and try and work them over. You see these elements of these other bands in the past and those things help influence your music, the way you look at things and the way you do things.
Jade: Besides music, what do you like to do in your free time?
Ben: I don’t really have to much free time, I have a job at home when I’m not touring. I work in a frame shop, we do pictures, mirrors, work for hotels and stuff like that. When I go back home I go back into a regular job and do that and in the evenings we jam, work on new material. And I guess if there is any off time I probably catch up on sleep!
Jade: What is your song writing process when you come to write a new album?
Ben: It’s kind of mixed up sometimes, our drummer is from Phoenix, our bassist is from Pensecola, Florida, our drummer (Zak) will come in and he’ll get together with Sammy and they go over ideas and every now and then James will come over from Pensecola and he sits with those three. I’ll sit in every now and then to give an outsiders input and we’ll work things out like that, going back and fourth. Once things are solid in structure I’ll start putting vocals and vocal ideas on top of that.
But we’ll go to points where we’ve written a full song and you’re just like, this doesn’t quite feel like what we want so we’ll either toss the whole thing out or tear it apart and take elements from it that we really like and then we just move from there. I think a lot of bands do the same thing, I think it’s just the end result is different on how they approach it. We’ve never really started building a song around the lyrics; that would be something unique to do.
Sammy has a bunch of tapes with riffs on and we’d sit through and pick different ones out and start to structure them and everything. And now since we’re in the 21st century he’s been dropping them on to a computer so it’s been a little bit easier. Sometimes we can put together a song one day and it’s just that right thing, sometimes it takes two, three weeks to put a whole song together. Other times you’re just at that wall where you can’t go any further and you either need to step back and start something new or start at a different point.
Sometimes we’ve taken songs where we haven’t started at the beginning but started at the middle and then expanded the end, creating it from that point. Or we’ve found a riff that’s like a good ending riff so now let’s go backwards in a structure. You just fall into different ways.
Jade: How do you choose your set list when you come out on tour? Do you go through the back catalogue and go, ‘I’d like to play this one’?
Ben: Yeah, we kind of throw our ideas around and rehearse through it to see if it feels right. Some songs don’t come across live like other ones do and when you play it you can feel it, you can feel the impact and the energy behind it. So we kind of go in and pick things, we bracket packs of songs, no space in between.
We have three songs packed in a group or two songs and just do that and have minimal breaks to have more of an attacking live show rather than ‘here’s a song and here’s a break and here’s a song etc’. So we go through that process and all come together to agree which songs fit where and the whole set list.
We change the set list pretty often as we tour a lot, we don’t want to go out there and offer the exact same live setting as before. When you tour so much and people see you four times in one year, so it’s like okay, the saw the same set four times instead of having four different sets.
Jade: Do you tailor your sets to specific towns, cities or countries?
Ben: Not really, we maybe will do, like depending on the tour we’re on and the ands we’re with. Our music has variance in what we do so we can vary it to the tour we’re on. If we’re on an extremer tour then we will pull out more of the extremer songs and if we’re on more of a tour like the one we did with Devildriver we will try to get more adaptable songs for that kind of audience. Even though they are a metal band too they have different audience. We can’t change ourselves too much, we just adapt to whatever kind of songs we have so we will try to switch up of songs in accordance to that.
Jade: If you had a song that went well in a certain city, would you be more inclined to play it there again?
Ben: Yeah, pretty much. You know sometimes people leave notes on facebook or in our email requesting songs and we try to work that out, depending on what it is. If we’re half way on a tour and we can’t rehearse something we can’t. But we always take that stuff into consideration. There have been points where we’ve played a show and we did know a song but didn’t play it where people were asking and we had a little time left so we played it.
This year I was able to follow Delain around the country on their We Are The Other Tour (I swear, I’m not a stalker!), celebrating the individuality of people known as the ‘others’. The album concept was inspired by the tragic case of Sophie Lancaster, where she was brutally murder because of stereotyping. This tour saw Delain’s fourth tour around the United Kingdom, joining Delain on the road were American metallers Halcyon Way, a band that seemed almost wasted on this tour and would probably of benefitted more from touring with the likes of Dragonforce or Arch Enemy. Also, on the tour were Amada Somerville’s own solo band Trillium. The UK tour in the started at the HMV Institute in Birmingham, situated just 5 minutes from the Bull Ring Shopping Centre. The city saw Delain’s first ever UK show at the Femme Metal Festival in 2009 and like Charlotte said ,and I agree, it was like coming home.
