Church Of Misery @ Roadburn 2009

I uploaded a 2-minute long video of CHURCH OF MISERY onto Youtube today - from during their set at this year's Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands.



This clip just goes a little way towards proving why ROADBURN is my favourite festival by a country mile. CoM's great set was complimented by an amazing combination of stage lighting, background video, atmosphere, sound quality, and more.

And the 2010 ROADBURN looks as though it's going to be even better than 2009's festival... if that is possible!

Photos Of People Taking Photos

Church Of Misery - War Is Our Destiny

Look out for Patchie stagediving at the 4 minute 20 mark...

Church Of Misery @ Manchester S&G... Thee Claw's G.O.T.Y.??

We went along to the Star & Garter (a wonderous place, set deep in Manchester's red light district) to witness a really great gig this evening... Charger, Firebird & Church Of Misery.

It's late in the night now (early in the morning really) and I have work still to do, so I won't have time to give you a blow-by-blow about the show and the sets played by each band. But already this is a sure-fire contender for our gig of thee year.

But one thing is for sure: We certainly don't like how many Down hoodies we are seeing in our path lately! THEE CLAW says: Down with Gegcore.

Be there, or be Patchie.

 

It's going to be a lock out, get down early.  Church of Misery; heroes of Roadburn, Charger, one of the best live bands from "Grot Britain" and some retro stylings from Firebird.

Church Of Misery @ Roadburn, 25th April 2009

Take a moment out of your busy schedule to check this clip out. It'll be worth your while, let me tell you. I've got a video clip here of "I, Motherfucker" a little bit later on during this set, when Negi jumped head-first into the crowd and then somehow kept singing in time with the song. Can you believe this is his 1st gig back after years and years in the wilderness? It's like he never went away. His vocals remind me of Seth Putnam's in Anal Cunt, haha.

Church Of Misery took a gamble on bringing Negi back into the fold. Looks like they've hit thee jackpot.

I cannot wait for the chance to catch back up with these guys when they descend on Manchester on May 14th. It's gonna be killer.

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

Upcoming: CoM in the UK

Future Noise in association with DFFD & Liverpool Noise

Thursday 14th May 2009 @ The Star & Garter, Manchester

Church of Misery
http://www.churchofmisery.net

Firebird
http://www.myspace.com/firebirdblues

Charger
http://www.fuzzbastards.com

Doors: 7.30pm

Damage: £8 Adv

Pre-order tickets from http://www.future-noise.co.uk

Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy

 

Out soon on Rise Above Records, Japan's serial-killer obsessed and one of the highlights of last year's Roadburn festival (see photo above) Church of Misery's latest release Houses of the Unholy .

First impressions are that this is the album where everything seems to finally come together for the band; chilling serial killer intros, fuzz-laden bass lines, rolling drums; I never imagined there would be a time when Japanese sludge with lyrics based on serial killers would acually sound like such a good-time album, if you know what I mean? It's not necessarily as brooding as their previous releases; you could listen to this album on a road trip or even have it on in the background whilst you have a few beers with friends as comfortably as listening to it on your headphones in bed, paranoid through chemicals.

Mood transcending J-Sludge? Yes please.

Incoming...

Gigs... Gigs... Gigs...

CLASS A AUDIO - LE COUTEAU JAUNE / MONOBROW / PNEU / SHIELD YOUR EYES- UPstairs @ The Calidonia Liverpool 21st March 4 pounds

Jesus Of Spazzareth, Ocksen, Zangief, Mechagodzilla, The Caledonia Liverpool, FREE/Donations, 4th April

Future Noise Presents: UNEARTHLY TRANCE, RAMESSES & LAZARUS BLACKSTAR Star & Garter Manchester 15th April

Future Noise, DFFD & Liverpool Noise presents: CHURCH OF MISERY, FIREBIRD & TBC, Star & Garter Manchester 14th May

Church Of Misery News - Vocalist Change

We're sorry to announce that shortly after the completion of our new album, Hideki (Vo.) left the band. Without going into details, it was completely and utterly unexpected to say the least.
The good news is that for the next two shows and the upcoming European tour, our vocalist from our first album, Negishi, will be joining us. Anyone who's ever seen him perform knows how exciting he is on stage. We've already had a few practices and he sounds huge, so get ready.

Church Of Misery Know What Their Claws Are For

Photo from the C.O.M. Myspace (just so you know, it's not one of ours):


Reclaiming THEE CLAW, one band at a time.

Church Of Misery vs Hard Gay

Here's some pics of us with Japanese rockers Church Of Misery, taken @ Roadburn last weekend (20th April 2008).


I love these photos.

For the record, Church Of Misery is:

Hideki Fukasawa - vocals & synthesizers (2004-)
Tatsu Mikami - bass (1995-)
Junji Narita - drums (2003-)
Tom Sutton - guitars (2006-)

I've got plenty of great photos taken during their set at Roadburn last weekend... I would go as far as to say they played the gig of the festival (if you were lucky enough to be able to get into the room to see them play that is!).

C.O.M. Setlist from Roadburn:

1 Killfornia
2 I, Motherfucker
3 Shotgun Boogie (New song)
4 Red Ripper Blues
5 Sick Of Living
6 Candy Man
7 El Padrino (New song)
8 War Is Our Destiny (Saint Vitus cover)
Encore:
9 Hurricane (Pentagram cover)