They Used Dark Forces.

Cathedral have released their latest (and last, apparently) video, Tower of Silence. It's a fitting epitaph for a group that carried the flame of traditional doom for a long time through some very dark ages. Part music video, part Hammer/Ossorio gothic horror, the lads here at Thee Claw will be very sad to see Cathedral go. But don't just take our word for it. Have a look, and worship the riff.

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!

Roadburn 2009, Day 2

Ahoy land lubbers! 1st mate SJW here with another Roadburn 09 update for ye! Just surfaced after a night of slumber to a banging head and ringing eardrums... is this how Jesus felt after he woke up in the cave on Easter Sunday? If not, well, I guess that means that the resurrection that I witness last night over at the 013 Green Room was superior to the core lessons of The Holy Bible! But more about Church Of Misery in a moment!

BANDS FROM DAY 2:

ANGEL WITCH
Words fail me. I will explain better in a future update.

MONO
My 1st time watching these guys. The all-Japanese MONO are on my future gigs to watch list!

CATHEDRAL
Great seeing Dorrian & Co on the main stage at 013 yesterday. They played pretty much the same set as the Leeds "Damnation Festival" at the end of 2008, they even gave the new song "Open Mind Surgery" another airing.

SAINT VITUS
This whole day of shows was one of them days when you see 10 bands in a row and each time you think "That was the best band of the day by far!" again and again. Cathedral were great, but Vitus trumped them. They played everything you could want from their back catalogue: I Bleed Black, Clear Windowpane, Dying Inside, Born Too Late... and more. Okay, so the drum solo wasn't the best ever... so what? I keep reading that people weren't overly impressed with Vitus at Roadburn, but I bet you that these will be the very same people who will be bragging about being there in 10 years time. Saint Vitus's influence hasn't diminished with age, in fact I would recommend that all aspiring new doom bands get to a S.V. show and see how it should be done properly.

CHURCH OF FUCKING MISERY


Gig of the day. No wait, gig of thee fucking festival. My 2 brothers of THEE CLAW weren't here to witness this show, but I am going to use my Claw Vito and hail this as a landmark gig in the history of this fanzine. This is pretty much what I traveled to Tilburg for, and C.O.M. never failed to deliver. Last year we saw C.O.M. here at Roadburn (playing up in the smallest room of the venue, called "The Batcave"), with a different vocalist, a guy called Hideki. In 2008 C.O.M. tore Roadburn a new arsehole with a brilliant high-octane set, with full-on unbeatable energy. Or so we thought! For some reason Hideki San left the band (shortly after recording their latest record "Houses Of The Unholy"), leaving the band in a possible wilderness. Bring in the new vocalist, Yoshiaki Negishi. This guy is the band's original vocalist, from back in the begining, and he played his 1st show back with The Church last night at Roadburn. Would he be able to live up to the reputation of this band and give the same kind of performance as Hideki before him? Well the answer is "Yes, and then more so". Jesus fucking Presley, Church Of Misery has been reborn on this world with the most amazing of bangs. Their set began fast and wild and as the set progressed they just got faster and wilder. Within the 1st 6 songs Negi San had been in the pit with the crowd no less than 3 times (he was dragged in at one point).

Big praise to the rest of Thee Church too, of course. I don't need to say that, but it's all about manners when you are speaking about a Japan-based band, haha. Tonight I got to watch a lot of them, as I was right front and centre for their whole set (probably annoying the fuck out of the rest of the crowd with my constant camera waving). This time round I got a good look at JJ on drums, last time because of my position in the crowd and the lighting in Roadburn's Batcave I never saw too much of him. Great playing on a basic drumkit set-up, no Nicko McBrain kit here my friends! Also, as per usual, Tatsu's bass was scraping the floor, looking as cool as an I Motherfucker. and Tom Satan's amazing too. I was stupid enought to get into the pit with my camera. Pics soon!

THINGS I LEARNED YESTERDAY
There is a supermarket 5 minutes walk from my hotel. Why didn't someone tell me this 3 years ago??
Wino's belt buckle says "Clutch"
Lee Dorrian plays a left-handed air guitar
Negi from Church Of Misery is a fucking nutter

Damnation Festival 2008 (Patchie)

So, Saturday saw THEE CLAW head over to Leeds for the annual trip to the UK's most prominent underground metal festival, the 2008 Damnation festival.
This year's trip was a bit different for me than most of the road trips I've been on the with Thee Claw over the years, as I was joined by my girlfriend Becky who is four and a half months pregnant, so I knew there would be no going crazy in pits or getting covered in fake blood on this outing.
I didn't mind much because there were quite a few bands that I wanted to see, so let's get going.

We were also joined on this trip by the living legend that gave birth to the claw (The Claw, not Thee Claw), the godly being "Quagmire Petch". Gaze upon his metal countenance in the above picture and tremble.

After an unenventful trip through the Penines listening to loads of NWOBHM and King Diamond, we met up with the gang who had headed to Leeds from all four corners of this pleasant land, and went for a few pints...the sight of Quagmire drinking a pint of Stella with about two inches of candy letters in the bottom will live long in the memory.

