October of last year saw the tragic, untimely demise of Evile bassist Mike Alexander. For such a young band said to be ‘carrying [thrash metal]’s revival on their shoulders’, it really was a shock to the community, and for a short time their future as a group was in doubt. Thankfully, fortune smiled upon them with the arrival of new bassist Joel Graham, and a UK tour to further promote new full-length ‘Infected Nations’ (and its Maidenesque cover art) and keep the metal flag flying high.

Israel’s The Fading do their best to work up tonight’s (notably young) crowd, with some textbook stage banter and melodeath frettery. The venue is more empty than half-full, and polite applause and a small, brief moshpit is just about the only response from the crowd, apart from the usual support band-piss-taking jeers from the lads at the bar. Compared to them, Calfornia’s Warbringer are the bomb. Some tasty Exodus-y noise is battered out by the fivesome, who have the long-haired, beer-drinking, pot-smoking, cop-bothering thrash image down to a tee; the kind of American headbangers you see in the likes of Wayne’s World or Bill & Ted. Vocalist John Kevill has something of an early Mike Patton about him, throwing shapes and pulling mad faces as ‘Living In A Whirlwind’ becomes a reality; the first of many circle pits has begun.
Read the rest »

The poster on the wall inside the Glasgow Auditorium on this rainy November evening reads ‘They keep killing him… and he keeps coming back!’. Which is very true; Alice Cooper has been performing for over four decades now (!), being - amongst other gruesome acts - hung, electrocuted, maimed, decapitated and strangled in his legendary live show, but is still going strongly, shocking and grossing-out adults and bores everywhere he goes. Even ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett called him ‘obscene’. What’s that? Oh, yeah, that is the same Mr. Blunkett who got caught shagging his married secretary and breaking ministerial laws for personal gain. But I digress.

First up are Man Raze, who can count Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and The Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook in their ranks. They’ve also got Simon Laffy from Girl on bass (I’d never heard of him either). They fare well tonight on their first Scottish show, with a nice hard rock sound and covers of The Stooges’ ‘Search And Destroy’ and The Jam’s ‘That’s Enterainment’. One very satisfied punter in the front row gives them a standing ovation after every song. Not the greatest of bands, but an enjoyable little act and a nice wee side project for the members nonetheless.
Read the rest »

I was flicking through some god-awful Metro-style paper on the Chicago L-Train when the night’s entertainment listings caught my eye. Bob Dylan and his band were playing some fancy downtown club, and perennial stoner-rock campaigners Fu Manchu were playing the ‘Double Door’ out in North Chi’. Needless to say, the choice was obvious.

Admittedly, Fu Manchu could be accused of getting increasingly commercial, over-produced and frankly uninspired in their studio output in recent years - in fact they (arguably) haven’t produced a truly solid album since 2001’s ‘California Crossing - but it has never been in doubt that they are an absolutely cracking live band. I get the feeling that with the generation of bands emerging today, going out on tour just isn’t as important as it should be; everyone just gets their single out on iTunes and headlines a minor stage at Download three weeks later. After all, who really wants to live out of a van, surviving on cheap beer and gas station food? Well, Fu Manchu, that’s who. They’re the ultimate road warriors, having spent their entire lives in an epic circuit of the USA (and when we occasionally get lucky, Europe), only taking the odd month off to churn out a new album to tour for. The latest excuse is their 10th album, ‘Signs of Infinite Power’, out earlier this month, and the Fu chose to hit Chicago not only on a saturday night, but on Halloween.
Read the rest »

Steel Panther have at last been unleashed upon a largely unsuspecting world. For years now, they’ve been a house band, putting on weekly shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, showcasing their parody of the 80s glam movement through ridiculously suggestive lyrics and over-the-top rock music. For the first time, they’ve broken free of the LA/Vegas circuit and gone out on tour; and yet this, the second date of their first appearance on British soil, sold out weeks before the show. That tells you a lot about Steel Panther straight off the bat.