Starting up the shows were Halcyon Way, their name being said differently to how it’s spelt, a band like I said before I felt were a bit wasted on the tour and should of really toured with the likes of Dragonforce and would appeal to fans perhaps more to fans of Bullet For My Valentine or Malefice or other acts along those lines. Their music saw a heavier and more violent approach to music, hinting towards the metalcore and post-hardcore styles. Their performances were heavier than that of Trillium and Delain. With their performance totalled in a full six songs on their set list, although I could not seem to find where the songs ended and started during the first two shows and they seemed to be doing a never ending amount of songs. The Birmingham show saw that the band came straight from Paris to Birmingham to perform. Halcyon did have a strong reaction from the crowd but the performance felt to be lacking something. The last song, On Black Wings (taken from their album Inctrination), which for me, was the best. This was the same for the Sheffield show as well. The third night I saw them, in Manchester, was in a small and more intimate venue which saw them bloom and do a far more powerful performance than the previous nights with more input from the crowd. I think they are a band to watch for future reference but I feel that they weren’t anything too special, but as I said they’re a band to look out for. I would be surprised if we see these in the UK anytime soon. However, it is safe to say that the Delain Nation (a name for Delain fans), got a massive shock when it came down to it.
Like most people in the Delain crowd they had probably heard the most notable song for Trillium which is their promotional single Coward. The first time hearing this, it felt as if it was something that just didn’t click with me but it had grown on me over time. This tour saw lead singer Amanda quite sick with a doctor having to come and see Amanda just before the Sheffield show, which did mean a slight decrease from her performance over the next two shows: Sheffield and Manchester but at least she was able to carry on. Like Halcyon Way, it saw the same set list through out the tour, however with just one album to play tracks from, and the unlikely hood of hearing an Epica song, there wasn’t a vast selection of songs for them to perform. The HMV Institute was Amanda’s first show in the UK, even after touring all over the world with other acts like with Epica and Kamelot. I was surprised by how much I actually liked Trillium live during the first night we were able to see the curvy Amanda jump up and down on the stage and become in her element with the music, something that unfortunately was not seen at the Manchester show. I, however, would recommended checking out Trillium.
During this tour I have been able to encounter Delain’s performance at all different angles from being right at the front to far at the back and of course, slap bang in the middle. Delain have been one of my favourite bands to go and see live since I experienced of their live shows at Rio’s in Leeds back in 2010. Unlike other bands, after seeing them, they start to lose their touch, such as when I saw Lacuna Coil in Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester after seeing them in Liverpool, however this certainly was not the case with Delain. I was surprised as to how much I actually enjoyed all of the concerts on this tour, despite having the same set list throughout the tour. Being at the back for the first show I was able to see everything that they show had to offer as well as the very vibrant audience. The show saw new songs from Delain’s third album We Are The Others, scheduled for release June 4th here in the UK. Delain kicked off the set with a song from the new album, which I failed to remember the name of.
From here the band performed a mixture of songs which surprised me when I heard a lot of tracks from their first album Lucidity and as many new songs from We Are the Others. One of the first songs that were played during any of the shows was the title of the new album and the tour, We Are the Others, a song that celebrates indifference and uniqueness. A lot of songs made it is obvious that Delain have taken a sort of turn from what would be considered their typical sound, as the new songs tended to have more meaning surrounding life.
The Sheffield show celebrated Charlotte’s 25th Birthday. Unlike I had originally expected no one came out with a lit up cake on the stage for the audience to sing like with other bands, but I suppose they have their traditions and other bands have theirs. The same structure was given to the show and had the same songs involved as the first night with the same jokes but good.
As a rule, I don’t usually like shows in Manchester but unlike the others, the Manchester show seemed to have shined through with the crowd. Unlike previous nights, it seemed that See Me in Shadows was performed better, as in Birmingham is seemed that given the emotion of the song it was not that well delivered. The Manchester show also saw better lighting than the previous nights and had more energy throughout this show.
The Gathering was the best song of the night and the last, it saw the audience jumping up and down, more so than at the Sheffield show, although the best song of the Sheffield show was The Gathering, along with April Rain. The Manchester show, also saw people involved with the Sophie Lancaster charity premier the new songs from the album that were inspired by the tragedy of her death.
