Out there, out Now, in the name of Speckmann's beard!

We absolutely love Doomentia Records, and we also have an awful awful lot of time for a certain Mr Paul Speckmann, so we would urge you all to get over to their website and check out the reissue of "On the Seventh Day God Created... Master" (on CD and blue/black vinyl!) which comes in a cracking package containing a 7" EP too (the '91 Demo!) only €18!

And, proving that nostalgia is not the only thing on their minds, they have released the latest MASTER album "The New Elite" (only black vinyl left, collectors) the punky "new" sound of Master continues on this one.

Also over there they have the ABOMINATION demos from '88-'89 on vinyl (RED WAX!) which is has an altogether nastier more street feel than MASTER.

Beastwars - S/T LP (2011)

Been a while hasn't it? I've had this album for what seems like an age now, and I've been sitting on a review for quite some time; a combination of things (namely the lack of a functioning computer) have kept me from getting it out, so apologies for that.

Hailing from possibly as far as you can get from Claw Towers without starting to come back, Wellington, New Zealand's BEASTWARS have unleashed this leviathan from the midst of the Pacific Ocean, and what an album it is.

"Damn the Sky" starts off with a slightly misleading Broadrick-esque riff and muttered vocals from Matt Hyde which on first listen made me think for some reason of Brendan Perry fronting a guitar band, but that notion is soon blown away when he opens his lungs and bellows, a raging voice that could strip paint.
Bassist James Woods immediately makes his presence felt, fuzzed out scuzziness jostling against powerful drumming from Nathan Hickey to give a real sense of depth and movement.
When they strip the sound down to concentrate on the vocals, like on the track "Mihi",  you really get a sense of the bluesy delivery from Matt that is equal parts tortured sounding and really expressive.

I must - just for a second - talk about the packaging of the album here.  Sitting in my vintage 1960s swivel leather chair in the listening vault at Claw Towers and feeling to the riffs fall out of the speakers, whilst poring over the gatefold sleeve with it's depiction of a Lovecraftian  apocalypse on it adds something to the listening experience that just isn't possible with a CD or a download.
(the wax is lovely white and black marble too)

There's a real early nineties underground rock feel to a lot of the record, I hate to use the "G-word" because it conjures up far too many negative connotations for readers of this blog, but in a kind of fuck-the-mainstream way, not in any way you'd compare it to 90s MTV Rock. You'd be mad.

In places, like on "Call Out the Dead", the music is given room to breathe and a real sense of space and scale can be felt, with Matt bellowing "CALL OUT THE DEAAAD!!" over the top.
However, for me, the standout track is "Red God", where there is a bit of a - dare I say it - groove going on, and you tap your feet, nod your head, maybe break out the ol' air guitar! Good, sludge-tinged heavy metal that sits nicely against the melancholy feel of tracks like "Iron Wolf", and the brooding menace of "Cthulhu" which brings to mind a powerless ship, listing in the dark Pacific as hideous tentacles rush towards it from the deep.

The album closes with the storming "Empire", which contains all the components that make the album such an enjoyable listen in spades, with a cracking solo from riff meister Clayton Anderson.

In a nutshell: I can't decide if they sound like trawlermen or bikers.  This is the sound of a battle between road hogs and sea dogs.

Band Page: beastwars.bandcamp.com
Witch Hunter records still have copies of the vinyl here for my fellow Europeans, if you are in America give Grave Dancer Records a visit here.
If you must insist on buying a CD (You're missing out, believe me) then Europeans visit Ozium and everyone else visit SmokeCds

Buy or Die.


Edit:
Here's a look at the wraparound art for the album:
Front:

 Back:

And, if you needed any more convincing, a live performance for the track "Red God" on NZ television:

RIP My Mystikal Master

10/02/1962
27/09/1986

A true metal one-off. Thee Claw salutes Cliff Burton.

