Knight Area – The Silent Wedding: Live at Extase, Tilburg, NL

Posted on October 17, 2014 by News Team

On the 30^th of September the Extase in Tilburg was host to the pre-release party of Knight Area’s new album Hyperdrive, with opening act The Silent Wedding.

The Silent Wedding is a band from Athens, Greece, who play symphonic powermetal. Their lyrics are inspired by films, games and literature: ‘I Am You,’ for example, tells the story of the Phantom of the Opera from the phantom’s perspective, and ‘The Return (to Ithaca)’ is about The Odyssey. The band members are each very skilled, and drummer Renos, who occasionally resembles the Muppet Animal in his enthusiastic playing style sets a solid base for the rest of the band to build on. Vocalist Marios has a powerful clear voice whith a lot of vibrato, which lends his singing a classical air. Despite the rather small crowd, The Silent Wedding performed a very solid set.

Knight Area play a mixture of neo- and retro-prog that could also be characterised as sing-along-prog, due to its very catchy melodies and vocals. The bass features very prominently in the music, and Peter Vink plays every lick as if it were a bass solo. His style is very funky, and the bass often plays licks while the guitar and synths play chords, which gives and air of vivacity to the music. The guitar and synths take turns playing solos, and the quadruple stacked synths often tastefully cover the changes in meter.

Mark Smit provides good, clear vocals that are sweet and soft with the occasional hard rock edge that reminds me of Doogie White of Cornerstone. He has a lot of stage presence, as well as an awesome bodysuit that matches the album’s artwork, and plays additional keyboards in the ballad ‘Songs from the Past.’ The drumming is excellent and very varied.

One of the songs on the new album, ‘Bubble,’ was previously released on the Between Two Steps EP (2013). Some other songs that made a very good impression were ‘Avenue of Broken Dreams’ which is about 60s ideals; ‘Stepping Out’ which was written by their youngest band member, Mark Boogert, and features some excellent guitar work. They kept a good pace in the show, with generally not much wait in between the songs. They build their own party on stage and infect the audience with their enthusiasm. This was the first time that Knight Area played their new album live in its entirety. Hyperdrive was released on the 14^th of October, and the band has another show planned for the 7^th of November in Helmond.

Knight Area on Facebook

The Silent Wedding on Facebook

LORRAINE LYSEN

DragonForce – Neonfly: Live at Colchester Arts Centre, UK

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Steve Tovey

More bands should take the same “back to basics” approach that DragonForce are applying to the UK leg of the Maximum Overload world tour. Rather than taking in the usual 5 shows in the same 5 major cities, this time around the sextet are taking in 20 smaller venues in 20 towns that don’t get to see many non-local bands.

And the people of Colchester, saved the £30 fare and hour journey to London to take in a show, have responded enthusiastically. The Arts Centre, a converted church that is actually a rather fine venue, is absolutely rammed, and the opening band aren’t even on.

Neonfly, a badly named band who thus far have flown under the radar, take to the stage and are greeted enthusiastically and respond as if they’ve just strolled out as a festival headliner. And it’s lapped up as they run through a selection of AOR influenced widdly Power Metal that veers between Sonata Arctica and UFO. They have all the poses (including some classic Priest choreography), all the solos and in Willy Norton, all the voice with his excellent Michael Kiske meets Tony Martin delivery, and a stage patter that’s part children’s entertainer and part Danny Bowes on happy pills. It’s 1988 again, and no one is complaining as single ‘Gift To Remember’ is met by a healthy number of hands in the air to its rocking riff and massive chorus. While closer ‘Morning Star’ may be a slightly disappointing end to a very enjoyable set, no damage is done as Neonfly have made a lot of new friends tonight, as songs aired from their upcoming new album Strangers In Paradise (Inner Wound) touch on Avantasia. And they have a guitarist called Fred Thunder.