In total the best show out of the three was the Manchester show, despite the band slightly putting their foot in it with the remarks about Manchester City winning the title and losing to Manchester United, with the Birmingham show not even close, it really was the best show that I have seen in a while. Anyone who missed out, should definitely keep an eye out for the next time Delain tour in the UK.
Band: Cannibal Corpse
Album: Torture
Release Date: 13th March
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
With Cannibal Corpse you always know what you are going to get, though that’s not to say that this is a bad thing. Cannibal Corpse are brutal and technically very skilled, and this new album is definitely both of those things, though they are tighter now than ever before.
“Torture” sees a welcome return to their notorious gory front covers (though not exactly to the extremes of previous albums), this one featuring an interesting flap to pass the censors.
Recorded once again at Sonic Ranch studios in Texas, this is the twelfth Cannibal Corpse album and the third album with the line up of Webster, Mazurkiewicz, Barrett, Corpsegrinder and O’Brien. They are still sounding strong with this collection of twelve brutal tracks.
The riffs are fantastic, especially on opener ‘Demented Aggression’ and ‘As Deep as the Knife Will Go” which are classic Cannibal Corpse songs. They are aggressive and certain to get you head banging.
The guitars sound thunderous and angry, just as they should be. And Bassist Alex Webster proves his chops as a one of the best death metal bass player with blistering speed, particularly clear on ‘The Strangulation Chair’ and ‘Rabid’.
‘Scourge of Iron’ adds a different flavour to the album. It starts quickly but slows down to a doom-y, groove laden riff that is both hypnotic and addictive to listen to.
‘Followed Home Then Killed’ is very tight, proving that all five men work exceptionally well together.
Closing track ‘Torn Through’ mirrors the opening track with a great first riff and continues just as strongly as the rest of the album.
There is nothing ground breaking or new here, but that doesn’t really matter. Cannibal Corpse are brutal, technically very skilled and are still sounding very together, this album is definitely proof of this. Overall it is groovier that previous outings but I think this definitely adds to the albums appeal making it slightly catchier and a great listen.
Violent and precise, Cannibal Corpse refuse to slow down and this album is certainly evidence of that.
Band – Primal Rock Rebellion Album – Awoken Broken Genre – Metal/Experimental Release Date – 2012 Label – Spinefarm Records
Super group’s, an odd subject in the metal world, when they work, they’re great (I, Black county communion, Chickenfoot) when they fail, they crash hard (Rock star supernova). PRR consists of 2 men from totally different ends of the metal world scale.
On one side we have vocalist Mikee Goodman from experimental ‘Djent’ band SikTh along with SikTh drummer Dan ‘Loord’ Foord, and on the other we have the guitarist from one of if not THE most popular metal band of all time Iron Maiden, Adrian Smith. This combination alone is enough to make anyone scratch their heads in wonder, it’s like putting Rob Halford with Trent Reznor….oh hang on?!.
The album starts off with No Friendly Neighbour and it’s clear from the first riff Smith plays that this isn’t going to sound like Maiden in any
shape or form, an almost Nu-metal styled riff is played with Goodman doing some spoken word over the top. When the song kicks in its clear that the vocals of Goodman are what makes this band stand out, if you were a fan of his vocals in SikTh then you won’t be disappointed, if you’re looking for Bruce Dickinson, you’ll be looking for an eternity. The song is a great start to the album, while sounding new and fresh it adds some certain Smith influence on the old school side of things towards the end.
Next up is definitely where die hard fans of both bands are either going to smile or cry down to Goodman’s vocals on this maybe a little hard to stomach for some in places but i think they fit the song nicely if a little unconventional. Smith also lends his hand to some Dickinson style woooahh’s in the background and a nice Maiden-esque solo. Next up in the first single from the album ‘I See Lights‘ maybe not the most obvious choice to represent the album due to its repetitiveness of the riff, but the song does show off some nice vocal work from both men here, as we all know Smith did sing a Maiden B-Side and he is more than capable of belting out a good tune. If you listen to this song in depth you will really get a feel of how many vocal styles Goodman really has, and it is rather impressive, especially the lower toned snarls he does, really giving the songs a darker atmosphere.
Bright as a Fire is for me the track of the album, starting off in a
slow Maiden-esque way, the song at first seems like the ballad of the
album but just little over 90 seconds in the song kicks into a mid paced
beast. Probably one of the more commercial of the songs in regards to
structure and vocal deliverance, the songs really quality is the variation of riffs which Smith delivers, the chugging after the chorus really adds a nice heavy touch after the chorus. It must be said that the production of the album is of top quality too, which unfortunately can’t be said for the past few Maiden albums, but they really nailed it on this!
