, “We re giving people„ a voice
evanescence within temptation sharon & amy vs the world
Issue 328
THE BIG PICTURE
MASTERS OF SCARE-O-MONIES
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will ireland
What happens when you lock Italian goth metal superstars Lacuna Coil in the London Dungeon with 100 or so of their biggest fans? Answer: one of the most unique experiences we’ve ever witnessed at Metal Hammer, and, judging by this image, you sense that it was an experience the band enjoyed a little too much. Read all about Lacuna Coil’s shenanigans on page 62.
metalhammer.com 7
GODZILLA OR 20 DRACULAS? And other frighteningly weird questions you asked horror metal icon Wednesday 13. Well, ’tis the season… WORDS: ALI COOPER • PICTURES: jeremy saffer
Braced to unleash sinister
I didn’t think the last one would happen and crazier things have happened. Joey [Jordison] and I have a contact with each other, he speaks with other dudes in the band, the communication line is open. There’s nothing at all in the works, but that’s not to say something won’t happen in the future. I’m doing me right now, y’all.”
What are your favourite horror movies from the last few years? It feels like everyone milks the ‘classics’ but there’s so much good shit around at the moment!
When was the last time you were genuinely scared by something?
eighth album Necrophaze and embarking on a killer run of UK headline shows in the autumn, we asked the Duke Of Spook, Wednesday 13, to answer the best questions you lot could dig up. Luckily for you, he’s not scared of anything… except earthquakes, apparently.
Rikki Patel (email)
“The 2011 earthquake in Tokyo was the last time I was genuinely scared I was going to die. We were in Sendai, 200 miles away from Tokyo, it was a 9.5 earthquake all over the country so you could feel it non-stop all day with aftershocks. To get your balance outside, you had to stand like you were riding a surfboard on a really intense wave. I had trauma from it for
Cat Hanner (email)
“So you say! People tell me there’s a lot of great new horror movies but every time I try to watch them, they’re just not good. Maybe it’s because I’m older and I’ve got my favourites. I like older music and movies, it’s just one of those things. People kept telling me Get Out was good but I wanted to get out of the cinema, I hated it so much. I’ve only been up for a few hours today and I’ve already watched the original Poltergeist. The old stuff never gets old to me, I find new stuff in it all the time. Newer stuff doesn’t have that quality to me, there’s nothing that’s got me knocking walls down for something new. I’m OK parking my time machine in the 80s.”
“At the moment it’s just resting in the grave. I won’t say it’s dead because
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What’s the best horror movie soundtrack ever? Jennie Stoddet (email)
“If you want variety and a rock’n’roll soundtrack, there’s The Return of the Living Dead. That’s got 45 Grave’s Partytime and lots of cool stuff. I don’t know if it’s one of the best but it’s one of my favourites that I put on every October 1 and rock it all the way to Halloween. Then there’s any soundtrack from John Carpenter’s Halloween, Escape from New York or The Fog. That’s entrancing to me and I listen to it all the time.” Was growing up in Carolina difficult because of the ultra-religious environment considering the things you were interested in? @Danyoun38133810 (Twitter)
Will there ever be another Murderdolls reunion, or is that dead in the grave? @skold113 (Twitter)
a couple of years; I still get weird dizzy sensations every now and again where I instantly grab the wall. I love horror movies but natural disasters are the most intense, scary things ever – when the earth is saying ‘fuck you’, there’s nothing you can do except hold on. I was terrified but I can say I survived the second-biggest earthquake in recorded history!”
Wednesday 13’s band is his dream team.