DragonForce have quite the mixed live reputation, but since the arrival of vocalist Marc Hudson they seem to be a different beast these days. Hudson’s first album with the band, The Power Within (Essential/Roadrunner) was their best since debut Valley Of The Damned (Noise/Sanctuary) and the strength and reputation of their live show has grown since his arrival. Heading out on the road with a new album, Maximum Overload (earMUSIC), that picks up where Power… left off, could they continue the upward live curve?

Absolutely. In spades. From the rapid fire power metal, to the guitar duelling of Sam Totman and Hermann Li, who both make the fastest and most complex of guitar techniques seem effortless, to bassist Frédéric Leclercq’s facial comedy show and underpinning rumble and Hudson’s near flawless vocal performance, the ‘Force are on it.

Everything about DragonForce on this tour elicits grins and a feeling of joy, and it’s clear this comes from the stage, aided by Totman’s understated self-deprecation and ongoing banter with Leclercq, the two of them mocking Li, each other, the lyrics (the sword motions in ‘Black Winter Night’ were childishly brilliant), the crowd and themselves throughout while still delivering. It’s great to see. Li, on the other hand, is pulling every Guitar-God shape, including pick-sliding with his tongue, while in between Hudson, the bastard love-child of Chris Jericho and Sebastian Bach, has learnt the master of ceremonies role, padding and filling well in the longer than usual gaps between songs caused by technical issues to Vadim Pruzhanov’s keytar.

Highlights are hard to choose, but a mid-set ‘Seasons’ goes down a storm, a thrashy ‘The Game’ opens up a pit, and ‘Three Hammers’ is a colossal slice of One Direction meets ManOweeN, before all too soon it’s time for the bands best song, ‘Cry Thunder’ which concludes the set proper to rapturous cheers.

Immediate a holler rises for an encore, and the band oblige, camping through their dreadful version of ‘Ring of Fire’, before a vibrant ‘Through The Fire And Flames’ (I’m sure some guy near me was actual air Guitar Hero-ing) and a triumphant ‘Valley Of The Damned’ wrap things up to send a happy crowd spilling out, talking nearly as quickly as the flurrying fingers of Totman and Li about how much they enjoyed the show.

This is what a Power Metal gig should be about, a packed crowd singing along to hymns of cheese and metal with a band turning in a great performance, all creating a symbiotic exuberance. Simply great fun.

And I was sober…

DragonForce Set list

Defenders

Fury Of The Storm

Three Hammers

Black Winter Night

Seasons

Tomorrow’s Kings

Symphony Of The Night

The Game

Heroes Of Our Time

Cry Thunder

Ring Of Fire

Through The Fire And The Flames

Valley Of The Damned

DragonForce on Facebook

STEVE TOVEY

On The Road…. Accept

Posted on October 7, 2014 by News Team

Heavy Metal legends Accept are criss-crossing Europe on a huge headline tour. They are out on the road supporting their acclaimed, Andy Sneap produced Blind Rage (Nuclear Blast) and back to putting on the high energy performances that made them a major draw in the 1980s. In his review of Blind Rage, Ghost Cult’s Mat Davies opined that “Accept have rarely sounded as fresh, vibrant or exciting. Well, not since they invited us to place our balls to the proverbial wall, anyway.” TJ Fowler (Fowler Photo/Skullbanger Media) caught their recent concert in Tampere, FI and provided us with these exciting photos of the big rock show.

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Accept on Facebook

Fowler Photo on Facebook

Anathema: Live at Academy 3, Manchester UK

Posted on October 7, 2014 by News Team

A fearlessly charismatic outfit whose loyal fanbase have grown throughout the evolution of their sound, it really beggars belief that Anathema are not headlining venues double this size.

Tonight’s performance is sold out and the intimate confines of the Academy 3 only help to make the evening feel that much more special. New opus Distant Satellites (KScope) has garnered much praise from all quarters and rightly so. The sweeping orchestral arrangements and ethereal vocal melodies of ‘The Lost Song, Part 1’ kick things off. The set is mainly comprised from their last four albums with particular emphasis on the current record which for some acts would be a bold statement but for this Scouse quintet it is just comes naturally.

