MOTORHEAD play the Sheffield Academy on 8th November and Rock City in Nottingham on 16th November.
Don't really know why there's such a big gap between them dates but hopefully that gap gets filled with more UK dates.

Incoming

News just in from the lovely guys over at Future Noise...

Thursday 8th May 2008 @ The Star & Garter, Manchester
Swedish Doom merchants Gloomy Sunday will be playing their down-tempo madness, backed up by:
Lazarus Blackstar
Black Sun
They Are Cowards

Doors: 7.30pm Damage: TBC

Black Cobra / Saviours / The Sword

Another week, another gig for you all to share in with us.
Last night Thee Claw travelled across to Manchester to check out a triple bill of Black Cobra, Saviours, and The Sword, at the Manchester Academy.


Opening the show last night were Black Cobra, a two-piece group from LA, playing sludge type metal with doomy overtones, sort of like a two-piece High on Fire. Actually that was a shit comparison but it's the best one I can come with right now being as lazy as I am.
For a two piece they sounded immense, huge riffs and thundering drums.
They were great though, just guitar, drums and vocals, sounding as beefy as most four piece bands out there. Check out their Feather and Stone EP.


Next up were Saviours, from Oakland, California, a four-piece band, with a twin guitar attack that, for some reason, had Thee Claw thinking of Thin Lizzy, which is never a bad thing.
Catchy riffs and doomy vocals, and as I say the whole Thin Lizzy/biker vibe going on.

Really good stuff from these guys, they have a good few LPs available, well worth checking out.

Headlining were The Sword, whose LP "Age of Winters" has been getting a lot of play at Claw Towers.

They drew quite a few songs off this and their upcoming LP "Gods of the Earth" (which some naughty internet pirates have been listening to since January, or so I am told), the crowd were well into them but for me, Saviours were the band of the night.
The Sword finished off with a great one-two of Faith No More's "Surprise! You're Dead!" and their own "Freya", which everyone was very happy with.


Their new LP is out this months I believe, well worth getting hold of, and I'll be looking out for them touring with that one.

We had a great night out afterwards too, in Jilly's Rockworld listening to classic rock.
Hocus Pocus by Focus anyone?


Links:
Black Cobra (Myspace)
Saviours (Myspace)
The Sword (Myspace)

As a side note, this is Thee Claw's 16th show this year; it was the 23rd of June last year before we reached that particular milestone. It's shaping up to be a great year.

The Sheriffs of Huddersfield

Landing on the doormat at Claw Towers yesterday; a package from West Yorkshire sludge merchants Crawe, containing a T-Shirt and demo.
Expect a review as soon as I get a chance to listen to it.
The demo that is, not the shirt.

Link: Crawe

Mayhem - Birmingham Gig - Video

I didn't realise we had footage of the recent Mayhem clip taken at the Birmingham leg of their European tour on February 26th. The video is only about 15 seconds long but it shows the very end of the show, when Atilla Csihar pulled his "prop" table to the floor and all of the lights went out, ending the show. Hell, he even throws a claw too for good measure.

The sound is terrible on this clip, but what can you do? I'm happy just to find this clip - I honestly didn't even know that we had it!

Dio - May / June 2008 - European Tour Dates

Ronnie James Dio and his band are soon to be sweeping across Europe in a 9 date tour this spring:


5/27 - Birmingham, UK (Academy) - Support from Girlschool
5/28 - London, UK (Astoria) - Support from Girlschool
5/30 - Oslo, Norway (Sentrum Scene)
5/31 - Karmoy, Norway (Kopervik Festival)
6/2 - Malmo, Sweden (KB Halle)
6/3 - Copenhagen, Denmark (Amager Bio)
6/4 - Stockholm, Sweden (Debaser)
6/6 - Oulu, Finland (Teatria)
6/7 - Lahti, Finland (Water & Rock Festival)

We've snapped up some tickets to the 1st date of the tour in Birmingham - see you there!

