Burial - Basement Torture Killings - Abbadon Incarnate - General Surgery; Liverpool, 28th May 2011

OR - Chapter 26 (in which Patchie falls back in love with Death Metal)

Well, last Friday Thee Claw convened for an all-too-rare three pronged gig attack, with some Death metal going down in the hometown.

We arrived too late for openers Burial, but are assured by those who did witness that we had missed out.
Sorry guys, We'll be earlier next time!

So, the first band we got to witness were Londoners Basement Torture Killings (BTK) who take to the stage looking for all the world like escapees from Ravenhill Hospital. Their brand of technical death/grind a la Exhumed is based, pleasingly, around the old genre staples of serial-killer and gore lyrics, plenty of good stuff from their latest release "The Second Cumming".
Unnerving.

Next up were Irish band Abaddon Incarnate; no gimmicks or anything here, just a cracking mix of all our favourite subgenres coming together at once to great effect, unleashing a buzzing wall of noise. When blasting and grinding, they are as tight as anything, with triple vocal attack(!), but when they loosen up a bit, Clandestine-esque riffery buzzes through your brain, the drill-bit sharpness of the Sunlight studio captured perfectly. They have a split with Phobia available now on Underground Movement - get it.

Introduced by the diminutive but revered Jeff Walker (local boy does good) , Sweden's General Surgery take to the stage dressed in medical overalls, splattered in blood and gore, and proceed to dissect every one of us.
General Surgery are something of a grind supergroup (I hate to use that term) with members of Birdflesh, Bombstrike and Crucifyre in the lineup, and much like our very own Raven's Creed, this pedigree gives undoubted credibility to the boys from Stockholm.
We all get covered in blood, a death/crust/grind tornado blew it's way through Liverpool and we were all left reeling.
General Surgery never let up, even when they slow down it's to the pace of a saw through bone.

Well done to the Whiplash team for another amazing night (Death/Black party in the bar afterwards was a blast too!) see you at VADER!!!
Burial
BTK
Abaddon Incarnate
General Surgery
Whiplash Promotions

This Just In - New Oncle Tom Angelripper Album Cover!

SODOM fans rejoice!

New record from Oncle Tom Angelripper is on the horizon. The man himself has been busy in the studio, recording "Nunc Est Bibendum", to be released some time later in 2011.

Get it on!

General Surgery, Liverpool, UK (27.05.2011)

Straight off the bat - A few photos from the GENERAL SURGERY gig last night for ya! More photos and review/blurb to follow!

Bands: Burial / Basement Torture Killings / Abaddon Incarnate / General Surgery
Style: Thrash/Death/Grind
Venue: The Masque Theatre, Liverpool
Date: 27th May 2011
Promoter: Whiplash

Great gig!

This Week: General Surgery in Liverpool

We'll be there, hope you guys will be too!

Promoter: WHIPLASH

Sigiriya: Return To Earth

New record soon to be made available from SIGIRYA (ex-Acrimony), all round great guys. Thee Claw looks forward to getting hold of a copy of this new offering to give you guys a full-on review very soon!

As written on the Sigiriya Facebook page:

NEWS!!!! Our Debut album will be released on The Church Within Records Germany. Stoked!

In the meantime, if you’d like a sneaky taste of the tracks:

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/sigiriya
MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/sigiriyawales
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_108700382523395

- Sigiriya

Ravens Creed - Nestless And Wild

We've had it for a while now, but we're so bad at getting together to actually LISTEN to stuff......
...but then we thought, sod it, if Antisect can get together, then so can we.

So, we convened the other night with some HEAVY METAL and some BROWN ALE, partly to give a spin to our old muckers' Ravens Creed's new 7" - Nestless and Wild.
Here we have four tracks of raging old style metal from some of the most respected musicians in the British metal underground, having cut their teeth in well respected, stiff-upper-lipped-cup-of-tea-ello-guvnor institutions like Cerebral Fix, Sabbat, Skyclad etc, and regardless of a recent line-up change have gone from strength to strength. Planting one foot firmly on a monitor at the front of the stage is "recent" addition vocalist Al Osta, spitting out lines like our old mates Kam Lee (doss) or Mr Conrad Lant - indeed, such Venom worship would seem trite if it wasn't so convincing.
As such, we were grinning at each other when the line "Lay down your weed to the gods Ravens Creed" leapt out of the speakers from 1982, and when the riff followed there may even have been a fist in the air!

Put together amazingly by Doomentia, white heavyweight vinyl in a glossy sleeve with a fold out lyric sheet/unlucky-jesus-lad insert, and containing more authentic British Steel than you can shake your fist at, Ravens Creed are, as we keep telling you, a band you should be listening to, and going to see whenever possible.