“I don’t think it was as bad as people would think. Once you’re there it’s normalised and I didn’t think about it until I got older and wanted to piss people off, learned what made older people tick and pushed buttons. I always loved getting a reaction out
Wednesday 13 Sweeney Todd is risen… and he’s had enough of subtlety
“I WAS GENUINELY SCARED I WAS GOING TO DIE” metalhammer.com 11
NEW NOISE ROUND-UP
NEW NOISE
Lagerstein
Alestorm just too damn subtle for you? We have good news… WORDS: RICH HOBSON
COGNIZANCE A slab of death metal awesomeness that was definitely worth the wait WORDS: Sophie Maughan
Patience is certainly a virtue in the heavy metal
really sad about what had happened to us!” laughs vocalist Captain Gregaaarrr. “Especially when we had to fly straight that Alestorm aren’t the only band back after getting the visas sorted!” terrorising the high seas. Formed in They might be completely Brisbane in 2010, Lagerstein ridiculous, but Lagerstein spawned from a boredom are passionate about what with playing within the Sounds Like: they do and see worth in the decidedly dour local black Irresistible joy they bring to the world. and death metal scenes. campy, folky “The fun we have onstage “Every time we played a gig pirate fun with the fans is paramount to we’d be the ones making For Fans Of: what we do,” says drummer sure we rocked up to the Alestorm, Rusty Timbers, sagely. “We afterparty,” admits guitarist Korpiklaani, don’t believe in anything Neil ‘Rummy’ Rackers. Turisas less than putting 110% into “Everything was so serious Listen To: what you do onstage – it when all we wanted was to Drink The Rum always comes back.” do beer bongs onstage!” Prioritising the party Taking that party ethic and above all, Lagerstein are an infectiously letting it carry them across the world and endearingly positive force to plaster massive grins on the faces of passionate about bringing happiness fans wherever they go – whether that be into the world. “Are we having fun, playing to massive crowds at Wacken, or boys?” Rummy asks. “HELL YEAH!” entertaining guards from a tiny jail cell. is the roared response from the rest “On our 2014 tour we ended up getting of the band down the phone line, deported back to Australia because we reminding us that music isn’t always didn’t have the right visas,” Rummy about saving the world or expressing reveals. “We flew from Australia to emotion, but can also be about Singapore, then to Dubai, then having a really, really good time Heathrow and we ended up spending with your mates. the night in a tiny little jail cell.” “We started singing the songs while were in the cell and the guards were 25/7 is out now via Kegstand
IN SHORT
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IN SHORT
MALIGNANT DOMINION IS OUT NOW VIA PROSTHETIC
press
Aussie pissheads Lagerstein are proof-positive
world – particularly when it comes to the interminable wait for a band’s next opus. For Leeds-based death metallers Cognizance, however, the seven-year wait for their debut album has been time well spent creatively. Since their 2012 inception, they’ve released four EPs and three singles, collaborated with genre heavyweights such as Job For A Cowboy’s Jonny Davy and signed with Prosthetic Records, culminating with the brutally precise full-length Malignant Dominion. “We always got really positive feedback from [the EP’s] but people were always asking for a fulllength,” says guitarist Alex Baillie. SOUNDS LIKE: “We didn’t want to become a permanent Old-school death touring band – plus I’m pretty much metal spliced with writing songs constantly – so this tech-grooves and blackened was the next thing that would tick melodic flourishes that box and take us to the next level. It was just about waiting for that FOR FANS OF: Aborted, Crytopsy, opportune moment.” Job For A Cowboy With an emphasis on sonic balance, the record mixes hellish aggression and LISTEN TO: blackened grooves whilst examining the Strychnine Shift horrors of modern-day life, exploring concepts such as entropy, war and decay via a blood-soaked lyrical canon. For Cognizance, the devil is in the detail. “It was about writing it from a listener’s perspective. Personally, I find some of the newer tech-death stuff to be really inaccessible – especially if you’re a death metal fan hearing it for the first time,” Alex admits. “When it’s turned up to 11 constantly, it loses its effect. For me, it’s about compromise – finding that balance between groove and interesting riffs but at the same time, having songs which are less predictable. The main riff for Strychnine Shift has an early Slipknot vibe. I’ve taken bits of prog and jazz fusion and put them into the context of death metal. It leaves you with this well-rounded sound – each song is that bit different to the rest.”
NEW NOISE ROUND-UP
MTXS
Another step forward for the true sound of metalcore WORDS: HYWEL DAVIES
IN SHORT SOUNDS LIKE:
Unabashedly filthy, fistclenching metallic hardcore.