Exodus European Tour Dates - April 2008

American thrash legends Exodus are heading over to Europe in May 08 for a handful of dates across the continent.

2008-04-08 The Underworld, London (UK)
2008-04-09 Rio's, Leeds (UK)
2008-04-10 The Voodoo Lounge, Dublin (IRE)
2008-04-11 Cathouse, Glasgow (UK)
2008-04-12 The Corporation, Sheffield (UK)
2008-04-13 Groningen, Vera (NL)
2008-04-14 Eindhoven, Dynamo (NL)

Another Best of?

As you can tell, here at Claw Towers we are all a bit Iron Maiden mad.
Obsessed, you might say.
Anyway, this is just a short note to point out that there is (another) best-of release coming out.
However, seeing as the realms of best-ofs are seen as cash-in procedures and probably left to pop musicians, the band have seen fit to issue a statement on their website (through manager Rod Smallwood) to their fans:

"As you guys will have read from our press release, 'the best of' is to help introduce new friends into the world of Maiden. We are not trying to sell this to the legions of our well valued Maiden supporters who probably already have these 'tracks' (and no doubt the entire collection of albums!).

From the amount of tickets sold there are a lot of people coming to our shows this year who won't have seen us before, so this is intended for them as an introduction, similar to previous ones of this nature. As with 'Edward the Great' we will arrange for the front and back cd artwork to be available for you to print free nearer the release date so, if you want, you can have them for your collections."

Of particular not regarding this release, the cover has been created by none other than Derek Riggs, the man responsible for Iron Maiden maiden artwork up to Brave New World, and the inspiration for millions of teenaged metalheads (myself included) to draw decomposing corpses all over their school books.
For me, this is as big news as the fact that Iron Maiden are playing "Wasted Years" on this tour.

Oh, and this "Best of" is coming out on picture disc vinyl.
Sick.

Ramesses / Obliteration UK Mini Tour

Bit short notice this one, but....
March 27th - Trillian's, Newcastle (FREE show)
March 28th - Ivory Black's, Glasgow (with Black Sun and Co-Exist)
March 29th - The Croft, Bristol
March 30th - Camden Barfly - London.

We've seen Dorset nutters Ramesses twice; with Unearthly Trance last year, and with Sourvein the year before, their doom ist krieg.
If you can get along to the Glasgow date, get there early to check out Black Sun, you won't be disappointed.

Links:
Ramesses (Myspaz)
Black Sun (Myspaz)
There's no link for Obliteration I'm afraid!

Iron Maiden In Tokyo - Bruce's Kebab Comment

Here's a little update between gigs for y'all, about Iron Maiden. Well, why not??

I didn't know about the following youtube clip until Thee H sent me this YouTube link:



Check out the clip (if you are so inclined) and at the 3 minute mark Bruce Dickinson says "Oi you at the back there, with the donner kebab! Pay attention!". When he said this I was stood way at the back of the room, by the kebab stall, with a kebab in my hand.



He said that and I thought "haha Bruce has got good eye-sight!" and then I took a few photos for some reason.

Here's a few more photos that I took during that day in Chiba at the Makuhara Messe convention centre. It was a great gig and a great day out too. Can't wait for Twickenham.










The second-to-last pic is of a cooler-than-cool Jap metaller who I spotted in the crowd, he wearing a Maiden flag as a cape and also a pair of Freddie Mercury style spandex pants. You don't get many of them at gigs here in England, I wonder why! The last of the photos here is of the Japanese Maiden fans all leaving the hall (Manowar style), in a very orderly fashion.