In a nutshell: Kam Lee does vocals on Phantom Lord being covered by Hellhammer.

Band
Label

*and I didn't mention our mate Ben Ward once. Until now :-)

Pine Barrens (Live, Feb 2011)

Here's a video we recorded at a gig back in February of friends of thee blog PINE BARRENS - Great sounding footage (for a change), click and enjoy the best and the brightest that the Manchester music scene has the offer in 2011!



Website (with download links): HERE

ANOTHER PERFECT DAY

The one and only Motörhead will be embarking on their annual tour this November. The band will be supported by Brit punks Anti Nowhere League and UK Subs.

Catch the bands on the following dates:

NOVEMBER 2011

WEDNESDAY 2 WOLVERHAMPTON CIVIC HALL
THURSDAY 3 NEWCASTLE CITY HALL
SATURDAY 5 O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW
SUNDAY 6 LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY – MOUNTFORD HALL
TUESDAY 8 BRISTOL COLSTON HALL
FRIDAY 11 NORWICH UEA
SATURDAY 12 LONDON HMV HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
MONDAY 14 PLYMOUTH PAVILIONS
TUESDAY 15 SOUTHAMPTON GUILDHALL
THURSDAY 17 NOTTINGHAM ROYAL CENTRE
FRIDAY 18 O2 APOLLO MANCHESTER

Hole in the Sky call it a day...

From the official HOLE IN THE SKY website:

This is it, number twelve – The Last Supper. It was not an easy decision to make, but as they say – all good things must come to an end, and we feel that instead of run the risk of making Hole in the Sky a less inspired affair, we have chosen to go out on a high note.

We do that by assembling what we honestly think is our most diverse and spectacular lineup to date. The Last Supper is the perfect combination of tradition, rising stars and underground talent.

Norway has been on the forefront of extreme metal for 20 years and in that respect we have invited four of the pioneers within the genre, four bands that has been crucial to the legacy of Hole in the Sky to celebrate. Immortal, Satyricon, Enslaved and Mayhem will all be performing a headline set during the festival, and we’re positive that all of them will deliver something to remember.

Alongside legendary artists such as industrial legends Godflesh, doomster Saint Vitus and black metal juggernaut Marduk, we’re proud to announce the addition of rapidly growing acts such as Primordial and Wolf, together with veterans Mortuary Drape, Helheim and Vomitor.

The whole package has always been important thing for Hole in the Sky and if you look at the program you will see that there is some kind of thread going through the different stages and days. Dwelling in the underground black metal scene one day, going through doom and traditional metal, via alternative, before ending up with the grand finale with Norwegian bands only, starting with the Satyricon set on Friday and closing off with Immortal on the same stage Saturday.

We can also introduce two new elements to the festival, a very special opening show with Wardruna at Logen Teater, presented by Amber Booking in cooperation with Hole in the Sky, and finally the Vomitor-headlined Assault stage at Garage. The Assault stage concerts will run in the afternoon Saturday and will not interfere with the shows at USF.

But, enough ranting – this is about the music and the experience. See you all in August for one final supper.

Hole in the Sky Chapter XII – The Last Supper

Wardruna (Wednesday,  Logen Teater)

Part 1 (Wednesday, Garage):
Dark Endless

Marduk
Black Witchery
Mortuary Drape
Archgoat
One Tail, One Head

Part 2 (Thursday, Garage):
The End of the End

Saint Vitus
Grand Magus
Pagan Altar
In SolitudeDevil

Part 3 (Friday, USF):
The Dawn of a New Age

Satyricon
GodfleshPrimordialGhost
Negative Plane
Wolf

Part 4 (Saturday, USF):
A Perfect Vision of the Rising Northland

Immortal
MayhemEnslaved
VirusHelheim

Assault stage (Saturday, Garage):Vomitor
Diskord
Nekromantheon

The Eternal Myth and Paradox

So it seems that the rumours are finally true; Antisect have reformed, with the dates for a tour in 2011-12 coming our way soon.
I'm unsure how to feel about this; on the one hand, I'll have the chance, hopefully, to hear some of the songs that inspired not only myself, but an entire generation of punks/metalheads/bikers whatever, but on the downside...why? Why now? And is it true they don't believe in Animal Liberation anymore? More questions have been added to the Antisect mythos than have been answered here.....

Tree of Sores - S/T Album

It's taken me so long to get this review up for one reason or another, but one of the main reasons I held back was to make sure I wasn't over reacting.