FOR FANS OF:
Lotus Eater, God Complex, Slipknot
LISTEN TO: Strain
Painful art hails from a painful place, and a great example of this is metallic hardcore up-andcomers MTXS’s sophomore album, Ache – a manifestation of all of society’s anxieties rolled into one of 2019’s most ferocious underground releases. Back in 2016, this Essex five-piece dropped their previous name, Far From History, and safer metalcore sound for something much more abominable. Ultimately, they wanted something that actually stands for what the genre truly represents. “There needs to be a re-evaluation of the word ‘metalcore’,” guitarist Aidan Cooper explains. “The stuff that’s coming about at the moment is true metalcore. Code Orange, Turnstile, Vein… they’re playing actual metal and actual hardcore. If you go back to the
roots, I guess they’re not really hardcore, according to the elitists,” he chuckles. “I love old-school stuff but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any adaptation.” Produced by Loathe’s own Erik Bickerstaffe, Ache is moving the genre forward. Fusing the ruthlessness of a young Slipknot with the tenacity of Hatebreed is a potent mix that only exacerbates the impact of their message about mental health and self-betterment, as Aidan explains:
“Ache is all about that feeling of when you’re just done! When you’re under so much stress you physically start to ache. It’s about getting through the pain, pushing back and bettering yourself in your own mind.” Healing starts with the self, but no one should ever deal with problems on their own. With these guys on your side, you’ll never walk alone again.
Ache is out now
IN THE KNOW What your favourite bands are listening to
YELLOW EYES
Two brothers brought together by black metal. Clearly a Disney movie waiting to happen WORDS: Tom O’Boyle
IN SHORT SOUNDS LIKE:
The exact point where melody and chaos converge… and do battle
FOR FANS OF:
Wolves In The Throne Room, Blut Aus Nord, MisϷyrming
LISTEN TO:
press
Warmth Trance Reversal
It was black metal that reunited
brothers Will and Sam Skarstad, Yellow Eyes’ guitarists and songwriters. “The break began when I was a high school metalhead,” remembers younger brother Will. “Sam was… the opposite.” “We had some vicious arguments,” agrees Sam, at the time more a fan of the Beach Boys than blastbeats. Years later, both were travelling Europe separately, finally meeting up in Prague. Will took Sam to a black metal gig. “It suddenly made sense to me – it was channelling something I’d never felt,” enthuses Sam. Now splitting their time between New York and a cabin they use for writing/recording, fourth album Rare
Field Ceiling represents the culmination of 10 years’ experimentation – unifying melodic hooks with raw chaos. “Our differences are our engine,” says Sam, and Yellow Eyes are bolstered by drummer Mike Rekevics and bassist Alex DeMaria. With a UK tour pencilled in for spring 2020, they’re currently holed up, plotting. “I want to see what happens if we forget our rules,” says Will. “We don’t have high production values, but we do have a sense of adventure; we’re willing to experiment and fail. How black metal is that?”
RARE FIELD CEILING IS OUT NOW VIA GILEAD MEDIA
DEFERENCE “This melodic hardcore outfit have been slogging it round the country and have honed their skills razor sharp. They are an incredible band, both live and on record. I really do hope it won’t be long before you see much more of them in a venue near you.”
DAVYD WINTER-BATES BURY TOMORROW
metalhammer.com 33
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IRON MAIDEN
As Iron Maiden took their huge Legacy Of The Beast tour to America, we headed to California to find out why events like these mean so much more than just a big rock’n’roll show WORDS: MERLIN ALDERSLADE • PICTURES: john mcmurtrie
IRON MAIDEN
jinjer
jinjer
After fleeing conflict in their homeland, Jinjer had to play everywhere they could to keep their dreams alive. We joined them on tour to find a band taking on the world – and winning Words: Rich Hobson • PICTURES: jake owens
iegburg is pleasant. Everything about the small German city is pleasant, from the faint, flowery aroma in the late summer air to the quaint buildings and tidy public park. Siegburg is pleasant, it is quiet, and it is precisely the kind of place bands usually miss off a tour itinerary. But not Jinjer, the Ukrainian metal sensation that has been rumbling through Europe endlessly since 2014. Case in point: Siegburg is their 71st show in Europe this year alone. “I don’t think we could be any different,” admits bassist Eugene Abdiukhanov. “I couldn’t imagine being home for long periods when there are people begging us to play.” And so, Siegburg. Its only venue is Kubana, a basement club on the outskirts of town. It is exactly the kind of small independent venue that in the UK would be the focal point of a local rock scene; your mate’s band played there, maybe you played there. But tonight, a sold-out show at Kubana transforms the sleepy town into a bustling hub of metallic activity, serving as the latest stop on Jinjer’s meteoric rise to prominence that, seemingly, came from out of nowhere. “It definitely wasn’t done overnight!” laughs Eugene. “Our first show in Western Europe was in Poland in 2014; the room was enormous and there were only 30 people there. It took a long time and a lot of building to get here. But [after] war broke out, we just couldn’t play at home anymore.” When Jinjer formed in 2009, they were literally a different band. Featuring a completely different line-up, they were metalcore hopefuls fighting a losing battle against genre
alcest
alcest
Neige has been seeing strange visions of heaven since he was a child. With Alcest, the singer has been trying to find his way back to paradise Words: Dave Everley • PICTURES: Andy Julia
téphane Paut was four years old when he saw his first vision of heaven, and he’s been chasing it ever since. This wasn’t a heaven in the Christian sense, he explains today. There were no bearded, omnipresent figures or angels plucking harps on clouds. But it was certainly heavenly. And it definitely wasn’t anywhere here on Earth. “It was this huge wave, like coming up on acid or something,” he says. “Then there was the picture of heaven. This glowing landscape, music floating in the air, colours that don’t even exist here. It was a spiritual experience that changed me to the core.” He had similar visions regularly throughout his childhood. What he saw was a little different each time, but it was always the same place. His mother took him to see mediums and spiritualists to find out what was happening to him. “Some of them said I wasn’t from here,” he says, then sighs. “Man, that’s the story of my life. Even my band doesn’t sound like anything else. I cannot find my place.”