That said, the evening didn’t get off on the greatest foot, at least in my book; this was not the fault of Steel Panther, however, but of the way the gig itself was organised. The doors opened at seven (people were queuing at six!) and Panther took to the stage at around nine. You’d think that would be a good slot to fill with support bands, indeed that’s the conventional way to do things. For some reason, at this gig we were instead treated to a guy standing on the stage frowning at a laptop, playing predictable songs (Sweet Child O’ Mine, Highway to Hell, Crazy Train, ad nauseum) on what sounded like Windows Media Player. I hope to pretty much each and every god that he wasn’t getting paid for that. The end result was in essence like being in a very busy pub, with no seats, populated by cross-dressers, for two hours.
Read the rest »

Overcoming an initially dodgy reputation among festival-goers, Hellfest in Clisson, France has become the prime contender to usurp Wacken Open Air as Europe’s premier metal weekender. Germany’s much beloved metal Mecca might have the prestigious reputation but a glance at Hellfest’s incredibly varied line-up tells you who has the bands this year.

Hellfest has wisely imitated Wacken’s dual-main stage approach to ensure maximum musical saturation but also boasts logistical advantages over WOA with a huge supermarket only 10 minutes’ walk away, allowing festival-goers to stock up on fresh supplies and well-priced booze every day. This is just as well as on the other hand, the Clisson-fest’s on-site food prices are rather high and the less said about that awful, Download-blighting beer token system, the better. Oh, security could probably do with tightening in future as our party have fully pitched up before tickets are checked and wristbands issued.

These are of course, only minor quibbles when there’s such an incredible array of bands to enjoy over three days; so many in fact that watching half-sets is often begrudgingly necessary in order for this writer to sample as many bands as possible.
Read the rest »

The weather’s unpredictable, there’s no foreign exchange rate to distract from the high beer prices and wasps buzz around on their endless campaign of annoyance; it’s good to see nothing’s changed in my two year absence from a UK open air festival. In its five years of existence, Bloodstock Open Air has cemented its reputation as the UK’s equivalent to the mighty Wacken festival and given that the BOA site is roughly only 1/10 the size of said German ‘fest, there’s plenty of potential for growth. Such reduced surroundings are no disadvantage though: frequent spottings of participating musicians and regular re-encounters with newly made friends (you know: those cool people you drank with last night and never expected to see again all weekend) bring a greater feeling of intimacy and community. This reviewer certainly never anticipated such a sense of unity at a UK ‘fest (marred by one idiotic event – more on that later).
Read the rest »

So here we go again. 2009 marked the 7th Anniversary of Download at the historic Donington Park. With few highlights last year (Kiss, Disturbed and Spinal Tap-esque backdrop malfunctions during Judas Priest aside) 2009 didn’t need to do much to surpass

Friday
Hollywood Undead – A suitably nu-metal opening to a day featuring the Bizkit, Korn and Faith No More. Everything about this band screams 1999, from the masks to the lumpen, downtune riffs and rhymes about bitches and hoes. Still strangely enjoyable though (3/5). In This Moment – The only interesting things about this band are the delectable Maria Brink and her mighty scream. Fact (2/5) Staind (3/5) Surprising heavy showing from Aaron Lewis and co, makes you wonder why they’re so fucking morose on record. Billy Talent (4/5) really enjoyed this band. Great tunes, new material sounds ace and they got the crowd pumping. KsE (5/5) Superb, tight as hell and that’s just Adam D’s hotpants. They would have been the band of the day if it weren’t for the acts that followed. Howard’s vocals weren’t always spot but with mass sing-along’s to belters like ‘Rose of Sharyn’ and ‘My Last Serenade’ it didn’t matter one bit. Limp Bizkit (5/5) Fucking superb they were. Was curious to see how this would go down but opening with ‘Break Stuff’ was the right move. It really was genuinely exciting to see the Bizkit back on stage tearing it up. Phenomenal. Korn (4/5) Tough act to follow but Korn delivered a set with their typical vigour and passion. ‘Thoughtless’ was a very nice surprise but the Pink Floyd cover was a bit of an energy sapping misfire, especially after the one-two punch of ‘Blind’ and ‘Got the Life’. Faith No More (5/5) A set full of heaviness and wonderful eccentricity. Watching Mike Patton go from charming crooner to screaming madman was totally enthralling. Seeing the lighters out for ‘Easy’ was awesome, as was a bizarre yet brilliant cover of Lady GaGa’s ‘Poker Face’.
Read the rest »