The main reason for this is that Tree of Sores' debut (on Witch Hunter) is one of those rare releases that wears it's influences proudly, but still manages to bring them together in such a way that you can't put your finger on the band, you're drawn back again and again to try and discover what makes this album so compelling.
Amongst the waves of Amebix-style crust bleakness, melodies and grooves that bring to mind Damad/Kylesa at their most hypnotic. When I first heard Monolith by Amebix, I listened to it over and over again for about two months; I did the same with this album, and that's pretty good company to be in. After a dark, blackened crust type intro that the previously mentioned 'bix would be proud of, the album winds it's way through five tracks, each one claustrophobic yet with all the expanse of sound normally associated with po-faced post-rock shoegazers, giving the songs an oddly uplifting feel not unlike jesu, even on From Within, with it's Killing Joke-esque tribal drumming from Ben and "plea/response" vocals from Matt and Talia, but especially on Sandford which brings to mind British post-punk being played in a darkened squat, the ending of the song being total late Godflesh/early jesu bigness..
One of the benefits/disadvantaes of popping this review out so late is that I've had the fortune to read other reviews of the CD; a lot of people seem to be missing is that this album makes one feel insignificant, compressed and crushed by such a rolling black ocean of sound, preferring instead to cop out and compare them to Neurosis, a comparison I don't think is fair, as Neurosis have never sounded so wounded and utterly fucking fed up; a feeling that brings to mind two of their home county's enduring locations, the moor and the coast of the North Sea. I'm looking forward to catching the band live and seeing how they evolve in the future.

In a nutshell: Amebix and Killing Joke have a knife fight with jesu and Kylesa, causing Antisect to reform.


Tree of Sores (paywhatyouwant/myspace/facebook/twitter)
Witch Hunter Records

Damnation Fest 2011 - Update

Damnation Festival announces 3 more bands for its 2011 line up

AVANT-GARDE Norwegians ULVER will play their first and only UK show outside London when they headline the Terrorizer Stage at Damnation Festival. The experimental collective will top the bill in an exclusive performance where they will showcase material from their latest 'War of the Roses' offering.

Joining them will be the black jazz of their countrymen SHINING and London's doom tinged instrumental four piece ASTROHENGE at Leeds Union University on Bonfire Night, Saturday, November 5.

The three genre-morphing acts add to the already stellar lineup of Decapitated, Doom, Amplifier and Dragged Into Sunlight at the seventh edition of the UK's finest metal event, with headliners and many more bands yet to be announced across at least three stages.

Festival director Gavin McInally, said: "We're generally excited about the bands we confirm, but the capture of Ulver for an exclusive show - and their first in the UK outside the London - is a bit special.

"The unique black jazz of Shining and experimental slabs of metal of Astrohenge are also fitting examples of what Damnation Festival is all about - offering fans something a bit different to well worn line-ups hosted across the country.

"We're throwing everything we have at making this line-up our best yet and with the continued support of the fans, Damnation Festival 2011, will be another blinding chapter not to be missed."



Tickets are on sale now priced £29 and are available from See Tickets: www.seetickets.com, Ticketline: www.ticketline.co.uk and Leeds Tickets: www.leedstickets.com


For more information visit the official Damnation Festival sites:

Web – http://www.damnationfestival.co.uk
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/damnationfestival
Twitter – http://twitter.com/damnationfest
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/damnationfestival

Zangief (Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool UK, 06.05.2011)

Bands: Ninkharsag / Iron Witch / Amateur Video / Berskowitz / Zangief
Style: Doom/Punk/Metal
Venue: Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool
Date: 6th May 2011
Promoter: Iron Witch

Late for an important date so I've only a few moments to show you some photos from Zangief's set from this gig. Good stuff guys.

Playlist 5/11

Tree of Sores

Horslips - The Táin

Crass - Feeding of the 5000

Amebix - Monolith / Arise

Gang of Four - Peel Sessions

Sepultura - Morbid Visions

Pagan Altar - The Time Lord

Whiplash summer

Tickets Etc

Lang lebe der Klaue!!!

We're not dead, not yet.

It's been a while, but armed with a space bar and a slew (a veritable slew) of releases to review, coupled with a summer of actions (I foresee Deicide and Iron Maiden at the very least) means that you haven't heard the last of us.

Not yet.

Blood Red Throne (Masque Theatre, Liverpool UK, 03.05.2011)

Bands: DIAMANTHIAN & BLOOD RED THRONE
Style: Death metal
Venue: Masque Theatre, Liverpool
Date: 3rd May 2011
Promoter: Whiplash Promotions

DIAMANTHIAN

BLOOD RED THRONE

Verdict: Another great gig from Team Whiplash!

Beecher (Moho Live, Manchester, UK, 29.04.2011)

Here's some stuff from a great gig that I got to shoot a few days ago. No words, just photos.

Band: BEECHER
Venue: Moho Live, Manchester
Date: 29th April 2011