ALBUM REVIEWS
COFFINS
Beyond The Circular Demise RELAPSE
Japanese doom-death veterans hold fast on their mortal coil
Alcest are returning to their blackened roots
ALCEST
Spiritual Instinct NUCLEAR BLAST
Gallic blackgaze pioneers head towards darker climes
Commonly credited as
pioneers of the blackgaze movement, French duo Alcest’s impact on modern metal has become more pronounced as time ticks by. Any band that has married blackened blastbeat fury to ethereally textured melodies surely owes them a debt and their legacy at this point seems assured. After the sweltering sun-kissed dream pop experiment of Shelter and the sprawling genius of the Princess Mononokeinspired Kodama, Spiritual Instinct immediately feels like a darker exploration of the soul. Principal songwriter and frontman Neige has described the band’s sixth album as “a very cathartic record” and something that “needed to get out of me.” Consequently, the six songs herein feel less methodically composed and more spiritually exorcised than we’ve become accustomed to from Neige and long-time collaborator/Les Discrets drummer Winterhalter. It’s no bad thing, just a subtle shift that will likely only be perceptible to the Alcest-obsessed.
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Beginning with a stirring and atmospheric intro typical of latterday Alcest, Les Jardins De Minuit wastes little time in going full throttle into a blackened dreamscape that will instantly sound familiar and comforting to fans. It’s the kind of multi-layered, dynamic opening that the band have perfected so well, utilising multiple tempo changes and dynamic shifts. Sapphire is the sort of driving dark power pop that only a band as well respected as Alcest can get away with in the pages of this magazine, whilst L’île Des Morts’ pulsating electronic pulse gives way to elegant and graceful waves of sound that are at once luscious and crushing. Spiritual Instinct is a strong consolidation of Alcest’s sound, even if it doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of their most recent output. Still, it’s a worthy follow-up to Kodama that further cements their place in the history and – most importantly – the progression of metal music. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Møl, Deafheaven, Les Discrets REMFRY DEDMAN
Demise? Sure, this is a Coffins album, so death is never far away. Circular? Well, it can reasonably be argued that the band resist the very idea of progress, preferring instead to dig themselves further into the crust-laden style of doomdeath they perfected years ago. Beyond? Anyone expecting experimentation will be disappointed. The rest of us will find much to love in this collection of chunky graveyard jams – riffs as a subtle as a sledgehammer, subhuman vocals, blunt caveman rhythms and squalling leads that add a touch of psychedelia to the band’s gloriously basic racket. More of the same from the Japanese churners, but sometimes the same is exactly what you need. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Church Of Misery, Bongzilla, Entombed JOSEPH STANNARD
COLD IN BERLIN
Rituals Of Surrender NEW HEAVY SOUNDS
Post-punk-infused doomsayers stake out their own, harsh turf
The latest opus from these London miserablists finds them growing in confidence and paying off the debt they owed to the likes of Electric Wizard and Siouxsie Sioux, meaning they’re now free to start staking out space on their own distinctive terms. Rituals Of Surrender provides much
by way of crunching, gutlevel heft, but it’s a stately gothic elegance that tends to prevail, the quartet weaving dark, shadowy tales lit only by moonlight and the flickering of candles. Central to all this is vocalist Maya, whose soaring, barely tamed voice carries hints of PJ Harvey, Jarboe and Julie Christmas, enabling her to slip effortlessly from quiet, haunted subtlety to worldending incandescence. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Paradise Lost, Dead Witches, Sisters Of Mercy ALEX DELLER
darkend
Spiritual Resonance DARK ESSENCE
Italy’s black metal ritualists hit an ambitious, emotional nerve