SUFFOCATION-
UK/Ireland Tour '08



4/19/2008 Dublin, Ireland Voodoo Lounge
4/20/2008 Cork, Ireland An Cruiscin Lan
4/21/2008 Newport, UK TJ's
4/22/2008 Glasgow, UK Ivory Blacks
4/23/2008 Camden, London The Underworld
4/24/2008 Manchester, UK Jabez Clegg
4/25/2008 Peterborough, UK The Park
4/26/2008 Brighton, UK Concorde
4/27/2008 Plymouth, UK The White Rabbit

Motörheadache @ Hotel California, Birkenhead

It's not often that I think of going to see a rock tribute act, in fact, I think tonight is the first time I ever went to see one at all. The band in question are called Motörheadache - I'm assuming that I don't need to tell you who the tribute band is based on - they're a 3-piece playing and paying tribute to Lemmy. The venue for the gig was in Birkenhead, a rock pub called the Hotel California, a very cold venue. Their set was quite long, a good 15 songs and more, and that's quite some going when you realise that they never took to the stage til gone midnight and didn't finish til 02:15!


After a short break in the middle (at about half 1 in the morning) they came back on stage and played a few more tunes, more cover versions admittedly, but not solely from Motörhead. Patchie & H got up on stage with them to sing along to "Blitzkrieg Bop", good on you lads! I would have got up there with them but, well, someone had to hold the video camera (with very poor sound quality)...



Tribute bands wouldn't normally even get a mention on this kind of blog I guess, but these guys were pretty good. Plus the lads got up on stage for a sing-along, that's good enough reason for a write-up for me!

The real Motörhead are set to play at this year's Donington festival on June 13th. Can't wait.

The Lamp of Thoth / Asomvel, Bradford 18th April

Yorkshire doom legends The Lamp of Thoth are playing at Bradford's 1 in 12 club next month, supported by Asomvel.
We saw The Lamp of Thoth playing with Pagan Altar last year, and they are amazing live.
Their Cauldron of True Witchery 10" and their I Love the Lamp demo have been two of the most listened to records in Claw Towers over the past few months.
For £3.50 you can't go wrong, you lucky people.

Links:
The Lamp of Thoth
Asomvel
1 in 12 Club

Weedeater / Stinking Lizaveta / Rise To Thunder Manchester 20 March 2008

Last night we went along to see Rise to Thunder, Stinking Lizaveta and Weedeater at the Star and Garter in Manchester.

I'll add more to this when SJW gets around to either sending me the other photos or writes his own review :)Weedeater are fucking nuts. Opening with a killer one-two of God Luck and Good Speed (surely the best songtitle ever) and Wizard Fight, they didn't let up for a minute.
Swigging from a bottle of Southern Comfort (and cans of 'berg), Dixie Dave kept going all cross-eyed and stuff whilst belting out the songs at the top of his lungs.
or the bottom of his lungs; wherever it is that you actually belt stuff out from.
It's all one big blur of a sludge-buzz-fest in my mind now, but Gimme Back My Bullets was great.
I'm thinking of phoning in sick tomorrow so I can get to Leeds to see them there.....

Roadburn Running Order Announced

Still no sign of the running order for the David Tibet day on the Sunday, just the Afterburner (which is separate).
So... it looks like I needn't have worried, none of the bands I really want to see overlap! I can almost taste the Amstel already......

Gallhammer, Liverpool Barfly, 16th March 2008

On sunday night we went along to see Gallhammer and a few other bands in Liverpool.
Don't expect a track by track review here; I'd had a bad weekend (I was the victim of an armed robbery in work on Saturday night) and as such I was rather drunk before I even started on the booze we'd smuggled into the Barfly to circumvent their extortionate prices.

The Sontaran Experiment, as well as being one of my favourite Doctor Who stories, were awesome, you can read about them in SJW's post.

Apart from a few technical glitches at the start of their set, Gallhammer were awesome.
I know this band have their detractors, people who say that if they weren't three Japanese girls then nobody would be interested, but the truth is that their blend of doom/crust/black metal is pretty unique right now, and they were bang on on Sunday night.
Just what I needed after the weekend I'd had.

Next up, Weedeater and Stinking Lizaveta.

The Sontaran Experiment @ Liverpool Barfly, 16th March 2008

We went along to see a bit of a double-header tonight - the bill was 4 bands in total, being headed by Japanese black metallers Gallhammer.