Vincent Cavanagh and Lee Douglas voices are the perfect foil to each other their harmonies evoking sadness, emptiness, hopefulness and triumph sometimes in the space of one song.

Lee’s brother John and Daniel Cardoso swap between drums are keys effortlessly adding lush electronic textures to the shimmering bedrock of guitars and strings. Lee herself is in particularly fine form lending her soaring emotive performance to ‘The Lost Song, Part 2’ and encore highlight ‘A Natural Disaster’.

Danny Cavanagh is in fine fettle, showing bags of charm and charisma laughing and joking with the crowd between songs. Even when technical gremlins threaten to derail what is a truly magnificent performance during ‘Closer’, Danny comes to the rescue with an impromptu rendition of Pink Floyd classic ‘Wish You Were Here’ which fans sing along with gusto. Vincent then returns to the vocoder and belts out ‘Closer’ without a hitch. A truly incredible live experience full of such warmth and sincerity that you cannot help to be swept way in. A captivating, emotive performance from some immensely talented musicians that have carved a career from determination and a total lack of compromise. Concluding with the anthemic ‘Fragile Dreams’, Anathema demonstrate, yet again why they are literally in a class of their own.

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Anathema On Facebook

WORDS: ROSS BAKER

PHOTOS: LUKE DENHAM PHOTOGRAPHY

Winterfylleth – Eastern Front: Live at Colchester Arts Centre, UK

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Steve Tovey

While blighted by sound problems, it is apparent that Eastern Front have undergone significant improvements over the last twelve months, adding melody, tension and drama to their Marduk-ian overtures and go down well to the swelling crowd. Playing a set entirely of tracks from their new album Descent Into Genocide, the Suffolk black metallers have made the right choice in focusing on new material that comes across as an entirely different, improved band to their previous efforts.

Yet from the moment vocalist/guitarist Chris Naughton leads the crowd in a semi-ironic arm waving intro that leads into the Celtic Frost / Motorhead chug that propels ‘Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain)’ into the converted church, it is clear that Winterfylleth are a class apart. While they remain staunchly anti-image, no histrionics or pyrotechnics, and clad in plain black T-shirts, their music does all the speaking and impressing for them.

Up next ‘The Swart Raven’ builds from open chords, swathed in beautiful tremolo-picked melodies and underpinned by a driving beat, before dropping down to it’s clean build-up, that sees arms and voices of the gathered throng raised along in chorus. Already the audience is firmly in the hands of the band as the song’s coda bruises in a flurry of bass drums and vocal roars, even before the double-punch of crowd-pleasers ‘Casting The Runes’ and ‘The Wayfarer Part I’ see the dark of night.

Yet, better is yet to come, as the two new tracks aired, an epic broil titled ‘A Careworn Heart’ and the more straight-forward Darkthrone tinged yet still wholly “English” Black Metal of ‘The Divination of Antiquity’, along with rousing closer ‘Fields of Reckoning’ are the highlights of a set where the ‘fylleth disprove the myth that black metal doesn’t work live with an excellently delivered performance that uplifts the gathered faithful, with heads banging all the way back throughout. Mesmeric and powerful at Bloodstock, they perhaps even exceed that, with darkened anthems filling the Essex evening.

In a scene where the genre classics have been unchallenged for two decades, Winterfylleth are now established as one of the leading exponents in their field, status their excellent new album The Divination of Antiquity will only enhance. With their output ranging from raging Bathory influenced aggression to sweeping, landscape-inspired grandiose moments via Primordial midtempo pump, all is delivered with the confidence of a band who know their wave is rising. Their brand of organic, atmospheric and all-consuming blackened metal with touches of class, heritage and intelligence has seen them rise, relatively unopposed, to stand as one of the best black metal bands today both live and on record, with tonight a further example of their inherent quality.