It would be unfair to suggest that bands who call their gigs ‘rituals’ often can’t cut it on record, but in the case of Italy’s Darkend, it’s still exhilarating to hear a band whose onstage altars are often adorned with near-naked supplicants prove so sophisticated beyond the visual trappings. Rather than rely on chants, bells and the like, the six tracks here forge the kind of vaulting, melodic architecture and impassioned vocal pursuit that, without a hint of compromise, tend to break black metal out to wider audiences. From The Three Ghouls Buried At Golgotha’s Watain-esque, crest-riding battery to the rich, billowing surge of With Everburning Sulphur Unconsumed, featuring a startling vocal turn from Lindy-Fay Hella, this is an epic clarion call that fully justifies its title. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Watain, Rotting Christ, Behemoth jonathan selzer
ALBUM REVIEWS
DEAD FEATHERS All Is Lost RIPPLE MUSIC
Psychedelic Chicagoans go for the mantric slow build
For many retro-psych bands, the steepest pitfall is the drive to recreate the sound of their influences without injecting any of their own personality into the music. With their fulllength debut, Chicago’s Dead Feathers navigate this precarious line with striking dexterity, conjuring an absorbing collection of bluesy 70s psychedelia powered by the bewitching vocals of Marissa Allen. It’s a slow-burner, with the heavy, driving tracks like Horse And Sands packed into the middle, while the front and back smoulder with languid psychedelic jamming and slow, ruminating blues like Smoking Gun. Druggy fretwork abounds but it’s Allen’s soulful croon that invests the material with vitality. Not as immediate as their 2016 EP, All Is Lost will nonetheless reveal its subtle charms through multiple listens. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Witch Mountain, Black Math Horseman, Horseback JOE DALY
E-L-R
Mænad
PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS Hypnotic, tension/release wonders from the Swiss peaks
Swiss post-doom trio E-L-R offer a cinematic experience on their debut full-length, a spiritual journey of reverberating guitars and
layered vocal harmonies. Repetition is a key element of music engineered to entrance. Glancing Limbs builds slowly towards cacophonous release, its ponderous introduction enriched with Amenra’s Colin van Eekhout playing the hurdy gurdy. He later contributes vocals to centrepiece Above The Mountains There Is Light. Shamanistic in its prevaricating percussion, it’s a six-minute build to cathartic release. Ambrosia takes a more straightforward approach to their hypnosis, vocals echoing as the music marches in circles to infinity. Dool’s Ryanne van Dorst sings on Lunar Nights. The spoken recriminations build to tremolo-picked, trebly cascades on a mobius loop of a record that pounds you with repetition until you are outside your head. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: The Ocean, Isis, Amenra TOM O’BOYLE
GATECREEPER Deserted RELAPSE
Arizona’s cult death squad return to kill and kill again
Death metal diehards can smell the real thing from miles away. One listen to Gatecreeper’s 2017 debut album, Sonoran Depravation, confirmed it; the Arizona crew tap directly into the genre’s primal essence and know exactly how to harness its powers. Deserted is unapologetically more of the same, but it’s heavier and more refined than its predecessor, with a startling number of riffs that will have old-school fans dribbling on their Treblinka demos. The opening title track delivers a flurry of deathly money shots, from the crippling
doom riff that hails a beginning to hostilities to the pummelling d-beats and Bolt Thrower-esque tank-crawls that drive things to a climax. It’s a hard act to follow, but everything from all-out assaults Puncture Wounds and Barbaric Pleasures to the funereal finality of Absence Of Light oozes class. ■■■■■■■■■■
SMALL MERCIES
ALICE COOPER
EYE FLYS
FOR FANS OF: Grave, Tomb Mold, Entombed
earmusic
THRILL JOCKEY
DOM LAWSON
GIDEON
Where EP is short for ‘Epic Potential’
The Breadcrumbs EP
Context
This limited edition, 10-inch EP features a mix of covers and originals, as Cooper taps local Detroit heroes such as the MC5’s Wayne Kramer to celebrate his garage-rock roots. Though unusually funky for Alice, they’re a lotta fun. ■■■■■■■■■■
Full Of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard and members of Backslider Triac join forces here for six tracks of hardcore sludge whose abrasive yet stoic, jagged might recalls Melvins, Flipper and Black Flag. ■■■■■■■■■■
dave ling
JOSEPH STANNARD
MORDIAN
MUNICIPAL WASTE
SELF-RELEASED
