Sacred Reich, Contradiction -
London Scala - 29th of July 2007 - Review by Marco Gaminara
Wow. The Scala is a really nice venue to watch bands. Easy to see
that I've never been there, huh? Well anyway, having already been
there for an hour, I got myself a good spot for the night where I
could see the whole stage and shortly before 8,
Contradiction went on to play
their 40 minute set. They are a German Thrash band, and they sound
it too. Tight drumming with plenty of double kick, a solid bass
rumble to accompany it with driving guitar rhythms. Vocals are
reminiscent of the 80's bands they styles themselves on, namely
Sodom, Tankard, Kreator, or perhaps that's just the Germanic accent.
;-) Giving a wide selection of old and new tracks, the titles I
recall were "The Voice Of Hatred", "Nation Of Fear" and "All We
Hate!". Bassist Karsten Heyn also appeared to enjoy wandering around
in the middle of the mosh pit, which he did a couple times during
their set. They also did a cover of Sepultura's "Dead Embryonic
Cells", which had the pit flailing about substantially. They
appeared to really enjoy their first trip out to the UK.
Sacred Reich: With just over
half an hour of changeover taking place, the venue managed to pack
itself up to what felt like capacity and as the lights dimmed, the
chanting began. Walking up to his mic, Phil said "Perhaps this is
even more relevant today. No truth, no justice..." and we roared
back "The American Way" and the fun began. Next up was
"Administrative Decisions" where the moshing began in earnest. With
Wiley and Jason grinning ear to ear on either side of him, Phil
recommended caution in the pit, pointing out "when you fall in a pit
when you're 20, you bounce up, when you fall in a pit when you're
40, you go to hospital. So help each other out and look after each
other". Nice words coming from a man that would immediately play
"Violent Solutions" straight after saying them. And admittedly,
watching the pit was a bit like watching old people fuck, there was
plenty of enthusiasm and passion, but it just wasn't as active as it
would've been 20 years ago.
Sticking mostly to tracks from 'Ignorance' and 'The American Way',
"Independent" was the newest track that was aired tonight, Phil let
us know that they weren't going to be playing anything new, because,
and we all admitted that it was true, we were there to recapture our
youth and in order to do that, we only wanted to hear the tracks
that we heard then. A couple other notable mentions to the set were
"Love...Hate", "Crimes Against Humanity" and "Ignorance". I had to
wonder, while we were all singing along to "Who's To Blame", how
many other people were considering if they had, in the last 17
years, become those suffocating parents we all condemned when we
were younger. Definitely food for thought here. Citing it as a
Soulfly cover, they stormed into "One Nation", which had me
wondering whether Soulfly actually covered it, or just happened to
have a track of the same name. and the internet being my friend,
confirmed that Soulfly did cover it and even had Wiley and Greg
perform on it. Having us all sing along, and even do all the "ooooooooo"
bits for "War Pigs" was actually rather fun. Having grown up in a
country where international metal bands never visited,
(that being South Africa - Steve) I guess I never really
experienced these things 'til now. The final track of the set could
only be "Death Squad" where the moshpit went truly berserk, and that
old people fucking analogy was replaced by middle-aged people. With
us not being completely sated, the chanting of "Sacred Reich" began
anew, until they re-emerged from back stage to ask us what we wanted
to hear. Obviously the only choice for the encore was "Surf
Nicaragua" and thankfully it was what we were given, with circle
pits and flailing arms all around. Well I enjoyed the show
thoroughly, and I'm certain that it was a fitting start to Sacred
Reich's 4 show tour culminating at Wacken on the 4th of August. |
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Mincing Fury And Guttural Clamour Of
Queer Decay, Mucopus, Pigsty, Reth, Kastrated
London Purple Turtle 17/7/2007 Review and photos by James Young
There really weren’t many people when the doors opened to the Purple
Turtle, and even throughout the first couple of bands, there
appeared to be more band members lingering around than actual paying
fans. Things would change as the evening wore on, because after all,
this was underground brutal death metal and grind at its most
insane.