OLD WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY DRINKING

Well, it's been a while, eh? Apologies for the lack of major activity lately, house moves, forced primitivism with no real computer access, and just being general accursed human reptiles has meant that we haven't really had much chance to post for quite a while; however now this should all change.

 First up, tickets have been purchased for the following, and if you are reading this page then you should have some time for the lineup, and we'll see you there!!!

Bro(UK) Promotions, High Roller Records and Beatdown Records Proudly Present a night of Legendary NWOBHM!

HOLOCAUST(UK) – FIRST EVER PERFORMANCE IN NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE!. The Scottish Nightcomers land in Newcastle for a very special apperance before their performance at the ever excellent Keep It True Festival. John and the guys are coming to destroy the home of NWOBHM with some outstanding HEAVY METAL MANIA for you ‘bangers!!!!!


BADGE(UK) – Neat Records blues inspired NWOBHM. After releasing a rather outstanding single back in 1981, these guys broke up with very sporadic/rare performances over the years. In 2012 with a brand new album out on the Germany Manics HIGH ROLLER RECORDS these guys are back to make you swing your hips! COME ON!


TYSONDOG(UK) – RETURN OF THE DOG! After an ball breaking performance back in April for BRO(UK), we bring the hammerhead back to bang for you once more! True Legends of the North East!!!!


AVENGER(UK) – Local NWOBHM heros return will a new line up and a full on rock and roll show for you guys! This is going to be nuts, just watchout for that hammer!


SALEM(UK) – Formed in 1979 down in Hull, after releaing a bunch of insane demos they subsquently broke up in 1983. Reforming 2 years back and ready to make you rock into oblivion, Salem are COMING FOR YOU!


BATTLEAXE(UK) – Sunderland Nwobhm legends back at it with a new album under their belts. Making a rather rare live apperance in the North East and getting ready to burn this town to the ground!


DEEP MACHINE(UK) – East End Boys from 1979, releasing only 4 demos back in the 80′s, which as you can hear for yourself are packed with the classic NWOBHM sound. The guys are back and releasing a very ltd EP also a new album soon. The Demon Preachers are ready to rock you back to 1979!


HOLOSADE(UK) – Shildons Nwobhm thrash lengeds back for another rip roaring run through the Hell House for all you ‘bangers. You may even be treated to a couple of DARK HEART numbers  !


AMULET(UK) – The best new British Heavy Metal band around, with an absolute amazing demo tape released in 2011 soon to be released on 7″. Taking the best of all the the great forerunners of the NWOBHM genre and smashing it into 2012, get ready for these guys to explode off the stage in a sea of smoke and spandex!


SCARAB(UK) – Birmingham legends return to the stage with a line up featuring 3/4 of the original line up! The bros are delighted to have these guys on board, this is gonna be a truly classic performance!


SPARTAN WARRIOR(UK) – All the way from Penshaw monument the Spartan Warrior bros have been with us since way back in ’12. Hitting hard with a new album and no doubt some classics, another killer set isnt even in question!


PLUS ONE MORE!!!!!!


SATURDAY 2RD MARCH 2013
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE.
THE CLUNY
NE1 2PQ
UK!


Ticket info:
WEEKEND TICKETS £20 Advance
More on the door!
PAYPAL AS A GIFT TO: order@bro-uk.co.uk any problems/questions GET IN TOUCH 


Please note this is a relatively small venue so get in quick!

Death to False Occult Doom

Sick of false, poppy, slick "occult" doom being pedalled to the masses? So are we. Get along to this.

Friday, 6th July, The Pilgrim Ale House, Pilgrim Street in the most Ancient City of Liverpool (in the shadow of the gothic beast of a cathedral):

SERPENT VENOM
Old style doom metal from our corrupt capital.

BLACK MAGICIAN
imagine hiding behind a drape in Professor Scarman's study at the priory whilst he contacts Sutekh...

IRON WITCH
claustrophobic suffocating riffs from the mudflats at the mouth of the Mersey.