I enjoyed the whole concert, especially a set by the second-to-last band on the bill, The Sontaran Experiment. TSE's vocalist is a guy called Paul Catten, AKA Stuntcock - he's known throughout the UK metal scene from many different groups that he has been part of in the past 10 years (bands such as Murder One, Lazarus Blackstar and Medulla Nocte). We've seen him in his Stuntcock incarnation a couple of times and it's always an eye-raiser to watch his sets. Tonight's was, in my opinion, the best so far. Their set consisted of a blurr of drums, guitars and feedback, all mixed in together with The Cat's keyboards and vocals and all fed through mixers and engineered The Cat himself. What a lot of bass!!


I'll leave it to Patchie to tell you all about Gallhammer's set. It was interesting to see them - one thing that I will tell you; I was expecting them to be wearing corpse paint for some reason!

Heavyfest IV, Bradford, May 10th 2008

Supersonic Festival 2008

This year's Supersonic Festival takes place at the Custard Factory in Birmingham, UK, between the 11th and 13th of July.
Last year's festival was great, book space in your diaries for this years (even if it does clash with the Doom Metal Inquisition!).

Link: Capsule Website.

Morbid Angel - European Tour, Summer 2008

Taken from the Morbid Angel website:

June 2008

6-22-08 - CLISSON HELLFEST - France
6-24-08 - GLASGOW THE GARAGE - UK
6-25-08 - WOLVERHAMPTON WULFRUN HALL - UK
6-26-08 - LONDON ASTORIA - UK
6-27-08 - DESSEL GRASPOP - Belgium
6-29-08 - BOLOGNA GODS OF METAL - Italy

July 2008

7-04-08 - LEIPZIG WITH FULL FORCE - Germany
7-05-08 - BERGUM WALDROCK - Holland
7-07-08 - TOLMIN METALCA - Slovenia
7-09-08 - ATHENS ROCKWAVE - Greece

Thee Claw Gig Clash / Tour Date Dilemna

Okay, so I have been making additions to this year's "tour schedule" right now, checking out what gigs we are going to be gracing with our presence in the next few months. And it seems that we have a bit of a schedule conflict on April 16th - 2 gigs both fall on the same day in different cities.

Question: There is a gig clash on April 16th - Should we go to Leeds to see Witchcraft or to Birmingham to see Merzbow?

Personally I think that it will probably be Merzbow that we end up seeing. We've seen Witchcraft before and they are due to play at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg as well. Whereas we haven't been to see Merzbow yet, even though he's a legend - a big influence on Thee Claw.

I'll consult with The Oracles and write out their response on here shortly!

Conflict, and Patchie's high Horse.

UK anarcho punk legends Conflict are playing at Liverpool academy on September 11th this year, and it is £12.50 a ticket.
What an outrage, I hope this money is going to a fucking good cause.
I'm so disgusted I'm going to write to the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen.

Turisas, Liverpool, 5th March 2008

Bit of a mad review here guys; Wednesday I was working until 9.30pm, and earlier on in the evening SJW phoned me to tell me that Turisas were playing at the Liverpool Academy (NotI supporting Stiff Little Fingers as the picture above suggests, but playing in a different part of the building) and did I fancy it?
I'd not heard them before, and nothing could have really prepared me for it!
THey are basically a sort of power metal type band, dressed in viking style outfits, with a fiddle player and a seventeen year old girl on the squeezebox.
No really.
They wear battle paint and stuff; I've never seen anything like it, but I enjoyed it immensely.
It was completely full in there, all the crowd were really enjoying themselves.
Some of them had taken the spirit of the night to heart and come dressed in full battle regalia and war paint, waving battle axes, swords and staffs in the air!
Capes were the order of the day, I saw one cape with an embroidered Mjolnir design on the back.

Great fun, but as it was so busy in there we couldn't get any decent photos, so here's a clip of the gig I found on YouTube: