Volume Twenty: Wasted By The Terror

Promoter: Undercore Promotions

Date: Saturday 26th January 2013

Venue: The Joiners, Southampton

Bands: Terrathorn, Laid Wasted, Terror Drone

 

Happy new year all and it’s a (hopefully) welcome return from the Misplace Metalhead after over 2 months off. Sorry about that, couple of gigs I didn’t get round to reviewing due to Christmas and other such reasons. Now that all that 2012 nonsense is out of the way and I have emerged from my Anti-Mayan bunker hungry for some more metal, it was time to go see an old friend in the form of Southampton’s Joiners.

Having come here directly from a very busy day at work; at that point sitting down with a pint was akin to being blessed by the Gods themselves so, as you can imagine, I started the night praying that the euphoria would continue and that opening newcomers Terror Drone would not dampen my already tenuous spirits.

Unlike most ‘newcomers’ I see these guys really were new in the most literal sense, this being their first gig EVER. Despite never having played before, these Gosport upstarts managed to bring a pretty sizable crowd with them, a few of whom I recognised from previous gigs as being legitimately fucking mental and great moshers so the expectation was understandably high, so high in fact that I’ve managed to go for two paragraphs without actually talking about music. Many apologies, I’ll get right to it.

Starting with a piece of pretty respectable old school thrash, Drone’s vocalist Tom Grundy wasted no time showcasing his impressive vocals, spitting with all the intensity of Hetfield combined with the balls out screeching dragged kicking and screaming from the world of glam. With each song the intensity only rose higher and higher and the crowds responded in turn, stirring up pits and stage dives faster than I’ve ever seen a small time band achieve.

 Backing Grundy most noticably was bassist Jack Martin, whose sure footed and assured lines came completely at odds with his flare as a showman, goading and riling the devoted followers alongside his frontman, all the while never missing a single note. It’s not often you see a bass player outshine his fellow axesmiths (Lemmy, Les Claypool et al excused of course) but Martin managed it. Technically, guitarists Rory Sheppard and Sam Todd gave all the talent which the quickfire thrash tunes demanded but behind Grundy and Martin they did occassionally blend into the back a little. The solos kicked some serious fucking arse though.

 All in all, Terror Drone gave a tremendously focused performance which never took its foot off the pedal once. With some bands, a little variation in delivery can do wonders but I feel that, with the way these guys play, trying to get too introspective or sombre would’ve just run the atmosphere straight into the ground. Think of the technical tightness of Toledo Steel combined with the ferocious, reckless abandon of Desolator and you have this brand new band: Terror Drone.

 So from one band I (or anybody else) had ever seen to one who was getting plenty of my attention in recent months. Filling the middle slot tonight was the Winchester Doomy/Deathy/Thrashy Metal as Fuck band Laid Wasted.

While a chunk of the audience, noticably Terror Drone’s fans, chose this middle set to leave (I’ll get on to why that fucks me off eventually), there was still enough of us around to create a suitable crowd. A few, like me, were ready to hear some familiar songs from a familiar band, while there was a noticable sense of ‘impress me’ from a lot of others. Let’s face it, the bar was set pretty fucking high.

Whilst opening number ‘Panic’ (A title I’m guessing purely from Sean Walsh’s introduction) was somewhat underwhelming to some of the crowd, the momentum managed to pick up from song two onwards and by the time ‘Not Interested’ hit the speakers, the jarring, technical insanity had taken hold and a pit was all but inevitable. From this halfway point the ‘impress me’ part of the crowd were, for the most part, suitably impressed, and stalwart tracks from the EP like ‘Run’ and, most noticably, ‘Lost’ really hit home, sounding more aggressive and powerful than ever before.

I can pretty safely assume that, as a new year’s resolution, Laid Wasted decided to sell their souls to Satan as they have taken the already high benchmark even fucking higher. Guitarists Joe Tanner and Joe Long have taken it up to eleven with the sonic witchery they invoke shredding, drummer Clive Lusmore seems more in control of the myriad song structures than ever before and, with his psychotic eyes, fiery delivery and general batshit prescence onstage, you’d be forgiven for thinking vocalist Sean Walsh was the demon who gave them directions to Satan’s house in the first place.