80 shillings in (that's £4 on the door, modern primitives) and I think they have Cain's on tap too. Can't go wrong.

Worshipping at the Altar of Dale Crover

Saw MELVINS play at show in Manchester UK last night.
Totally transfixed by Dale Crover throughout the show... that man just doesn't stop!!

jesu s/t picture disc

For those of you (unlike me - ha!) who weren't lucky enough to pick up a copy of jesu's double picture disc version of their self titled debut full length, you may be surprised when you finally hear it.
It was purposely made to sound cleaner; and JKB has some remastered the original version to the one now available on their bandcamp page (http://jesu.bandcamp.com) now, and also as a digital download for $7.
The most stunning difference is on the track "We All Faulter" which, on it's state on this new remix is an almost ghost-like dub version of what you are probably used to.
Outstanding.
The whole thing is stripped down and bare; making an already rather introspective recording seem even more inwardly focused than before.

Tree of Sores - A Cry of Despair

England is a country where in the space of fifteen minutes you can travel from the green, verdant countryside much beloved of poets and artists into the depths of tortured inner cities where children live in poverty and there is seemingly no escape for anyone save a life of thankless toil and Friday nights down at the club.

England is also home to Tree of Sores.

Their second album, A Cry of Despair landed on my doormat a few weeks ago courtesy of Witch Hunter Records, and it would be no exaggeration to say that I have listened to it almost daily since.
I wanted to know it inside out, to listen to every part if it before I wrote about it, because I had been literally gushing about their debut album when I reviewed it on here and I was desperately hoping that it wasn't a one off.
Almost half an hour long, the one track on it travels from sparse sound-shapes, travelling up tracing the outline of huge sonic monoliths against a black sky. This is true Psycho-delia. I know that you know that I think that TOS are one of the best bands to come out if the UK in the past ten years, and their sophomore album just reinforces that opinion.
Almost hypnotic drumming and repetition through the middle section of the album, the whole thing being equal parts crushing and pummelling but also has that uplifting, hopeful feeling that JKB generally imbues his musical projects with.
I honestly can't say enough good things about this record.
It's available as a pay-what-you-like download with no minimum donation, and quite frankly I think you'd be a fucking idiot NOT to get a copy.

FOR: fans of Amebix, Kylesa, Godflesh. People with decent stereos.
NOT FOR: people who aren't prepared to sit still for half an hour.

http://treeofsores.bandcamp.com/
http://witchhunterrecords.bigcartel.com/

Iron Witch - Post Vegas Blues 7"

Local sludgemonsters Iron Witch are back with a new 7" on Thirty Days of Night records, entitled Post-Vegas Blues.

Starting off with a wall of feedback,
Gunshot Residue is a lolloping riff that kicks in before slowing down and locking into into a groove that only serves to soften you up for a punky thrash towards the middle of the track, fading out as it does with the ghost of the feedback that opened the track.
Then…riff.
Riff.
Rising from the mudflats at the mouth of the Mersey, Exceed the Dose crawls along full of bile, before the thrash kicks back in and it's a dirty storming head shaker, feet apart, shoulders hunched, drums going ten to the dozen in the background.
Side B's track, Post Vegas Blues, is a track that I assume is about the dreariness of returning to your shitty job after a week in party central.
That's certainly what it sounds like.

Iron Witch do what they do so well that every time I listen to them, it takes me back to the first time I saw them live, the height of summer in a packed Star and Garter on Manchester, absolutely roasting hot, drenched in sweat and full of cider;
Except that didn't actually happen.
I've not had the chance to see them live yet, but I feel as if I have, THAT'S HOW GOOD THEY ARE.

Get yourself over to
http://thirtydaysofnightrecords.bigcartel.com/
and order yourself some riffs.
It's ok, thank me later.