Savage World is definitely one for the SikTh fans, the vocals on this
are pretty crazy, but not enough for older metal fans to turn their nose
up at, which I think is another aspect of the writing they have done well, the balance between the two writing styles is pretty much spot on.
Tortured Tone is the ballad of the album and definitely one of the
better songs on the album, again without the mixed vocal styles, the song would be just your average ballad. Some nice guitar synth touches in the background too as well as Smith does some backing vocals too. The two guys compliment each other well on songs like this. The quality of songs continues throughout the rest of the album. White Sheet Robes is another mini epic song, which lodges itself in your brain once you’ve listened to it. As Tears Come Falling From the Sky is not a song, its 48 seconds of pure madness and an incite to the crazy thoughts of Goodman.
The title track Awoken Broken reminded me a little of System of a Down in the chorus parts, a little crazy, a lot of layers to the song, but
again the thing that makes the song is the basic riffs of Smith with the
craziness of the vocals, I really can’t praise the song writing formula
enough.
Search For Bliss is one of the lighter songs on the album and one where Goodman shows he really can sing in a more, shall we say ‘normal’ style, with that said the song still has its harsh moments halfway through. I can see it being the second single off of the album, not because it’s maybe one of the better of the songs, it just seems more TV and radio friendly compared to the other songs on the album, which is by no means a bad thing. Snake Ladders is a mini story in song form. The music itself reminds me of the Metallica song ‘The Outlaw Torn’ a slower, with heavier riffs which obviously were not used to hearing from Smith in Maiden. Vocally, again it could compare from anything from Metallica to Nick Cave, especially on the spoken word parts, but again delivered in such a great way.
The album ends in a lighter way with ‘Mirror on the Moon‘ a great way to end the album, a more softer side to the band which reminds me of
something off any V.A.S.T album, which is always a good thing. there’s
also a hint of David Bowie to the sing which is definitely unexpected!
All in all I think its pretty safe to say that this album kicks ass – A
lot of it at that! I really hope these 2 make more music in the future and it’s not just a one off project, if this is just the beginning then I for
one can’t wait for what could become of this band. I’m also going out on a limb here and saying this could very well be ‘Album of the Year’ Forget about comparing this to Maiden or SikTh, listen to the album for what it is, a more that excellent modern hard rock and metal album!
Release Date: 21st March (Japan), TBC (Europe, NA)
Label: Spiritual Beast (Japan), Universal Music (rest of world)
Guest review by Zinar7 (Sinister Resistance)
It’s been an interesting rise to fame by Scottish power-metallers, Ascension. Still but youngsters in the spectrum of rock’n’roll, their first release was the Moongate EP deployed in 2009, before that was followed up by second EP Alchemy the following year. Honed, then, by continual touring and recording (most notably a UK tour with Axenstar at the end of 2011), the band retreated to Sonic Train Studios in Sweden with Grammy-nominated producer and King Diamond player, Andy La Rocque (Falconer, Dragonland, Evergrey) to record their debut full-length album, Far Beyond the Stars. Was it worth the wait? Oh, you bet.
Ascension represent a rare species: A band that have the ability to produce genre-leading music straight out of the box. Dodgy first few albums? Forget it; Far Beyond the Stars shows that perfectly-formed metal can shine through on a debut record to compete with some of the genre’s leading lights who’ve been at it for years. With an exciting, explosive and fresh perspective on a genre that (arguably) hasn’t moved on for a decade, the time is ripe for an enthusiastic young band to take it by the scruff of the neck, throw it around and demonstrate that there’s life in the old dog yet. Far Beyond the Stars harks back to some of the greats: Imagine an early DragonForce infused with Bruce Dickinson’s vocal power; Stratovarius with renewed juvenility; HammerFall without the bombast. A debut album filled with the kind of songwriting and lyricism that you’d expect from rock’n’roll stalwarts is humbly thrust forward with the sort of power that demands you sit up and take notice. Not only is the songwriting top-notch, but there’s a staggering ability to play showcased here, too – The classy guitar work from Stuart Docherty and Fraser Edwards exhibition the kind of dual-shredding silliness that Sam Totman and Herman Li manage to pull off in DragonForce, but played with such confidence and craft. These aren’t songs hastily bashed together to form a record to flog at concerts, this is a full-blown release and you can feel the craft that’s gone into moulding each and every one of the tracks: Songs have been lovingly curated until they’re almost perfect in scope, full of delicious hooks and sweet melodies that reel you in to listen again and again.
