Lazarus Blackstar / Ramesses / Unearthly Trance - Manchester Star & Garter (15th April 2009)

Af'ernoon droogies! Ste here - reporting in after a great show at Manchester's Star & Garter last night. Totally love the S&G, great venue. I would wager it's one of the loudest venues in England, if not thee world. The volume in that place is totally unnecessary for a venue of it's size, but more about that another time maybe.

Before I go on to the gig, a quick word about parking at the S&G for all you boys and girls to take heed of - DON'T just turn up early in the day and park your vehicle in the pub's back lot without mentioning it to the guys lurking downstairs in the beer cellar first! I did just that yesterday and ended up getting myself a parking ticket for my troubles. £60 fixed penalty... balls. Fortunately your friendly S&G landlord was able to have the fine rescinded for me later on, but it's still not a pleasant experience to get back to your car and find a fucking fixed penalty notice slapped onto your window! Next time I will be leaving a "Doctor on call" note on my window or something. Anyways, just so y'all know!

Okay, here's some gig facts for you.

LAZARUS BLACKSTAR


Lazarus B*S were 1st up tonight, and they had a decent crowd. I could be wrong here, but I remember a different band line-up last time we saw these guys. Also, this is the 1st show I had been to at the S&G in 2009, it was probably the same for a lot of the other people in attendance too. Man, I forgot just how fucking loud this venue is. Really, really fuckin loud in that place. L.B.S. got on with their set pretty sharpish and I'm guessing that they had all of their knobs set to 11. Sorry, no idea of what the setlist was... I should have asked. Talking to mikey (vocals) later on, he was happy with their set, he said they had a much better show here than at Scumstock in Sunderland recently.

After Blackstar finished their set, there was a HUGE wait between the end of their set and the beginning of Ramesses's. Like an hour or something. Not a problem for everyone else, the crowd spent this time wisely (at the bar getting drunk).

RAMESSES


THEE CLAW loves Ramesses and they always do a good show. Just like Lazarus Blackstar before them Tim, Mark & Adam just got up on stage and played, no dramatics, no ad-libbing with the crowd. Seemed to me that Ramesses had the biggest audience of the show (plenty of people in the crowd musta needed to make tracks to catch the last train half way through Unearthly Trance's set). Again, no idea of the setlist. Shit reviewer, I know. It didn't make much of a difference anyway, they were so fucking loud and the crowd was so damn into it. The temperature in the room had gone up by about 10 degrees by the end of the Ramesses set.

UNEARTHLY TRANCE


It was quite late in the proceedings when U.T. got to the stage, about 11pm I think. Okay, so that's not really *that* late, but the waits between sets seemed to make it feel that way. That's no complaint from me there btw, I am always happy hanging around for post-midnight rock & roll. It just worked out to be a bit too late for some of the crowd, that's all. Ah well, the folks who left early missed out I guess!

One gripe: U.T. didn't play a lot of the material from their Electrocution record. At least, I expected more. But the set was still good... people around the front of the crowd went a bit nuts when they played Raised By Wolves. At the end of their set I was at the front of the stage, next to the speaker; as I was bent down (putting my camera back into my bag) a huge blast of feedback screamed out of the speakers and sent my head into a spin... like some kind of sonic torture implement! I stood back up and fell over because all sense of balance was suddenly gone from my body. Today I am still getting a sickly whistling sound out of my left ear, I think that's my hearing finally fucking gone. Haha, thanks a lot Unearthly Trance, you have just arranged lifelong tinnitus for me! Earplugs for me from now on I guess, you bastards.

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

Want that....

Ramesses - Misanthropic Alchemy Double LP / Mantricum Records Dec 2008

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.

Ramesses, Korova, 23/11/08 (H)

A quick one about last nights gig at korova.
I managed to catch Goatspeed, Dragged Into Sunlight and Ramesses.
Grief supposedly had tyre trouble in the channel tunnel and somebody said that Trap Them were with them so they were both a no show, Grief are apparently playing korova for free on thurdsay but I thought the bands I caught were well worth the 8 quid!
Goatspeed played fast hardcore style metal with a few grooves, not bad!
Dragged Into Sunlight brought a pure grim atmosphere with smoke and flame and a pretty good nasty mix of allsorts of old black/death metal styles. They were great!
Ramesses were basically Ramesses, jamming out and dooming on, good shit!!!

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.

Upcoming: Grief *AND* Ramesses To Play Korova Bar, Liverpool

You heard the man, there's a big gig coming to town.


Date:
23rd November 2008

City:
Liverpool.

Venue:
Korova Bar, Fleet Street, L1

Line-Up:
GRIEF
RAMESSES
TRAP THEM
THE FREEZING FOG
SEROTONAL
THEY ARE COWARDS
DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT
HAMMER ATTACK
GOATSPEED

THEE CLAW says:
Geg alert! Expect to see lots of faces come out to play that you haven't seen for years and years, all in a tiny windowless cellar, all at once! An actual bona-fide metal all-dayer in Liverpool. Expect lots of fringes and plaid shirts to be stood in your way. Yessiree.

Roadburn Update

Another update, another band pulling out.
This time it's Sourvein, being replaced by the mighty Dorset druids Ramesses!

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!

Ramesses / Unearthly Trance

SJW:
Another gig tonight, number 25 of the year for me, this time it was at the Star & Garter pub in Manchester (right next to Piccadilly train station). The first time I went to the S&G was to see Jesu when they played on 6/6/6, that was a great night of music too. Star & Garter has one of the loudest sound systems I've ever heard - I am presently sat here writing this, half deaf, thanks to the sheer volume of it in fact.

I really enjoyed tonight's gig. I'd never seen either Ramesses or Unearthly Trance before this show, both of them are three-piece bands with doom elements to their music. I especially enjoyed Ramesses, their set tonight was very tight, slow and heavy. Unearthly Trance were a surprise to me, all of the band members look more like they could be from a hardcore punk band rather than a doom / black metal band. Plus they are from Brooklyn in New York, not so well known for black metal! Their set was all good stuff, they even stayed on for an encore and played an 11 minute track to finish off the evening.

Ramesses / Sourvein

MASTER.....DEMONS!

Fucking Ramesses and Sourvein Ruled last night.
I only had one EP by Sourvein, the "Emerald Vulture" EP and I now need to seek out the rest.
They had stuff on sale but with it being the end of the month I only had enough for a Ramesses shirt and a few bevvies.

Let down by the appearance of posers once again.
Ramesses were boss, about halfway through I noticed they didn't have "Master Your Demons" in the setlist, and Adam (who me and Skum were talking to later, hes a really nice fella) introduced the next song, and I shouted for "Master" instead - he says "OK then this is Master Your Demons" and played it! Woo go me!

Photos here.