Saturday 17 April 2010

Yob @ MIDI Centre, Tilburg (Roadburn 2010)

Total bonus, just watched YOB in the MIDI centre (new venue for Roadburn 2010!). A breath of fresh air, YOB are a class act!




Went to watch the JOHN GARCIA / KYUSS set, but the main venue at 013 (where his show was on) was totally packed out, I was lucky to squeeze my way in at the very back of the room! I saw them play 2 songs: Odyssey and Asteroid. After that I made a choice and bailed, to go see YOB. I stand by my choice, YOB played a lot of material from The Unreal Never Lived, an album which I hold dear to my heart... they were simply great stuff!

Once Again, The Lamp Sings & Slays

A quick update - today (Saturday) has been another great installment of the on-going ROADBURN. As has already reported, there have been plenty of changes to the intended line-up due to travel disruption for the likes of SHRINEBUILDER and CANDLEMASS. But there have been plenty of great bands play in their place. Bands such as WITCHCRAFT (who have just finished their set on the Main Stage not 20 minutes ago) who stepped in at the last moment to help fill in the gaps.


I spent this evening watching LAMP OF THOTH play their set in The Bat Cave at 013. Same stage where I have seen BLACK SUN and CHURCH OF MISERY play, fact fans! As always, THE LAMP delivered a fine performance. We even got an encore from them... hope that their set will be a contender for release on the Roadburn Records label some time in the next year! If so, I have some photos that they can use on the inner sleeve, haha.

Okay, JOHN GARCIA is up on the main stage next playing KYUSS tunes. Better get back to it!

ROADBURN 2010 - Day 2

Hello from Holland!


We're here in Tilburg, enjoying the sights and sounds of this year's ROADBURN festival. Unfortunately we couldn't make it along to Day 1 of the event due to a VOLCANO of all things, but it's going to take more than Mother Nature to stop us!

Yesterday (Friday) was Day 2 of Roadburn 2010, and we got to see a few of our favourite bands - CHURCH OF MISERY, THORR'S HAMMER and PAGAN ALTAR, as well as Tom G Warrior's TRIPTYKON for the first time.

There's been quite a lot of changes in the line-up this year, because of the volcano situation. For a start CANDLEMASS have had to cancel, the logistics of making it down to Holland has proved too difficult for them. Roadburn's director of operations, Walter, made some on-stage announcements in between sets on the main stage yesterday, you could see the stress of the situation on his face as he told the crowd about the latest changes to his well-crafted festival.

Okay, I'm off for food and water. This hangover is killing my creativity right now...

Tuesday 13 April 2010

ROADBURN 2010

It's that time again gang!


ROADBURN 2010 starts in less than 48 hours and as always, we're gonna head over there and stink the place up a bit. So basically you can expect some updates on here at last!!

Saturday 10 April 2010

EYEHATEGOD Like you have never seen them before!


There was some dude in the beer garden doing a one man band type thing with just a guitar and some small bass drums covering allsorts of metal, including some Eyehategod. Jimmy and Mike took over and came up with this small performance. Legendary ;)

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Painting in the Dark

Well, well, well.
A late start to the working day, a few months without any real internet access and just general laziness on my part, amplified by the non-arrival of Darkthrone's Circle the Wagons on LP (the CD came, but it didn't seem right to review), so what has awoken me from my slumber?
Well, I sit here, a cup of Yorkshire's finest tea in my hand, and my ears being massaged by the rather spiffing new CD from Coventry's most illustrious sons CATHEDRAL, Guessing Game.
Opener Immaculate Misconception is a spooky, instrumental piece that sounds all off-kilter, and sets the tone nicely for what follows, the spookiness is prevalent throughout the album but not in a Black-Sabbath-Graveyardy type way, more in a Hammer-Horror-Upper-Class-Satanists-in-Country-Mansions way.
The spoken lyrics in Funeral of Dreams make me think of Crass, for some reason, sort of like the last section of Big A, Little A. Strange.
Painting in the Dark is the kind of mid-album stomper we expect from the boys (think Corpsecycle et al) with excellent lead guitar work, you can just imagin Dorrian jumping around the stage and pretending to hang himself with his microphone lead to this one.  There's also a medieval feel to some of the arrangements within, noticeably on the acoustic intro to Death of an Anarchist, which is followed up by an almost Maidenesque part. No, really.  There's quite a proggy colour to the album through the prominent use of keyboards, which is quite unusual for Cathedral, but works very well, after all, we know about Lee's love for 70's rock, and the amalgamation of their influences shows on these two discs.  Edwige's Eyes (unveiled before Thee Claw at Damnation a few years ago) is a prime example of this.
Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine is a song that I can't describe at the moment. It's like Meg and Mog came to life and recorded a track. That's a good thing.  Another total hetpenging anthem getting out and about on the second CD is Casket Chasers, Lee delivering some clever lyrics with a growl and everything.
Requiem for the Voiceless is a doom epic along the lines of Golden Blood (Flooding) or Ebony Tears, absolutely mammoth riffs and drumming.And speaking of lyrics, wait til you hear the lyrics to Journeys into Jade. For doom fans of a certain age, you'll smile throughout this one!

All in all, a great album from the boys, who just seem to be getting better and better all thee time.
We can't wait to see 'em in Manchester at the end of the month!

EYEHATEGOD @ Manchester Moho Live, 6th April 2010


Great show from thee sludgemasters from NOLA. An 80-minute-long set in the blistering heat of the cavernous Moho Live venue in the centre of Manchester, UK.

I am sat at home now like a sad case, drinking tea and sorting through the photos that I took from tonight's show. There's some blinders here that should really go to a music magazine or something (instead of just sitting here on my harddrive I mean!).

Also... my ears haven't stung like this in many a gig!

No setlist for you yet (or a proper review even). As usual with these things, "I'm working on it".