Vocalist Richard Carnie is a powerful driving force fronting the band, laying down an impressive vocal range that bolsters the impressive spectrum of themes that the intelligent lyrics portray. On galloping rockers like album opener ‘Somewhere Back in Time’ (video link here, or see the video embedded below), Ricki’s voice is infused with thunder and brimstone, plumbing high notes and low with ease and fortifying a track that is less a ‘song’ and more a charging monster. Sometimes, it acts as the rhythm itself while Messrs Docherty & Edwards explore the frets in whirligig guitar solos, while at others it’s a solo instrument in itself. ‘Heavenly’ is a truly superb song from beginning to end, linking up a ridiculously catchy chorus with a barrage of pounding rhythm guitars, melodic shredding and powerfully symphonic solos from both vocals and guitars, and comparable to some of the best melodic/power metal that’s alive today. Even when the pace wanders into slower territories, as it does on ‘The Silver Tide’, the combination of classical guitar backing, orchestral strings/keys and some impressive vocals, the quality never drops. There’s genuine emotion being poured out, too, so in between all the songs about fantasy and other-worldliness, there’s striking passion. Choruses are a high point all across the board, each managing to display an impressive level of hook while simultaneously blasting out a barrage some of the most thunderous melodic metal that’s as catchy as it is powerful: We can’t stop here, this is earworm country.
The two real treats are the instrumental rocker ‘Orb of the Moons’ (featuring guest keyboards from Elias Holmlid of Dragonland) and the ten-minute progressive epic, ‘The Avatar’, both of which show off some true writing class and will sound absolutely phenomenal in a live show setting. Here, the combination of solid writing, enthusiasm, spirit and ability align to truly make Far Beyond the Stars interstellar; and it’s wonderful to be along for the ride. There’s something that feels so ‘honed’ all over this release, topped off with some fine quality production, but at the same time so ‘fresh’; not just fresh, but thoroughly refreshing. Certainly, it marks a palate-cleanser from the hordes of churned-out, fantasy-tinged metal and a perfect antidote to the current music tastes of the masses. Ascension keep things interesting to the end, managing to build up a staggering head of steam early on that remains throughout the middle of the album, before being bolstered and escalated by ‘The Avatar’ and the final track, ‘Time for War’. And wrapping it all up is that wonderful album cover art (see top of post), by guitarist Docherty, that cocoons a wonderfully crafted debut album into a killer package. There’s some intense talent on show here, and the only qualifier to a superb debut album is that, at least on the basis of what’s to be heard on Far Beyond the Stars, one can only expect even more from the band in the future. More power (metal) to them, I say.”
Band: Church of Misery Album: Master of Brutality Release Year: 2001 Genre: Stoner/Doom Metal
Firstly, for those unfamiliar with this band (I counted myself in that category prior to this review), Church of Misery are a 4-piece Stoner Metal band from Tokyo who have been serving up serial killer inspired riffy goodness since 1995. Their debut album "Master of Brutality" features 6 tracks, of which 5 are based on and titled after infamous serial killers and the other is a particularly pleasing cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s "Cities on Flame with Rock And Roll".
First track "Killfornia" is written about Edmund Kemper whose voice also provides the disturbing spoken word intro. It’s a good minute and a half before any actual music is heard and it’s the bass that kicks off proceedings with a distortion/wah pedal combo and choice of riff that brings to mind early Black Sabbath song "N.I.B". From here on in low-tuned fuzz-saturated guitar is the order of the day, and another slab of riffs heavier than a bag of Bieber’s hate mail is served up for your aural pleasure. Vocalist Yoshiaki Negishi remains on full throttle throughout, sounding like the chain-smoking bastard child of Lemmy and Matt Pike whilst drummer Junji Narita keeps everything tied down solidly and refrains from any ambitious overplaying.
Further on "Ripping Into Pieces", "Megalomania" and album closer "Master of Brutality" offer more of the same ; bass-heavy sound, plethora of Iommi-inspired riffs and Negishi’s razor-blade gargling vocals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but at times it can seem quite drawn out and possibly formulaic. The instrumental track however "Green River" does offer a glimpse of a slightly different side of the Church of Misery coin.It’s an altogether more spacey affair and serves as a temporary respite from the sledgehammer approach taken everywhere else.
The other song featured on this disc is the previously mentioned cover of "Cities on Flame with Rock And Roll",and I have to say it’s possibly my favourite track of the 6. The original song is a time tested rock staple and at the fingertips of countless would-be guitar heroes the riff has assaulted every guitar shop that hasn’t banned it. What Church of Misery have done is taken an already great track and turned it up to 10, bringing out the heaviness and improving ( in my opinion ) on the feel of the track.
Both structurally and lyrically however, I feel the album fails to broaden the heights of creativity,but then that is not what this genre of music is about. It’s about hard-hitting, in your face metal and there is no arguing that these 4 guys from Japan have achieved that. "Master of Brutality" is quite an obvious play on "Master of Reality" (3rd studio album by Black Sabbath and blueprint for all things doom related!) and their influence is worn firmly on their sleeves throughout the whole album. If you’re looking for something new and ground breaking then perhaps give this a miss, but if you’re a fan of early Black Sabbath and crave a bit more of the same with a slightly modern edge then you could do much worse than check out this album!
Bands: Cerebral Bore, Xerath, Devin Townsend & more Location: Leeds University Date: 5th November 2011
For the uninitiated, Damnation Festival has built a reputation in recent years as being one of the finest events showcasing underground music that the UK has to offer. The festival boasts a great deal of variety, offering everything from extreme metal to post-rock and everything in between.
Upon arrival at the venue, there was some initial confusion as to where the stages were. The Terrorizer and Jagermeister stages were running late, and to add insult to injury one of the most anticipated bands of the day, CEREBRAL BORE, turned up minus their vocalist. The band still managed to pull off a tight set, however, proving how musically talented the band is.
More than making up for the festival’s false start, the mighty XERATH took to the Jagermeister stage to a decent-sized crowd, and proved that they are indeed one of the finest extreme metal bands to come out of the UK. Their unique brand of symphonic death metal suited the large venue, and their incredibly tight riffs won the crowd over.
Next up on the Terrorizer stage were one of the most unique metal bands around – Norway’s SHINING. Opening with their wonderfully insane ‘Madness and the Damage Done’ from their album ‘Blackjazz’, their unique combination of black metal and jazz completely decimated the brains of everyone present. The energetic cutting guitars combined with the absolutely crazy saxophone and keyboard playing ensured that everyone left with their faces melted!
After a long wait for gear to be changed back over on the main stage, it was finally time for the folk metal legends TURISAS. Despite initially appearing to be out of place on this lineup, Turisas had one of the most enthusiastic crowds of the entire festival. Their set was full of classics such as ‘Holmgard and Beyond’ and ‘Battle Metal’, and the sheer energy of the show, the vocal talents of frontman Mathias Nygard and the dedication of their fans was a joy to behold.
Turisas’ current touring mates CHTHONIC are really starting to break through in the UK. The Taiwanese band may be relatively new to western listeners, but their experience shone through in their incredible Damnation set. It was hard to believe that any band would top Shining, but Chthonic managed it thanks to their brilliant stage presence and powerful original music. Chunky guitar riffs, intense vocals and epic symphonic arrangements all combined with their Taiwanese musical influences provide a musical onslaught which stunned the crowd. It was also great to see bassist Doris Yeh at the merch stand, the band living up to their reputation of being great with the fans.
Next up was an early food break, due to the absence of Polish death metallers DECAPITATED. Whilst their cancellation was disappointing, especially due to the problems faced by CEREBRAL BORE, the only other death metal band of the day, the cause of their absence is understandable and we can only hope to see them play next year.
Finally, as Damnation Festival drew to a close, the one-and-only DEVIN TOWNSEND took to the Jagermeister stage! As usual he entertained the fans before the show started with amusing clips of Ziltoid, but the omniscient alien was soon silenced by Devin’s song ‘Truth’ which set the tone for the rest of the headline set, with fans singing along to every word of his masterful compositions and waving their Ziltoid puppets in the air! The set proved to be a mixture of Ziltoid songs and songs from his four-album series from the Devin Townsend Project, however he decided to end the show with a collection of more ambient songs before playing the classic ‘Vampira’ as an encore – a stunning end to a great festival on our own turf!
Band: Nightwish
Album: Imaginaerum
Release year: 2011
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Here it is: One of the highly anticipated albums of 2011, Nightwish’s new epic. But is it that huge and majestic everyone hoped it would be?
