New (Old) Stuff.

Crass - "Stations of the Crass" and "Feeding of the 5000 - The Second Sitting", a bargain, £10 for the two. One day I'm going to ask the guy in the 2nd hand record shop in Liverpool if I can take some photos in there, but he's a miserable bastard for someone with such a boss job. It must be something to do with the reek in his shop.

Baroness / Kylesa, Manchester Star and Garter 30/1/08

Last night we went along to see Bastard of the Skies, Kylesa and Baroness at the Star and Garter in Manchester. Amazingly, the gig totally sold out and people were being turned away outside. And there we were dragging our heels having another pint "waiting for the queue to go down a bit".
Anyway, we got in, don't worry!!

Bastard of the Skies are from Blackburn, and played some decent stuff, nice use of one guitar as a bow to play the other one at the end I thought.

Kylesa came on next, and they totally blew me away; total thundering basslines and two drummers - awesome.
They did a cover of Pink Floyd's Set the Controls for the Heart of The Sun - I always say that Pink Floyd are one of those bands that nobody should ever cover, with only Voivod ever getting away with it in the past, but this was absolutely amazing.
The entire set was full of energy, and after they'd finished my ears were ringing like mad.Baroness played a good, solid set, heavy and rolling, but for me, they just couldn't top what Kylesa had done.
I went home happy with sore ears, and slept so soundly that I jumped up this morning for work, travelled all the way into Liverpool and went to clock in, and then realised it was my day off.
Ahh, the beauty of thee claw!

Kylesa / Baroness @ Star & Garter, Manchester

Some photos from the Kylesa / Baroness gig in Manchester on 30th January:

Kylesa:




Baroness:





The opening band was Bastard Of The Skies, they were pretty smart too. I look forward to seeing them again. In my opinion the highlight of the night was Kylesa's set - they blew everyone else off the stage, they were sooo good. Any band with 2 drummers is good in my book! They covered a Pink Floyd tune, I'm sure Patchie will fill you in on that one.

This was a really good gig, very loud (my ears are ringing like mad right now) and extremely well attended. The promoters (Future Noise) must be very pleased with themselves today - great show guys!

Iron Maiden @ Twickenham

...are being supported by Avenged Sevenfold. Very, very disappointing.

What is going on with the Maiden support act slot? A couple of years ago they had Trivium opening for them. Last year, Lauren Harris.... and now this? I understand that these bands have some kind of appeal to their fanbase, but why must Maiden have nu-metal acts with them on every tour? Whoever is booking their gigs needs to be taken to one side and given a stern lecture about how to keep Thee Claw happy.

We want Priest!

Another Roadburn Flyer

See you there!

Witchcraft UK Tour 2008

Milton Keynes Woughton Centre - April 10
London Camden Underworld - April 11
Swansea Sin City - April 12
Dublin Whelan's - April 13
Belfast Aunt Annie's Porterhouse - April 14
Glasgow Ivory Black - April 15
Leeds Rio's - April 16

See you at Leeds, probably; this is the night before we fly off to Holland for Roadburn....

Mayhem UK Tour

See you at the Birmingham date.

The Almighty, Manchester 19-01-08

Last night we went across to Manchester to see British hard rock band The Almighty on their 20th Anniversary tour. I was never really that big a fan of the band back in the day, but it was a gig to go to, and all our mates were going as well, so we thought, "Why not?".
The Almighty were much loved in England when they first started out, but never really broke big anywhere else, much like bands like the Wildhearts and Wolfsbane etc.
Last night was (I'm told) a good mix of their material, unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with any of it to give you any indication of what they played though. It was good old fashioned rock with a hint of punk thrown in, but not really my cup of tea.
Sorry, this is the most useless review ever, isn't it?

Roadburn Pre-Heat Bill Updated

Down, The band featuring Kirk Windstein, Jimmy Bower and celebrity arsehole Phil Anselmo, have been confirmed as headlining the first day "Pre heat" of the festival.
I'm a bit disappointed to be honest, I was hoping it would be Cathedral.

Weedeater/Stinking Lizaveta 2008 European Tour

Weedeater and Stinking Lizaveta European Tour 2008:

March 2008
20/08 Star and Garter, Manchester, United Kingdom
21/08 TBA
22/08 The Fenton, Leeds, United Kingdom
23/08 Underworld, London United Kingdom
24/08 TBA Kortjrik, Belgium
25/08 Bliksem, Den Helder Belgium
26/08 La zone, Liege Belgium
27/08 Magasin 4, Brussels, Belgium
28/08 Heartbreak Tunes, Antwerp Belgium
29/08 013, Tilburg Holland
30/08 Beest, Goes Holland
31/08 TBA

April 2008
01/08 Hafenklang, Hamburg Germany
02/08 TBA Berlin Germany
03/08 Rosenkeller, Jena Germany
04/08 East Club, Bischofswerda Germany
05/08 TBA
06/08 TBA
07/08 PMK, Innsbruck Austria
08/08 Arena, Vienna Austria
09/08 TBA
10/08 TBA
11/08 TBA
12/08 TBA
13/08 Deadlock, Hoogeveen Holland

Orange Goblin, Liverpool, 12 Jan 08

Saturday saw the first gig of the year for us, Orange Goblin at the Barfly in Liverpool.
I'd just like to say that this is the first well atteneded gig I've been to in my hometown for a long while, and I can't believe how many people were wearing Down t-shirts there. Is that was passes for our scene here? If you went to Manchester or Birmingham it would be all High on Fire/Trouble shirts, none of this singing "Revolution is my Name" at the bar.

I was working until 930, so by the time Ste and I got to the gig we had missed the first two support bands, The Bendal Interlude (who I haven't seen for over a year, since they supported Church of Misery and insisted on playing a set that lasted for about 24 hours) and Bow and Arrow, who I was gutted to miss because I really like them. SSS were on when we arrived, not really too fussed on them to be honest.
Orange Goblin are feelgood stoner-type doom n' roll (i think I just invented that) and they got the crowd going really well. Making the cardinal mistake when you play in Liverpool of mentioning football and therefore dividing the crowd, they still managed to leave everyone feeling sweaty and grinning at the end of the set, judging by the look of everyone coming out.
A cover of Motörhead's "No Class" went down well at the end, even if only about 5% of people there recognised it.
All in all, a good start to this year's tour, I just hope they have more staff on the bar next time we're in the Barfly!

Video here.

Orange Goblin @ Liverpool - Video

I recorded a couple of clips at the Orange Goblin gig in Liverpool last night, I used a new video camera that I bought about a month ago.

I'm not happy with this clip - It seems that the video camera's microphone records a very poor sound quality. It was a good gig anyway.

Sonic Attack Vs Fenriz

A four-part interview on YouTube with Fenriz from Darkthrone, during which he tells us he only likes new music if it's old, sings the Home and Away theme tune, proclaims himself to be "The John McEnroe of Black Metal" and discloses the fact that the new Darkthrone album will have "A lot of Iron Maiden" on it.
Oh, and at 4.10 in the first one, and at 5.12 in part 3, he turns into Scouse metal legend Thee Petch for a second or two, but that will only amuse you if you know him.

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:

Roadburn 08

Our Roadburn "Pre-Heat" tickets arrived by mail this week.


The pre-heat is being held on Thursday April 17th and the line-up for it is as follows:

Grand Magus
Capricorns
Litmus
Taint

I haven't heard anything by either Litmus or Taint, so I am setting myself some homework for the next couple of months to check their stuff out. I have heard the NYHC band called Taint, doubt it's gonna be them in Tilburg though!

New In The Post

"Table For Two" 7" split from Brutal Truth & Total Fucking Destruction. This split contains 2 Eyehategod covers.

Also arrived today - tickets for the upcoming Roadburn "pre-show" - which is to be headlined by an as-of-yet unnamed band, something to do with one Mr Lee Dorrian. Hmm I wonder who it could be??

Flight of Icarus

Maiden Plane Ready...

Gallhammer UK Tour

One of my favourite releases of 2007 was Galhammer's "Ill Innocence", and they have just announced that they will be doing a 7 date UK tour, with the first confirmed show being Leeds Rio's on March 13th, with the other six dates to follow soon.

UPDATE:
MARCH 2008
13 - Leeds / Rios
14 - Cardiff / Barfly
15 - Birmingham / Barfly
16 - Liverpool / Barfly
17 - York / Fibbers
18 - Glasgow / Barfly

Deviated Instinct

Saturday 2nd February, Bradford.

Added to Thee Tour.

2008 European Festival Season

An ever-expanding list of metal meetings around Europe this year:

Inferno Metal Festival: 19th to 22nd March (Oslo, Norway, with Satyricon as headliners)

Roadburn Festival: 17th to 20th April (Tilburg, Holland, with Celtic Frost & Trouble headlining)

Sweden Rock Festival: June 4-7, (Havsbad, Sweden, with Judas Priest as headliners)

Rock Am Ring: 6th to 8th June (Germany, with Metallica as headliners)

Tuska Open Air Metal Festival: 27th to 29th June (Helsinki, Finland, with Carcass as headliners)

Masters Of Rock: 12th to 15th July (Vizovice, Czech Republic, no acts confirmed yet)

Download Festival: 13th June to 15th June (England, no headliners announced)

Metalcamp: 4th to 8th July (Tolmin, Slovenia, with Apocalyptica as headliners)

Twickenham Stadium (No website): 5th July (Twickenham, England, with Iron Maiden as headliners)

Sauna Open Air Metal Festival: 19th July (Tampere, Finland, with Iron Maiden as headliners)

Hellfest: 20th to 22nd June (France, with Carcass as headliners)

Graspop Metal Meeting: 27th June to 29th June (Belgium, with Iron Maiden as headliners)

Gods Of Metal - 27th to 29th June (Italy, with Iron Maiden as headliners)

Wacken Open Air: 31st July to 2nd August (Germany, with Iron Maiden as headliners)

Hole In The Sky: 27th - 30th August (Bergen, Norway) - Festival not confirmed for 2008 yet

Brutal Truth

Brutal Truth Have announced 2008 European Tour Dates, hopefully we can catch them in either Sheffield or London, last year we saw them twice in Dublin and Manchester and it was amazing.

Full Euro tour dates:

February 6 Hasselt, Belgium Muziek-o-drom

February 7 London, United Kingdom Underworld

February 8 Sheffield, United Kingdom Corporation

February 9 Glasgow, Scotland Barfly

February 10 Rotterdam, Netherlands De Baroeg

February 11 Strasbourg, France Molodoi

February 12 Paris, France La Locomotive

February 13 Durango, Spain Plateruena

February 14 Corroios, Portugal Cine Teatro de Corroios

February 15 Madrid, Spain Sala Live

February 16 Barcelona, Spain Sala KGB

February 17 Plaisir, France La Clef Des Champs

In Noise We Crust

Link

New In The Post

Arrived today:



Shit & Shine "Cherry", released on Riot Season records.

Oh and happy new year by the way! A new year, a new Claw Tour... bring it on.