NUCLEAR BLAST
Out Of Control RUDE/EQUAL VISION
Alabama’s metalcore mavens get into confrontational mode
Carpe jugulum: ‘Seize the throat’ would accurately describe Gideon’s fifth effort, Out Of Control. The metalcore mainstays have dropped their Christian faith and, consequently, their 2019 guise proves to be their most confrontational yet. The anthem to lost patience of Sleep, the sharp blastbeats and haunting melodies of Take Me and Southwind truly pull no punches. Driven by a mission to snap spinal cords with Outlaw’s no-holdsbarred flair, the burdened Bite Down provides a safe opportunity to check your head is still attached to your neck, especially after the title fight throughout Denial. Charged with neat production, a dynamic guest spot from Stray From The Path’s Drew York for the atmospheric 2 Close and an impressively sneaky tempo change within the first few seconds of an outstanding Life Without. Gideon have created their defining album. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: August Burns Red, The Ghost Inside, Stick To Your Guns. ALI COOPER
Romance in Disguise
The Last Rager
This debut from chanteuse Mordian offers up five tracks bursting with orchestra-laden grandeur and soaring vocals. Closer Ninth Life offsets the EP’s penchant for emotive fragility with its smattering of symphonic thunder. ■■■■■■■■■■
These Virginia thrashers are back with four new injections of crossover mayhem. It’s only 10 minutes long but it’s stuffed with riffs and will induce over-zealous headbanging in everyone who listens. Job done, then. ■■■■■■■■■■
SOPHIE MAUGHAN
ELLIOT LEAVER
NESHIIMA
VULTURES
SELF-RELEASED
SELF-RELEASED
Green
Hunger
A contagious teaser for what these unpredictable Glaswegians can master, Green is doused in hardcore temperament, pumped with a dose of old-school hip hop, loaded with glittering solos and electronic sass. ■■■■■■■■■■
Somewhere between the technical maelstrom of Converge and the concreteblock-dropped-on-yourhead power of Terror sit Vultures. This is visceral, terrifying hardcore, full of spite and urgency, and bodes well for the future. ■■■■■■■■■■
ALI COOPER
STEPHEN HILL
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LIVE REVIEWS
VALIS ABLAZE DERANGE/XERO
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Some atmospheres are special. Tonight’s one-time-only gig is taking place 20 years (plus an added 10 minutes of goodnatured faffing about while technical gremlins are banished) after the release of HANGNAIL’s debut album, Ten Days Before Sunrise, and a packed Black Heart is awash in a celebratory fervour that feels like a close-knit family reunion. Emblematic of the same UK stoner boom that gave rise to Orange Goblin, Ten Days…’ wide range of styles from desert to psych, grunge and blues all found common cause in Harry Armstrong’s raw, soul-stirred vocals. He’s a charismatic, chatty and often humbled presence tonight, amazed at the affection still bound up in these songs. Overhang’s ruffled stoner gospel ignites an ecstatic flurry of flailing hair and raised fists, Slide/Slide’s rolling, mystic groove retains all its lithe expansiveness after all these years and Summer Rain’s Soundgardenfuelled elevating heft and luxurious bluesy, trip hoppy licks feel like a dormant strand of DNA being sparked back into life. The tracks from the follow-up album, Clouds In The Head, have a liberating urgency that transcends the nostalgic nature of the night, and as Hangnail wrap up, both band and audience are left in a state of blissful, grateful disbelief. jonathan selzer
WIEGEDOOD
BOSTON MUSIC ROOMS, LONDON
and subtle throwback to nu metal makes their vitriolic pop a raucous delight; tonight, those solidifying choruses tinged with metallic complexity lose their spark, even if the band give 100%. Alas, it’s the same story for VALIS ABLAZE, the most techy of this lineup and therefore even more reliant on a sharp sound system. Tom Moore plays an eight-string guitar (oh god, does that mean more noise?) and the speed of his fingers implies he’s playing something impressive but what we hear is quite different while the drums sound like a bin being chucked down a stairwell. The dynamic twinkles and crushes of Frequency, a quite pleasant nod to Tesseract, let this band shine but their encore – a repeat of Hollow Heart – is another Pyrrhic victory for a bunch of puffing and grinning bands who have no idea how 229 drove all their hard work into a sonic cesspit. What a shame. HOLLY WRIGHT
ALICE PATTILLO
UK tech maestros go to battle against sound gremlins
mashed and lacerated by the world’s loudest PA system isn’t fun. A very buoyant XERO, probably oblivious to the onset of migraines on the other side of the speakers, have drawn the short straw by playing first, but within the dirge they offer something curious. There are enough techy riffs to whet the appetite for the upcoming bands but their grungy subtones and Steff’s elongated occult-esque notes yearns for a ritualistic candle-lit venue to bring their darker side to life. DERANGE’s in-your-face rebellion takes a very different route to raising spirits. “London, can you hear me?!” screams vocalist Cat Pereira. Yes, we can, and people in Milton Keynes probably can too if someone doesn’t turn the noise down. With the painful and distorted sound continuing the band have no hope in hell of letting songs like their mammoth new drop, Higher, breathe. On record their intuitive connection with the crowd
THE BLACK HEART, LONDON
Within the three short years since their formation, Church Of Ra disciples WIEGEDOOD have produced a trilogy of albums, entitled De Doden Hebben Het Goed (‘The Dead Have It Good’) I/II/III, of which they are playing in their entirety, back to back, tonight. However, each track lasts on average eight or nine minutes – a format that exposes the members’ backgrounds in more avant-garde pursuits. This is further reflected in the mixed crowd of leatherclad black metal kvltists and Church Of Ra tote bag-wielding post-metallers here tonight. Beginning, of course, with their debut, precluded with some heavy atmospherics, the sludgy black metal of their acclaimed first album resonates beautifully. The shift in tempo when the Belgians kick into II is a much-needed mid-set energy boost, the crowd noticeably picking up as they kick into II’s opener, Prowl. It’s great to hear the clear evolution of the band from atmosphere-heavy through griefstricken wails to pure aggression, yet without stage antics, crowd addresses, visuals or even a lick of corpsepaint, it’s difficult to maintain an audience’s full enthusiasm for a two solid hours. Add a bit of drama next time, guys?
229 THE VENUE, LONDON
FYI 229, having your eardrums
HANGNAIL
tina korhonen
Valis Ablaze: being louder than everything else isn’t always ideal
Duff McKagan: sober, yet elegantly wasted
DUFF MCKAGAN ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL, LONDON
Guns N’ Roses bassist gets intimate in Angel “We’ve been writing a song
marie korner
9000
LIVE REVIEWS
about every city we’ve been to,” Duff McKagan tells us, before launching into an apparently impromptu tribute. ‘London, Oh London,’ he sings, ‘I’ve been in love with you ever since I played The Marquee.’ It’s a reference to Guns N’ Roses’ first shows in the capital, back in 1987, and it’s not the only time his parent band get a look-in on a night that’s about as far away from Welcome To The Jungle as you can imagine. Duff also plays three songs from Use Your Illusion I: You Ain’t The First and Dust N’ Bones (both originally sung by Izzy Stradlin), as well as an effervescent romp through Axl’s Dead Horse. Unlikely choices, perhaps, but they fit the musical landscape Duff is currently exploring. As with his new album, Tenderness, most of the set feels like it’s been lifted from the second side of The Stones’ Sticky Fingers, the kind of loose, country-tinged blues’n’roll
that provided the likes of Johnny Thunders and Nikki Sudden with a living. The kind of songs critics like to describe as ‘elegantly wasted’. With backing from a band that includes Shooter ‘Son of Waylon’ Jennings (who, Duff tells us, has just finished producing the next Marilyn Manson album), it’s a nice mix of ragged and rowdy. It’s also surprisingly tender. Parkland, which is cloying on the album, packs added emotional punch as Duff adds two recent mass shootings – Dayton and El Paso – to the lyrics. And there’s love in the air; the day after the 20th anniversary of his marriage, Duff dedicates Wasted Heart to his wife (“I fuck it up every time you’re in the room,” he says, wistfully), and the pair slow-dance together onstage as tonight’s set teeters on the brink of soap opera. Guys, get a room. FRASER LEWRY
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