I had never come across Kastrated
before, but there’s a first time for everything, and I was pretty
blown away by what I heard. Usually the rule for brutal death metal
such as this is that if you’ve never even heard of the band, they
tend to be awful. This rule was instantly discarded as
‘Scat-In-A-Box’ boomed forth, soaking us all in its groovy
excremental sound, with frontman Chris standing in the crowd and
banging his fluffy head of hair as he gurgled and squealed the
indecipherable vocals. The spectacular array of blasts from Smith
perfectly matched the brutality, and had me thinking of such
sickeningly heavy bands as Fuck, I’m Dead and Putrid Pile (they were
drum machine quality). This sure didn’t break any boundaries, but it
was hard to fault with such gargled madness - most of the material
that was played was off the three-way split North-West Slam Fest,
including the tracks ‘Frankenchild’ and ‘Disfigured Beyond
Grotesque’. It was odd hearing such gory-sounding music mingled with
northern soft-spoken banter between the songs, but it all made for a
hugely entertaining show, and I wouldn’t mind seeing this outfit
again in the future, perhaps on a stage that fitted al the members
on too.
Nor had I ever heard of Northern grind-merchants
Reth - with a couple of members
positioned off-stage in the crowd, jumping about like lunatics, I
assumed that there would be a considerable hardcore influence. Once
again I was proved wrong as some of the most technical grind I’ve
heard for ages was showcased - reminding me of a mixture of Cephalic
Carnage and Pig Destroyer, these guys were really astounding in
their tight playing. Yours truly had thought that the drumming from
Kastrated couldn’t be topped, but this band managed, although it was
the same drummer! Smith was back for his second set and instead of
the blasting and double kicking from earlier, he was wowing the
audience with a mixture of odd time signatures, off-beat cymbals and
ludicrously fast rhythms (not to mention some entertaining facial
expressions!). The squeaky guitars and rumbling bass were all mixed
beautifully, and the whole set was face-meltingly intense.
Unfortunately I couldn’t catch a single song title from screamer
Reese due to the echoed microphone sound, but all I can say is that
if you like grind, you should look these guys up because they just
might be the thing missing from your life right now.
Pigsty were on top form for
tonight’s show, and had a lot of heads banging even in the
ridiculously long sound check, which involved playing a whole song.
Bizarre indeed, but it was clear why the groovy blend of grind,
death metal and hardcore on display could attract so much attention.
It was mind-blowingly crunchy and fun to listen to, although I
really couldn’t stand the hardcore shouts from Bormann, which really
put me off the show. Some grind can get away with a potent ‘core’
element, but this really had me cringing. I’m sure that many out
there would disagree, and love this kind of thing, so don’t let that
put you off. Songs such as ‘Sewing-Machine’ were still entertaining,
whilst the title of ‘Hyperspeed’ may have been misleading, at least
compared to the last bands, but it was all good fun in the name of
brutal underground noise. Most importantly, the band seemed to be
enjoying it, and although I won’t be, maybe you should Czech them
out one day.
All Skinless fans will know that Jason Keysner is also the frontman
of Mucopus, a band just as heavy
and entertaining, but not quite as infamous. Starting off with ‘Load
Rag’, with the frontman in the crowd trying to get some movement
started (obviously spilling over to the audience is the new trend
with death metal), it was hard not to headbang to the brutal
breakdowns and slamming riffs. Absent from last year’s tour with the
band, it was good to see Jason stirring up the violence, as he’s as
entertaining as any vocalist in metal, fully interacting with the
crowd in a way I’ve never witnessed before, playing games such as
‘creep towards me whilst my back is turned, and when I turn around,
stop!’. ‘Cock Blister’ was described as an ‘emo’ song, and had the
band pulling some classic depressed faces whilst playing the slow
intro, before launching into a scarily heavy number. After calling a
Mincing Fury vocalist for assistance for one song, things had to
finish in just half an hour with a few tracks including the title
track from their latest album, ‘Undimensional’. ’Super No Vacancy’
and ‘Mucus Vs. Them’ flew by next in grinding death metal fury, with
crushing breakdowns as heavy as they come. A really entertaining set
that could quite easily have had them headlining, I think the only
problem with Mucopus tonight was that they didn’t get a longer set. |
The band name
Mincing Fury And Guttural Clamour Of Queer
Decay itself probably satisfies my word count for this
review in itself, but it’s just a small example of the craziness of
this band. Beginning with a dance-like number with all the band
donning sunglasses and ear-to-ear grins, things suddenly got a lot
heavier, launching into the guttural-led grooves one would expect
from the band. I think there were two vocalists, who were both
stationed in the crowd (of course), although there may have been
more, as they were moving around pretty wildly. Some shouts from the
band were irritatingly similar to those of Pigsty earlier, but not
enough to put me off of songs including ‘Eye For An Eye (Suffering
For Suffering)’ and other minute long masterpieces, some of which
were either pronounced weirdly or just made up on the spot. Whatever
the case, it made for a hugely entertaining and headbangable
experience, which was as wild as it was loud, and strangely
dance-worthy. For one number, members of the previous bands were
invited into the crowd for an odd shouted intro for a song - very
weird indeed, but nothing could surprise me really. Completing the
world’s shortest headliner set, which couldn’t have been over half
an hour, was a shit song, entitled ‘Shit Song’, from their split
with Screaming Afterbirth. By the end of the track, all the band
members were on the floor (God knows why), and just as everyone was
expecting an encore…there wasn’t one.
It was a really entertaining night of the most extreme form of
metal, and the only slight annoyance was that Mucopus weren’t
headlining. Discovering later that the shows revolved the three
headliners every night, it was frustrating to know what could have
been, but it was still a hugely enjoyable night of crazy grinding
madness. More from where this came from, please! |
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Dead Infection, Amputated, Beef
Conspiracy, Cerebral Bore London Bar Monsta 13/7/2007
Review and photos by James Young
It was Friday 13th and there was no better place to spend it than a
tiny room in Camden in anticipation of an extreme line-up fully
appropriate for the occasion. Being my first visit to this venue I
didn’t realise quite how small it was, but it had filled up fairly
nicely by the time the first act took to the stage (if you can call
it that…), especially as Neckbrace had pulled out earlier in the
day, so the schedule was slightly more relaxed than the average gig.
The first band were Scotsmen Cerebral Bore,
who played an enjoyable set of groovy death metal. Let’s face it,
they wouldn’t win any originality contests, with song names
including ‘Entombed In Butchered Bodies’ and ‘Flesh Reflects The
Madness’, and it was obvious that these gorehounds were fans of
Cannibal Corpse and Gorerotted, which was also reflected in their
sound. The ages of these guys were fairly young all round, but the
band sported a musical competence beyond their age, heard in the
crazy bass twangs of Phil Differ, or the technically sound drumming
of Allan MacDonald, which was to be the most diverse and exciting of
the night. The sound was superb, although I couldn’t hear a word
that nutty vocalist Ross Howie said in between songs, which was a
tad annoying, especially as the mixture of grunts and screams were
devastatingly crushing throughout the set. Finishing off a fairly
brief set with ‘Works Of Dead Flesh’, which began to get heads
banging and beer flying, I was starting to really enjoy what I was
hearing, with the groovy yet punishing riffs. More people should
know about this band, and it’s a dead cert that given the right
push, they will be a lot bigger in the future. They lived up to
their band name not in the dull sense of the word, but that of the
weapon (from the game Turok I believe), delivering an intense blow
to all of our brains.
With some fresh air (or cigarette smoke, depending on your
preference) inside of us, most of the audience returned into the
venue to see a Friday 13th video clip playing on the projector,
which signalled the start of the bovine blasters
Beef Conspiracy. A band which
will blow your head off if you’ve never seen before, these native
grinders are seen by many as a joke band, what with song titles such
as ‘Cerebral Minge’. It would be misleading to see them entirely as
a laugh though - even if the contortions of vocalist Beef Finder
McGeneral, or the almost embarrassed song introductions by guitarist
and grunter Dirty Bertie McSkeletor would suggest so. The shockingly
intense sound could compete with the top grind acts out there, and
at times the speed was sickening. With blasting speed bursts flying
everywhere throughout a setlist which included ‘Heart Sausage Coma’
and ‘Spunky Beefcake’, it was hard to fault the quality of the
sample-driven noise. One aspect of the band which fans of Infected
Disarray will appreciate is the amazing finger work of bassist
Jamboree McBigFun aka Tom C., who delivered his meltingly fast bass
lines with ease, not to mention the huge grin on his face. Ending
the set with ‘Beef Denied’, which was for the vegetarians in the
crowd no doubt, things were brought to a frantic finish with
stop-start blasts, allowing the bass-work to fully shine in
blistering fashion. I really wish these burger kings would tour
more, because tonight was a stunning display of raw grind at its
best. |
| Bristol’s
Amputated are a band that are
seen fairly regularly on the touring circuit, and they usually
deliver the goods. Beginning in suitably offensive fashion calling
the audience ‘pricks’, and launching into ‘Amputated’ with scenes
from Braindead projected onto the wall behind the band, something
seemed to be lacking. I’m not sure whether this was due to the lack
of mass-murder mosh pits which these guys are used to inciting, or
the small size of the stage, which forced guitarist Ollie Jones
off-stage and next to the toilets. Either way, the venue didn’t suit
the band, and as such, the usual humour of introductions to
‘M.D.S.P.T.’ (Google it if you don’t know) and ‘Lesbian Coprophagia’
was lost. Andi commented that this was the most bored-looking crowd
they had ever played to, and wondered where the Amputated fans were.
The movement was fairly pathetic through the blasting songs,
including ‘Anally Disembowelled’ which attempted to tear the venue a
new you-know-what. Irritated, Andi kept leaping off the foot-high
stage and attacking members of the crowd, which possibly did more to
make people hate him than anything. Perhaps I’ve seen this band a
few too many times now, but the riffs are beginning to sound too
similar and familiar throughout their sets now, and even the
frontman admitted that they were bored of playing the Jungle Rot
cover ‘Immersed In Pain’ live. It’s time they gave us some new
material, and there was even some attempt at doing so in ‘Carpet
Field Of Vomit’ (that’s what I thought they said anyway), which was
more grind-oriented, with the grunted |
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| vocals being
replaced by screams. Apart from this minor, yet promising, attempt
to do something original, the rest of the set was fairly standard,
with ‘Raped With A Jackhammer’ and ‘Gargling With Infected Semen’
finishing the set off in brutal yet predictable style. Amputated
weren’t too bad tonight, and I’m sure some heads were turned, but
it’s time for some fresh meat to be delivered before the usual
platters get boring. |
| I’ve been eager to see
Dead Infection for a few years now,
and after a lengthy time onstage before they got going, and
launching into ‘You Broke My T-shirt’ followed by ‘Poppy-Seed Cake’,
I was incredible disappointed. The sound from the three-piece was
horrendous, with Hal’s bass sounding like a wobble-board and the
drums sounding tame and messy. After a few songs, the show had to be
stopped for a few minutes whilst the drums, possibly the triggers,
had to be sorted out. After this though, everything seemed to click
and sound slightly better - the guitar was as dirty as the streets
outside the venue, suiting their style of goregrind which could be
compared to early Pungent Stench. The drumming was a mix of crusty
up-tempo beats, blasts and double kicking goodness, which was as
headbangable as you can get. Of course, such a violent mix goes hand
in hand with a violent crowd, which seemed to come to life for
tracks like ‘We‘re All Polish’ and ‘Brutal Murder In Dr Petru Groza’,
with fists and microphone stands flying around. Although the stage
presence of guitarist and vocalist Pierœcieñ was questionable, with
the ‘lyrics’ being delivered with his head facing downwards, the
inter-song banter was charming, and the quality of the vocals
themselves from both frontmen were excellent. Getting as far away
from the central moshpit as possible, short slabs of punky goregrind
such as ‘Rich |
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Zombie’ and
‘It’s Over’ could be enjoyed in some comfort, including a cover of a
band I believe to be Abused Majesty. The minute-long blasting
brilliance of ‘Beware! My Name Is Thunderbolt!’ blasted through the
venue, and not soon after, the set was over, denying us an encore,
even though Pierœcieñ tried to gain some support for one. It was
strange, but totally fitted such a crazy show.
All the bands who played tonight helped make this Friday 13th one of
the best yet, and it sure as hell beat seeing the same old Jason
films on television at home. With the next Friday 13th not until the
middle of next year, let’s hope that some of these bands can come
back and destroy London before then, because it was a bloody good
night. |
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