Winterfylleth Set List:

Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain)

The Swart Raven

Casting The Runes

The Wayfarer Part 1: The Solitary One Waits For Grace

A Careworn Heart

A Valley Thick With Oaks

The Divination of Antiquity

Defending The Realm

Fields of Reckoning

Winterfylleth on Facebook

Eastern Front on Facebook

PHOTOS: KRISTI O’CONNEL

WORDS BY STEVE TOVEY

Yob – Pallbearer – Ghold: Live at The Roadhouse, Manchester, UK

Posted on September 24, 2014 by News Team

The Roadhouse is terribly small. And dark, much to our snapper’s consternation. Suitably subterranean then for the evil rumblings of London’s Ghold, an unassuming looking duo of bass and drums until part-time guitarist Oliver Martinez began to create stunning atmospheres halfway into their set. They surprised and seriously impressed by producing a captivating set of unholy sludge doom, the power of which would have given Conan a real run for their money.

The allure of doom’s new boundary breakers subsequently created a struggle for room. Brett Campbell‘s Godflesh shirt belied the soft edges Pallbearer portray on record, but their pulverising power was unmistakable from the opening strands of World’s Apart, the opening track from their recent and magnificent Foundations Of Burden (Profound Lore) album. Guitarist Devin Holt was the archetypal rhythm master, throwing shapes with grave abandon, whilst Campbell’s leads soared and punctured holes in the ceiling. A nod to drummer Mark Lierly induced the swell of noise that is first album highlight Devoid Of Redemption: a cymbal puncturing the purr of Zeus’ cat, that slow juggernaut of a riff catching a groove from Lierly’s brutal yet studious pounding. Campbell’s voice was a chiming bell, hitting notes full of melody and pathos, whilst bassist Joseph Rowland punched the air during the huge coda of Foreigner, showing both the relief and the euphoria of a defining moment. The crowd adored this brave, unfettered quartet who believe in every note they play and who were only slightly thrown by a venue protesting against the sheer weight of their sound. This was something special.

As was the performance from tonight’s headliners, the revered YOB: a pulsating, fulminating mass of energy, the enigma that is Mike Scheidt‘s voice soaring then slicing through a now-hammered venue. The full playing of latest album Clearing the Path to Ascend exploded forth with the maelstrom of clear sound and thundering bass that was In Our Blood, Scheidt bounding to his mic like a mugger, whilst he and bassist Aaron Rieseberg bucked with every twist of the crater-creating riffs. The sonic violence of Nothing to Win was greeted with joy, Rieseberg’s ferocious bass peddling belying his peaceful demeanour, Travis Foster’s drumming as phenomenal to witness as to hear on the album version. New classic Marrow concluded the evening, and was possibly the most subliminal and emotional twenty minutes of a gig I’ve ever experienced. In two-tone espadrilles and a purple leather waistcoat, the prince of doom led his bare-chested sticksman and spacey, body-shuddering bassist to a mellow yet wondrously heavy glory: at times a caressing savagery, others a cosmic beauty, the whole moving more than this old hack to tears.

The aftermath was a bewildered delight, people hugging the band or sitting on the stage fringes shaking their heads in awe-struck wonder. This most glorious of nights was a privilege, an epiphany, which a bigger venue would have enhanced but possibly robbed of its intensity and warmth, and will forever be fondly remembered by the fortunate souls who witnessed it.

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YOB on Facebook

Pallbearer on Facebook

Ghold on Facebook

WORDS: PAUL QUINN

PHOTOS: LUKE DENHAM PHOTOGRAPHY

On The Road…. With YOB and Pallbearer

Posted on September 19, 2014 by News Team

YOB and Pallbearer are both out on the road in support of stellar new albums. YOB’s Clearing The Path To Ascend (Neurot) received a 9/10 from Ghost Cult earlier this month. Pallbearer’s Foundations of Burden (Profound Lore) was a rare 10/10 from us and was our August Album of the month. Both bands recent teamed up for a co-headlining run of dates in the UK and Luke Denham of Luke Denham Photography caught both bands in front of his lens. A full review is coming soon. In the mean time, enjoy these shots!