So, with a relatively short band list, we come to the end of it with possibly one of my most highly reviewed local bands: Party Thrash stallions Terrathorn. On the higher stage of The Joiners, vocalist James Hayball’s usual trick of joining the pit to incite some madness was off the cards but, fortunately, there were enough certifiably mental fuckers such as myself there to do this with or without his help.

 While bands such as Terror Drone or Toledo Steel use the classic formulas to create their music, Terrathorn seem to say ‘Thrash’ as a starting point…and then do whatever the fuck they want. Whilst obviosuly routed in the thrash ethos, Terrathorn have chopped the concept into bits and then recreated it to fit firmly in the contemporary setting, creating a sound both familair and unlike pretty much all the other thrash bands playing right now. 

 It’s this uniqueness with their sounds which is why Terrathorn are so fun to watch. They do what they want and fuck you if you don’t like it. Fortunately for everybody involved, we did like it, so the moshpit which started from song one progressed pretty much consistently to the end of the set, including the rarely seen oblong pit (partly due to the band, partly due to the fact that The Joiners is a really fucking odd shape).

The only thing which really put a downer on this set was the fact that it would be the last forseeable gig for guitarist Dan Nunn, who would soon be leaving the country for a while (I’m all about the specifics). It always sucks when pivotal members leave a band this tight but, ever the partiers, Terrathorn turned this downer into a celebration and invited us all to join in with the fun, finishing the set with their usual cover of ‘Battery’ but throwing in ‘Seek and Destroy’ and even some Megadeth to keep us moshing right through to the curfew, not even blinking or missing a beat when half the audience leapt onstage halfway through Seek, stage diving off one by one until only the band remained.*

I think the thing which makes Terrathorn so fun to watch is just the way they deal with each and every thing thrown at them. Losing a guitarist sucks, some of the reviews mentioned by Hayball weren’t exactly complimentary but the band take this shit and respond with a resounding ‘fuck it!’, launch into a solo and then punch the irritating fucker in the face.

Whatever happens, as long as shows like their Joiners extravaganza keep up, they’ll always have good reviews from me.

 

Summing Up:

Terror Drone: 8/10
Laid Wasted: 9/10
Terrathorn: 10/10

 

*Personal note: When stage diving always make sure the people catching you are evenly distributed to catch your body. Full on collision between somebody’s skull and your jawbone is not fun. Trust me on this one.

 

Volume Twelve: The Mosh! All Dayer

Mosh! All Dayer

Promoter: Mosh! Winchester

Date: Saturday 21st July 2012

Venue: The Railway, Winchester

Bands (that I saw): Terrathorn, Bloodshot Dawn, Bloodworks, Furyborn, Biolith, Duke of Agares.

In the world of metal, all day events can be a double edged sword. On the one hand you’ve got a great opportunity to bring a whole horde of bands together to perform and dedicate an entire day to kicking arse and moshing out. One the other, the unfortunate side effect of this bastard condition called ‘reality’ is that your job can frequently get in the way, something I experienced first hand at the Mosh! All Dayer which started at 2pm while I was still at work until 5.30. Come 6 o’clock I had arrived and quickly made my way into the venue to catch as much of a glimpse as I possibly could.

Since I started writing reviews and coming to gigs here at The Railway I have definitely developed a couple of favourites who I will make a special effort to see and, as I ran into the Railway’s back room, I was happy to see I hadn’t missed one of my top bands: Dukes of Agares. Even though I only managed to catch the closing fifteen minutes of the set The Dukes still sounded as if they were in great fucking form. The gritty power with which they hammer through their songs is something which makes them great and this was in no short supply in the closing two songs of the gig; particularly ‘Shadow Walker’, which was ony let down by the meagre mid afternoon crowd. Despite the song’s hypnotising opening drums and the crushing riff accompanied by the great vocal work of Kinch and Yabsley the song failed to take off and left the chant-along middle section sounding a little silly. Unfortunately it seemed like most of the crowd were either outside or saving themselves for the next 4 hours with only myself and a few others as exceptions. Nevertheless, this was a solid performance by The Dukes and although the crowd energy was low during the set; the resultant appreciation proved that it did not fall on deaf ears.

Next up to the Great Metal Gauntlet were the Death Metal as Fuck Biolith, who this time were in possession of a permanent bassist and left behind their comedy gold stage invaders (as seen in the Volume Seven review). Without these distractions in place it was just us and the music and it seemed like Biolith had brought their fans out in force for this show, with the whole front of the stage lined with headbangers thrashing away to the glory of this Death tinged sound of nightmares. There was a furious aggression to Biolith’s set which totally captured the crowds, not even letting up when vocalist Luke’s mic cut out halfway through the set. Luke himself was great to watch onstage, striding from side to side fully assured of the control his band held over the room. However, whilst assured physically, the vocals were occasionally swallowed up by the brutal bass and drum lines which had a tendancy to overpower the other instruments. We didn’t care though, these levels of sonic fucking fury were exactly what we came here for and Biolith certainly delivered.

At this point I’d had enough to drink and moshed enough that I decided I needed some air (and another pint) so I’d like to apologise to Furyborn for missing the opening couple of minutes of their set, as I spent the time outside discussing French gore movies with some friends. I’m getting side tracked. Fuck. On with the review! After a set as sonically and physically punishing as Biolith’s, the surprisingly catchy Metal offered by Furyborn punctured the room with a whole new energy. Combining the stalwart shreds and screams of true Death Metallers the set even flared with almost Power Metal-esque offerings of clean vocals from Jut Tabor and ferociously technical fretwork from the bald behemoth figure of Ollie Roberts. This varied approach hit the perfect balance with neither the harsh nor the clean over reaching its opposite while the rhythm section of Shred (guitars/vocals), Matt Wilson (bass/vocals) and Jamie Dowding (drums) were perfectly comfortable at whichever pace they chose to set, making even the fastest shreds and blasts look simple. By the end of the set I was not only totally fucked on booze but totally pumped for whatever came next.

What sort of Mosh! All Dayer would it have been were it not for these next guys? The shining hope of Metal in Hampshire (If anybody disagrees, I strongly suggest you go fuck yourself). That’s right, Bloodworks are back. Having now appeared in no less than a third of my reviews you’re probably well aware of my opinion of Bloodworks by now. The boys go from strength to strength with each set they play and as the evening rolled into night time they proved yet again that they have what it takes. Although the sound is, at times, a little homogenous this just amplifies the fury with which these guys play as each and every song is just as unrelenting as the last one – taking the audience by the scruff of the neck and screming into their eyes until their skull explodes from sheer awesomeness. ‘Dead and Buried’ is always a highlight to watch as it really showcases the creative flair and intricate tap work by Kieran, Truk and particularly Lewis, who not only possesses the most beautiful guitar ever conceived but sure as hell knows how to use it, truly earning the right to bear the name ‘Dime’ on this instrument of doom. Fuck these guys are good. Just. Fuck.

So with the sunlight dwindling to nothingness we only had two more bands to see and I was, for lack of a better phrase, totally and utterly fucked. Of course, as the Gospel according to Dimebag will attest, this is the ideal state to rock the fuck out to some of the best shit out there so, with that said. I was in for a pounding as Bloodshot Dawn thundered into their opener. From start to finish while these guys were on we barely had a second to catch our breath as the whole set went from strength to strength. Wailing guitars, crushing bass, vocal tenacity and unbridled drums. With a relentless vigour that few bands are capable of, the Death Metal fourpiece opened up Pandora’s Box to all the horrors inside, ensnaring the captive audience like chains around a demon horde. Pits sprung up, hair and limbs flailed wildly and the floor was aflame with the sheer unadulterated joy of Metal. We could see the band were having fun as well, which made the show even better as sometimes a set can live or die on how its performed. Suffice to say, Bloodshot Dawn don’t just play their music, the live it and have a fucking great time in doing so.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a crowd as pumped up as we were following the stellar set by Bloodshot Dawn but it was clear that Terrathorn would have a tremendous challenge on their hands just to keep up that level of fucking momentum. Fortunately, as Terrathorn have proved before, momentum is what they’re all about. Right from the start the self styled ‘Party Thrash’ five piece rushed the crowd with an extra surge of adrenaline, pumping their modern twist of classic thrash through our veins and reigniting the fire let by the many bands of the all dayer. It’s the sheer energy of a Terrathorn show which makes them an amazing band to watch and a lot of this credit has to go to the phenomenal stage work of James Hayball (vocals) who not only makes the stage his bitch but makes it is his business to claim the pit as well; striding out to greet us and get us fucking rocking. From about two songs in each number came with its own pit the likes of which you only see when people have been drinking for 8 hours. Even though I managed to get quite painfully launched into the stage, creating a sizeable bruise on my arm and a potential concussion from the monitor, I couldn’t help but think this was fucking amazing. Of course a gig this great, both for Terrathorn as a band and Mosh! in general, demands a closer worthy of its scope and the Southampton boys didn’t disappoint with their own cover of Metallica’s Battery. That’s right, you heard, in a 140 capacity venue with people who had been drinking since 2pm we were treated to fucking Battery. I don’t think I saw a single person outside of the pit as this number came to a close and rightly so – it’s a classic for a reason and the band who performed it were nothing short of flawless.

So that was the Mosh! All Dayer, or at least most of it. I can only send my apologies to the many bands I didn’t get to and ask that they blame society’s pathetic insistence that a guy needs money just to eat, get pissed or buy PS3 games (First World Problems). I can only hope that this isn’t the last we’ll be hearing from Mosh! for a while but frankly, if they want to put their feet up and enjoy some time off after a stellar gig like that I wouldn’t fucking blame them. This Metalhead will certainly be waiting.

Summing Up

Dukes of Agares: 7/10
Biolith: 7/10
Furyborn: 8/10
Bloodworks: 9/10
Bloodshot Dawn: 9/10
Terrathorn: 10/10

Volume Three: Mosh! December 2011

Promoter: Mosh Winchester

Date: Saturday 3rd December 2011

Venue: The Railway, Winchester

Bands: Dendera, Codex Alimentarius, Ruins of Earth, Terrathorn

Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I managed to miss the epic metal night Mosh back in November and with a day of work, not a lot of sleep and Defenders of the Faith no more than two days previous I was definitely in danger of missing this one too. However, I took it upon myself to man the fuck up and get out there for another night of heaviness and, frankly, I’m glad I did.

A long way away from the huge proscenium arch and vast audience space of the Guildhall two nights before, it was fun returning to the dark and dingy back room of The Railway pub. The sprawling homeland of underground and undiscovered music, this specific venue holds some particularly fond memories for me and being back here after a two month abscence I was looking forward to some hardcore moshing in the tiny space.

Taking the stage first were Portsmouth band Dendera and they approached their set with an aggressive and powerful vigour which belied their position as opening support. You never expect to like the opener that much and, in my experience, I’m often pleasantly surprised by what I find. In this case such a sentiment would be an understatement. These guys fucking rocked. Vocalist Ashley Edison owned the stage with his powerful headbanging and awe-inspiring prescence, compounded by his voice simultaneously conjuring memories of the best of Bruce Dickinson and Tom Araya. The rest of the band made their mark too, with impressive fretwork by guitarist Steve Bain and bassist Gary Jones, but I couldn’t help but feel that they were more like background scenery to the power of their frontman, not least helped by their choice to wear almost entirely black onstage. Yes that is pretty metal, but without a bit of variety it’s just dull to look at. If you’re gonna be live, be live! At least add a fucking bullet belt or a band t-shirt guys, please. Looks aside musically these guys were as fucking tight as anything and the ferocious riffage gave the impression of a young, contemporary, rough around the edges Maiden. Admittedly there is scope to say these guys were sounding a little too like a Maiden tribute but, let’s face it, Maiden fucking rule. If no bands ever tried to sound like them then the metal industry would be dead on its arse. Fact.

Dendera have some serious talent going for them and their interaction with the audience was exactly the sort of thing that makes these bands worth seeing. If anything the small crowd watching the guys did let them down a bit as opposed to the other way round and I would love to see them stretch their metal muscles again to a larger crowd, really getting the reaction hard fucking rockers like these deserve.

Completely poles apart from the NWOBMH influenced rock out of Dendera came the second support; a Gothenburg styled six-piece in the form of the oddly named Codex Alimentarius (in the words of vocalist Stephen Bending ‘a fucking mouthful’). Now, getting this out of the way first – Bending personally earns a trophy for the night for looking the part of ‘Metal as Fuck’. Black boots, trousers, gloves, shirt, waistcoat and tie, bald head , epic facial hair and facial piercings – this guy lived, breathed and bled metal. The band themselves, true to the image of their frontman were equally metal as fuck and unleashed an assault on the sense leaving me in the mind of Slipknot’s Wall of Sound style of playing. This shit was brutal, uncompromising and without pretention. Guitarists Elliot Alderman-Broom, Stan Kemble and Tim Wright each brought their own piece of excellence to the formula with the polyphonic wash of guitar effects that the trio brought accompanied by the crushing rhythm of bassist Andrew Dicker and drummer Frank Dennis.

As raw, brutal, incredible and fucking metal as this band were though my mind kept occupying itself with one thought. Why three guitarists? Yes there are plenty of great bands out there sporting a three pronged guitar assault (the aforementioned Maiden included) but I couldn’t help but think that I’d seen the exact same levels of hardcore metal from a band sporting two. Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe the bass of a small venue sound system just drowned out the guitarist providing a rhythm line, I just could not get this thought out of my head, that with 3 guitars they could up that game just a little more. These guys were fucking awesome, don’t get me wrong, I just think by having that third guitarist they really need to prove themselves with a sound that can stand out. They’ve got the tools, let’s just see if the talent is there to match.

Now we come to a pretty difficult part of the review. Lead support act Ruins of Earth are fucking hard to review; not because their music is transcendental or anything, but because their lead singer Brian Turner was genuinely absent for the whole gig. This left us with the sight of a two guitar, bass and drum thrash band belting out the riffs and solos usually underscoring a well thought out and emotionally charged bellow of a furious frontman. The four remaining members did not disappoint at all though.

You don’t expect a band with this style of sound to come out with instrumentals that work, something in the formula just seems all wrong, but they genuinely did. These guys worked. These guys rocked. Each of the four remaining members were ferocious in their performance and made a mosh so fucking epic and easy that it was like I was watching one of the great established bands. Instrumentals are tricky at the best of times but this visceral assault was so untempered and unhindered by the emotional direction and focus of a lyric sheet that it allowed for me and the other rockers to put our own meaning there, our own emotion, and really feel the music on a whole different level. Hmm, whaddya know, turns out these guys weren’t difficult to review.

So now we come to headliners Terrathorn. As uncompromising and brutal as the supports had been Terrathorn proved to everybody why they were headlining by upping the ante just that little bit more. Vocalist James Hayball engrossed himself with his moshing crowd as seemlessly as a consumate professional, moving in and about them to puncture their music through to everybody and making sure not one was left behind. I know in a previous review I have derided the ‘singer offstage’ approach but this time it just seemed to work, maybe because it was more about the fans, about inclusion, about fun. Possibly the thing I will take most from Terrathorn’s set was their sense of fun in what they were doing, never once taking themselves too seriously (An approach, I must say, was one shared by each of the great bands tonight). Let’s face it, Metal can be pretty goofy, pretty silly sometimes and these guys knew that. They enjoyed themselves and, as a result, so did the fans.

That said they were not a fun-metal band in the vein of Tenacious D or Steel Panther, the thrash provided by the band made me reviewing them a bit tricky as I spent most of their gig windmilling and not watching the stage at all. They asked us to mosh, we moshed, on and on and on. Admittedly their penultimate song did go on a bit, meaning I didn’t have much left in the tank for their closer but once I heard the opening strains I knew I could summon the last gasp up. Finishing the gig with an ‘encore without leaving the stage’, Terrathorn gave the crowd what they wanted; a phenomenal cover of Metallica’s Battery which lead to a pit encompassing more of the floor than I think I’ve ever seen in The Railway.

It was truly the perfect end to an amazing night.

Summing Up:

Dendera: 8/10
Codex Alimentarius: 7/10
Ruins of Earth: ?/10 (Haven’t technically seen them live yet, otherwise 9/10)
Terrathorn: 9/10