Well, to start right off with the intro [the very first Nightwish ever did on an album] which was a bit disappointing and made me press the skip-button already. I found myself listening to the first actual song on the album which was none other than “Storytime”. The song itself is quite entertaining and Anette Olzon’s voice fits quite well to this positive and poppy track. By the end of some listening sessions of the album I found myself thinking that this one is one of the strongest [tracks] on “Imaginaerum”. “Ghost River” which comes afterwards is nothing special to me although the Child-choir is quite nice, but I’m afraid I have to say that it’s nothing more than nice (to me).
The first highlight of the album comes with “Slow, Love, Slow”, which has a complete Anti-Nightwish-Feeling, something completely different. The song is not only reminiscent of a 30s bar-atmosphere but very Lacrimosa-like with its dark, intensive mix of slow, easy melodies and the guitar solo, I really liked that one and consider it being one of the highlights of the album. “I Want My Tears Back” is something I feel that Tuomas had the feeling “I have to do a metal song with a catchy hook line”. Well, it doesn’t work that well in my opinion as it just feels that he felt forced to do a metal song. It sounds very constructed and unnatural to me although the song is not that bad but again nothing special. “Scaretale” offers some interesting vocal techniques, but the middle “circus” sounding part is again something which was just too long for me and so as a result, I quickly lost interest on it although it’s again quite a cool track with its typical orchestration and the overloaded bombast, but again the last “wow” effect didn’t come up at all. This one would have been better in an Tim Burton movie than on a Nightwish album.
“Arabesque” is an instrumental and it starts with a very promising introduction but after 1:30 it gets boring and sounds more like a Prince of Persia-soundtrack sample when you have a fast action-scene in mind. Afterwards “Turn Loose The Mermaids” offers a kind of half-ballad with a strong “Blackmore’s Night” feeling throughout it and it also doesn’t have that Nightwish-like sound. Maybe because of this fact, it’s one the better ones on Imaginaerum. “Rest Calm” and “The Crow, The Owl And The Dove” are okay tracks. The Crow, The Owl And The Dove has a little Roxette feeling for me, funny but not Nightwish. Off to the next one, called “Last Ride Of The Day” which is one of the best on “Imaginaerum” with its majestic orchestration, the almost perfect and catchy chorus and its authentic Nightwish feeling.
The longest track on the album is “Song of Myself”. It starts quite promising and stays very strong until about seven minutes in when it turns out to be, in my opinion, a much too long audio drama which would have been nice for two minutes or so, but it lasts until the end of the song. On an album with 75 minutes, having almost ten percent of it narrated is too much and not that fair for the paying fan, in my opinion, although the voices are really cool but then the track itself can’t end with the narration and has to find some kind of climax or something else more intersting. The last track “Imaginaerum” is a medley composed of the highlights of the previous tracks, played by the huge Orchestra which is like a little deja-vu of the 70 minutes before and is quite cool, showing the strong moments of the main melodies. And that’s it…
Conclusion: Don’t get me wrong: Imaginaerum is a good album for anyone being interested. It’s well-produced and has versatile music, but the problem with this output is that it sounds as Tuomas would have prefered doing something different to this and was just forced to release a metal album under the banner of Nightwish. This is why the untypical songs, orchestrations and sountrack parts are the strongest moments on the album while the more typical sounding metal songs, which you really deserve on a Nightwish CD because they’re metal without doubt, feel really loveless and uninspired. It’s somehow like sitting between the chairs and I quote a friend of mine who summed it up: “For metal, it’s just too uncatchy and for a movie soundtrack it’s just too uninsteresting!” It’s a good piece of music and quite entertaining but for me (and I expected it to be actually) it’s not the “album of the year” nor an “epic masterpiece”. It’s just good, nothing more, nothing less.
3.5/5
Martin Harb [Guest Reviewer – Keyboardist of Visions Of Atlantis]
The evening starts with the energetic Havok, looking like they’ve just rolled out of the Bay area of San Francisco circa 1985. And despite the giant gothic entrance music (which is rather jarring after listening to what comes next), they are pure and utter thrash. There are plenty of elements that sound like other trash bands, for example, you can’t help but think of Tom Araya when vocalist David Sanchez screams and there is a good measure of Testement thrown in there. But these are certainly not bad things. Havok are strong and entertaining, just watching the passion from the small audience is proof of that.
Valkyrian Music 