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YOB on Facebook

Pallbearer on Facebook

Luke Denham Photography

My Ruin – Sanctorium -Extreme O.D. -Nomad: Live at Sound Control, Manchester, UK

Posted on September 11, 2014 by News Team

Tonight Manchester welcomes one of rock’s most outspoken characters in Tairrie B., despite her reputation for being a firebrand who provokes controversy and debate in many circles, My Ruin’s front-woman clearly still inspires many, male and female, to rage against the societal ills of sexism and homophobia. Bringing with them three capable support acts there is the feeling of anticipation and celebration on this rainy Tuesday night.

Nomad keep it tight, groovy and full of soul. Vocalist Drian snarls through the likes of ‘Burn The Water’ with a confident assurance that is only gained from a steady work rate of playing every dive bar going while drummer Hayley McIntyre anchors the muscular rhythms with a powerful backbeat.

Steadily gaining a loyal following through determination and hard work Nomad is one of the more rich prospects in the fertile UK scene right now.

Quite the contrast to her vicious death growls, Extreme O.D.’s Katie Cairns is all smiles in between songs clearly loving every moment of tonight’s performance. Laying down a set of vicious double kick and neck breaking riffs. It’s a feeling mirrored by the audience who lap up everything Cairns and co have to offer.

Sanctorium’s tight exuberant groove metal recalls the work of Lamb Of God and Chimaria. The undercurrent of savagery recalls many of the early noughties Roadrunner bands but while they remain a tight outfit they offer precious little in the way of surprises.

Tairrie B. and company enter to an enthusiastic response. Sure the venue is only half full but the assembled throng makes more than enough noise to supplement the lack of bodies.

Crashing into ‘Monolith Of Wrath’, My Ruin channel the spit and sawdust vitriol of Black Flag and Black Sabbath with husband Mick Murphy doling out slabs of discordant hostility.

Ms B. is in a jovial mood, snarling through a triumphant rendition of ‘Digging For Ghosts’.

The feeling of celebration is tangible not least as this is, at least for now, My Ruin’s final jaunt this side of the pond. Girls and guys alike flock towards the stage raising their fists and voices to the paint stripping intense cover of Mudhoney classic ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’ and a raucous ‘God Is A Girl With A Butcher Knife’. A My Ruin gig is a full contact sport where the intensity of the performance is only mirrored by the reaction of their devoted fanbase.

‘Beauty Fiend’ ends a sermon of black clad blasphemy with Tairrie thanking the fans for their support before sweeping off stage. If this is truly My Ruin’s swansong appearance in the UK then they went out with all the guts, desire and raw power that they have always possessed.

My Ruin Set List:

Monolith of Wrath

Long Dark Night

Heretic Dreams

Diggin for Ghosts

Moriendo Renascor

The Devil Walks

Touch Me I’m Sick

(Mudhoney cover)

The Harsh Light of Day

Burn The Witch

Excommunicated

God Is a Girl With a Butcher Knife

Heartsick

Del Riche

Made to Measure

Blasphemous Girl

Beauty Fiend

My Ruin on Facebook

WORDS: ROSS BAKER

PHOTOS: BRIANA NORTON (with permission from My Ruin)

Casualties of Cool- Messenger: Live at Union Chapel, Islington, London

Posted on September 9, 2014 by News Team

The quiet majesty of the small but perfectly formed Union Chapel in the London borough of Islington is the perfect backdrop for the quiet majesty of the latest venture from Devin Townsend, the enigmatically named Casualties of Cool.

This showcase set, one of a small number of European shows in support of a record that is both idiosyncratic and warmly inviting, is packed to the rafters with Devin adherents, Strapping Young Lad aficionados as well as broader, progressive music lovers from the locale.

Opening act, the charming and awfully modest Messenger get a thoroughly deserved warm reception. Basing their set around tracks from their debut album, the hypnotic Illusory Blues, is entirely sensible. The record has rightly been lauded as one of the standout debuts of the musical year and there is plenty here to lend your support to. Their blend of progressive music might appear technical (there is some serious musical prowess on display here) but there is a warmth and languid generosity to their music that one cannot help but be intrigued and beguiled by. All in all, Messenger prove to be a hugely apposite aperitif for tonight’s main course.