We headed over to the venue just in time to buy some completely overpriced beer (£3.95 for a can of Tuborg? it's 90p a can in the shop at the bottom of my street!) and get a good position to watch the first band I wanted to see, UK thrash stalwarts Onslaught.
Their set was being recorded for an upcoming live album, which I guess will be pretty good to get a copy of to give to the baby when it's older, this being it's first gig and all! (as a side note, the little one had been asleep all day but immediately woke up and started kicking when Onslaught came on! Thrash baby on it's way!).
Onslaught played a mix of material encompassing their career, as you would expect from a band recording a live album.
They sounded top notch, Si's voice sounding as peircing and brutal as it does on The Force and Killing Peace.
Lots of people seemed to be using this time to get themselves decent positions for Carcass, who were headlining this room later, but when Onslaught had finished we went for a little walk.
Well, when I say went for a little walk, I mean we walked around in circles for about an hour, ending up in the Jagermeister room over and over again, bumping into people here and there.
We decided to sit down around now, get something to eat and get me a couple of drinks, before heading into the Rock Sound stage to check out Ramesses.
The other Claw Brothers weren't too bothered about seeing them as they were going to see them with Grief the day after so I left Becky and the bump relaxing on one of the sofas at the back and headed down just in time to hear them tear into "Master Your Demons"....I sweated a bit in that crowd and threw some total CLAWS, Adam looking menacing as fuck in an ancient Godflesh Streetcleaner shirt, and Mark hammering his drums to peices in the way only he can....amazing.

After this we headed over to the Terrorizer stage to catch Napalm Death... there were so many people in the room it was ridiculous, and when they started, all hell broke loose!
Becky and I were stood right at the back of the room (we could literally touch the rear wall) but we were getting shoved and jostled so much that we didn't want to take any chances and went back to the Rock Sound stage so I could get another drink. Devil Sold His Soul were on in here; we suffered their insipid Mr Fancy Pants Matalan Outfit Plastic Metal for half an hour or so, but at least we got amazing seats on the balcony (really a six foot hight wall at the side) next to the PA for a good view of Cathedral. DSHS - sub-par-cod-Isis-clone-mania. Avoid at all costs, unless you are going to kill them. And if you are, give me a call so I can film it. Geg-rock at it's finest.

I hadn't seen Cathedral since 1992 in Liverpool, so the whole disco-doom era passed me by in a live setting, and I was desperate to see them, with The Garden of Unearthly Delights being one of my favourite albums of recent years.
They didn't dissapoint!
Opening with Utopian Blaster (HUGGY BEAR OOOOH YEAH!) and going into Enter The Worms...I was leaning over the balcony with claws in the air!
When Lee Dorrian introduced North Berwick Witch Trials I abandoned my place and ran headlong to the front of the stage, meeting up with Thee Skum and SJW! Quagmire was off watching Carcass^♠, so he missed Corpsecycle the airing of new song Open Mind Surgery. During Equilibrium I nipped out for a breath of air *ahem* and had a peek in the near empty room were Pitchshifter were going through the motions with their also-ran nu-metal.
Nice lads Pitch Shifter, but they should have stuck to the Godflesh worship.
Cathedral finished their set with a one-two of encores Ride and crowd favourite Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)....amazing setlist although I was pretty dissapointed there was no room for Soul Sacrifice.

All in all a brilliant day out, I just wonder how they will top it next year!!
^♠I am reliably informed that Carcass DESTROYED all-comers at this festival. Songs from EVERY release were played, including, I believe, stuff from Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment. Ken Owen came out and played a little drum solo; apparently as soon as the room was full nobody was allowed in or out. Good on you Carcass, local boys come good.

You can't please all of the people all of the time...

...but it would be nice to please some of them some of the time.

As you can see, the running order of the bands playing at the Damnation Festival in Leeds next weekend have been announced. I apprecite that sorting out the running times for festivals is a bit of a logistical nightmare but, fucking hell.....Sigh, Benediction and Ramesses clashing? Napalm Death and My Dying Bride clashing?
One thing I am glad of though is that Carcass and Cathedral are clashing.
I must have seen Carcass about 15 times in Liverpool between 1990 and 1992, so I'm really not bothered about missing half of Arch Enemy cover Carcass tracks with Bill and Jeff*.
As this is the only UK gig the "re-united" Carcass are playing, hopefully everyone will be in there watching them leaving me plenty of space to enjoy some good disco-doom from Cathedral who I haven't seen since mid 91.  And as for Pitchshifter...what in the name of Fenriz are they doing on the bill? Hopefully loads of kids will be in there watching them.

*I know Carcass have reformed to do these shows for the benefit of Ken Owen who will most likely never work again, let alone play the drums, and I think that's very, very admirable of them, their motives for doing this should never be doubted by any metalhead who has a brain.  I've bought my ticket, so I've done my bit. I just won't be watching them.

Hmmm, needs more Bolt Thrower...

GET ON THAT FUCKING LINE UP!!!!

Damnation Festival tickets are still available at www.seetickets.com where I've just finally bought mine!
I went over to www.ticketline.co.uk first and they seemed to have sold out.