Bark at the Full Moon

Well, well well droogies (as Krusher may have once said). It's that time of year again, time for us to clue you up on a little shindig that's taking place in the fair Yorkshire city of Leeds on October 13th that you should all get off your fat arses and get along to, the Full Moon Dog festival. Taking place under the arches in the Cockpit club at Swinegate (excellently positioned by the train station), this year's edition of the festival in honour of Jay-Jay Winter of Asomvel, a friend to headbangers everywhere who died tragically on October 18th 2010, features such heavy metal luminaries as Orange Goblin, a treat with a set from Solstice, Asomvel themselves, Dark Forest, Stuka Squadron, Eliminator, Stilletto Farm and Mercanary, with a headliner still to be announced! You're looking at a good nine and a half hours of metal and socialising, without any of the false bullshit normally associated with scenes, just people getting together to celebrate the life of a guy who loved Heavy Metal as much as we do. What's more, the entire show will be filmed for DVD which you can pre-order here for the price of a round of beer (£15 fucking bargain). SO a recap; day full of metal in memory or Jay-Jay, top company, filmed for DVD, well cheap (£15 in advance), right by the station. All being well, see you at the front! Facebook Event Page Website Buy Tickets Preorder DVD

The Mayhems - Surfin' Moon

Vinyl Night

Listening to:

Randy Rhoads tribute, side 3

Battle of the Mascots

Awesome lineup, awesome flyer.

We can't wait to get our claws on this!

"Bård "Faust" Eithun (EMPEROR, BLOOD TSUNAMI, MONGO NINJA) and Tore Bratseth (a.k.a. Stud Bronson of THE BATALLION, OLD FUNERAL) have joined forces in a new project called STUDFAUST. They entered the studio in late November 2011 and the result was two dirty, firesparking tracks in the spirit of the old school of metal/punk. Music like this is rarely made nowadays with such authenticity and passion, and these veterans in the metal scene now show their musical muscles with a "piss-off" attitude.

Due on March 16 via Soulseller Records , this seven-inch single will most likely become a cult collector's item, with only 500 copies to be pressed."

Wode - 2011 Demo

There's something happening in Manchester, something dark.

Joining the ranks of blistering Black Metal from a city that seems to be turning into England's answer to Bergen (cold, wet, dark) are a new name, WODE, who present a three track demo of grim BM.

Much like fellow citizens Pine Barrens, Wode as as far removed from the bloated pomp of late 00s theatrical black metal as is possible.
Opening track Trails of Smoke is all blastbeats and tremolo picking, bringing to mind Arckanum with an underlying veneer of urban filth.
The blistering pace continues through Earthwrath, the second track, which is, quite frankly a big, black, whirling maelstrom of a track that rattles along, Beherit-style with enough South American type recklessness that it feels it might fall apart at any time, before all coming together and shuddering to a halt just a little over three minutes later.
Glorious.
Final track, Last Days, starts with a doomy dreary intro before the chaos rears up again, beneath this track's frostiness you can pick up a punky feel to the riffing, not in an obvious way like Darkthrone do or Venom have done on occasion, but more in the sneery, cynical attitude you suspect is behind it.
In essence then, a fine fist in the face of all the pomposity that crept into black metal towards the end of the last decade, and along with Pine Barrens and Wynterfylleth, another powerful band coming from sprawl of Mancunia.
Ones to keep an eye out for on 2012.

The demo is available to buy/download from the band, but hurry, only 100 cassettes have been created!!

The band are at tumblr, for now here is a stream of the first track;

Blood Cult Reborn

Long time Claw Faves Grimpen Mire have a new track available for streaming, Blood Cult Reborn.

It really is the shit.

Eyes and ears open for a new release soon!

Desertfest

What a lineup!!

UK People!

Thee Claw's top-tip-two thousand-twelve, Purson, are in session in BBC Radio tonight (Jan 9th)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0198j3c

Cheers gang!

Still waiting to hear back from Iron Maiden!!