Some technical hitches means there is a slight delay to the arrival of the main event, which Devin makes light of in his inimitable fashion; to be honest, this man could, to paraphrase the old cliché, read the phone book and everyone would be utterly enthralled. There is a quiet sense of expectation around the chapel and a genuine rapport between audience and artists- what once started as a small idea that the Devin Townsend Project might have taken up has subsequently grown into something that is cared about deeply by both artistic protagonist and listener alike: in other words, there is a lot of love tonight for Casualties of Cool.

Opening track ‘Daddy’ drifts seamlessly into ‘The Code’ and then ‘Mountaintop’; at times the unfailingly polite audience doesn’t seem to know when to show their appreciation between songs as Devin drops in vignette after vignette of guitar parts or melodies and everyone does their polite best to ensure that they get to hear every note from their hero. However, this isn’t just a Devin show; vocalist Che Aimee Dorval is absolutely exquisite tonight. Aided by some fantastic acoustics from the religious surroundings, her smooth vocal tones are able to soar effortlessly- on ‘Bones’ and ‘Gone is Gone’ she has that unerring ability to make the hairs on the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

What strikes one though is how much this feels like a collective enterprise rather than an instance of Here’s-What- I-Did-Last-Summer project management. All of the members of the live band put in sterling performances and there is bonhomie and camaraderie in abundance; by the time we get to set closer ‘The Bridge’ and its epic soundscapes you’re left with that gnawing sense of regret that it has passed by all too quickly. A lovely, lovely evening.

Casualties of Cool Set List

Daddy

The Code

Mountaintop

Flight

Ether

Moon

Bones

Forgive Me

Jam

The Field

Deathscope

Gone is Gone

The Bridge

Devin Townsend on Facebook

WORDS AND IMAGES BY MAT DAVIES

Bastard of the Skies – Space Witch: Live at The Bay Horse, Manchester, UK

Posted on August 25, 2014 by News Team

That this gig even went ahead, given the steady stream of disaster befalling so many of its protagonists, was a miracle. Some weeks before the event, rising Liverpool-based doom trio Coltsblood had agreed to step in for the original headliners; while on the eve of the onslaught, Huddersfield swamp monsters Wort were forced to withdraw also.

A sequencer arrived as if from nowhere, and Peter Callaghan soon began to add his psychedelic bleeps and squiggles to the heavy as hell, occasionally funereal sludge of Stoke’s Space Witch. Bassist Ian Hickton, a less hirsute version of Lord of the Rings’ grumpy dwarf Gimley, rumbled his weapon so deeply I was fooled into thinking I was shitting myself: doubtless aided by the venue, around eighteen inches taller than me and about twice the size of my living room. Initmate? You betcha. At times the sound and weight felt like a train crash but despite the bleeding horror there’s a languid bliss in the audience, mirroring the brutal ease with which Dan Mansfield abused his kit.

The hypnotic, groove-laden sludge of Blackburn’s Bastard Of The Skies led to myriad knees and hips being displaced during an incendiary set. A Punch in the Fucking Lungs saw front man Matt Richardson roar his usual spoken verse and begin to flush like Rooney at a World Cup: his scathingly sarcastic lyrics delivered with a malevolence which belied the ease the trio undertook its task. Despite Matt Aldred breaking sticks to the apron, he and bassist Claire Horrocks laid waste on the pounding Yarn and the brooding, darkly portentous Bao Fu, both from their recent split with tonight’s original co-headliners Grimpen Mire; whilst the explosion from the lull within …Dicknose? was executed with the synchronised violence of a band at one with each other.

Sadly the night ended prematurely, due to Coltsblood guitarist Jemma McNulty needing hospital treatment after an allergic reaction. Hence four were reduced to two and focus therefore remained on Bastard Of The Skies: arguably the coolest band in the world right now, despite their friendly and unassuming demeanour, this lot demand your whole attention.

Space Witch on Facebook

Bastard of the Skies on Facebook

WORDS: PAUL QUINN

PHOTOS BY SAR PHOTOGRAPHY

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