Sunday 24 March 2013

The Dirty Youth - Requiem Of The Drunk (CD Review)

01.Requiem Of The Drunk
02.Curtain Call
03.Sophie's Song

Danni Monroe - Vocals
Matt Bond - Guitar/Keys
Luke Padfield - Guitar
Leon Watkins - Bass
Phil Edwards - Drums
Hailing from South Wales, UK, The Dirty Youth are a female fronted quintet setting their sights on world domination since formation in 2007. Not nestling in to one specific genre is their gift, as they blend rock anthems with metal riffs and a punk attitude.

The Dirty Youth released their debut album 'Red Light Fix' in late 2011 via Universal. Mixed by Martyn "Ginge" Ford at Nott-in Pill Studios (home to Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium etc.) The Tracks were then sent to be mastered at Sterling Sound in New York who have mastered albums by the likes of Elvis, The Beatles, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and now The Dirty Youth!

The Dirty Youth have made many festival appearances including Getaway Rock Festival (Sweden) and Download Festival 2011. Last year saw TDY support Reckless Love on their UK tour. In 2012 they have supported KORN in Europe, played a triumphant set at Download Festival and shared the stage with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Iggy Pop at Hard Rock Calling. Ti cap it all off The Dirty Youth embarked on an epic 5 week tour of Europe and the UK as sole support to The Rasmus picking up fans across the continent.

2013 has started with TDY named as one of "The new bands you love the most" by Kerrang! readers, though that may not be a good thing as Kerrang readers (like the magazine) seem to have little taste, unless its pop music!

Requiem Of The Drunk is their new EP and fortunatley isnt the typical Kerrang rock music that i was fearing!

3 Tracks of heavy riffing blended with melodic vocals and catchy hooks, no doubt that fans of shite like Paramore will love it but also enough to get excited about if you like In This Moment!

Rating 7/10

For fans Of : In This Moment, Skunk Anansie, Solsikk

Gama Bomb - The Terror Tapes (CD Review)

 01.The Wrong Stuff
02.Legend Of Speed
03.Backwards Bible
04.Beverly Hills Robocop
05.Smoke The Blow With Willem Dafoe
06.We Started The Fire
07.Terrorscope
08.The Cannibals Are in The Streets (Therefore) All Flesh Must Be Eaten
09.Shitting Yourself To Live
10.Matrioshka Brain
11.Metal Idiot
12.Wrecking Ball

Philly Byrne (Vocals)
Joe McGuigan (Bass)
John Roche (Guitar)
Domo Dixon (Lead Guitar)
Paul Caffrey (Drums)

For a decade now, the Irish five-piece have mixed vintage thrash metal with absurd, acid-tongued lyrics, keeping it strictly old school even as they break very modern music industry taboos.
Adhering to self-imposed commandments that prohibit ballads, acoustic intros and the meat-headed tendencies of modern metal, GAMA BOMB went from a quiet corner of Ireland to global cult status in short order, and show no signs of letting up now.
With a string of three critically-lauded albums and a confrontational pro-file sharing stance that saw them go toe-to-toe with everyone from their contemporaries to rock’s old guard, they never lost sight of their goal: to make killer, neck-wrecking thrash metal.


Their fourth album The Terror Tapes, released in April on AFM Records, tears the old speed metal formula a new asshole, and then buys it a pint.
The Terror Tapes is a battery of sing-along anthems that never let the needle drop out of the red, melding a very modern geek’s-eye view of the world with classic metal song writing.
They’re songs that are inspired by midnight movies, hard touring and a comprehensive knowledge of near-forgotten thrash demos, now tempered by a year of hard struggle for the band.
Following 2009’s Tales from the Grave in Space, one of the first albums to be released as a free download by a signed band, GAMA BOMB changed labels, welcomed a new guitarist and dealt with injury, therapy and surgery all in twelve short months.
Now, as they return with nothing less than the most striking thrash album in 20 years under their belts, it’s clear the Geeks shall inherit the Earth.

Nothing short of brilliant this is thrash how it should be!!!
Great use of Love Sculpture's 'sabre Dance' rifferey on the song 'Terrascope' (Cheers Ross for that i thought it was Prowler!!!)

A touch of Lawnmower Death on 'Shitting Yourself To Live' brings a huge smile, everything else just makes you jump around like an idiot!!!

Rating 10/10

For fans Of : Lawnmower Death, Municiple Waste, Evile, Anthrax.

Saturday 2 March 2013

MOSS - HORRIBLE NIGHT (Cd Review)

01.Horrible Night
02.Bleeding Years
03.Dark Lady
04.Dreams From The Depths
05.Coral Of Chaos
06.I Saw Them That Night

Olly Pearson (vocals)
Dominic Finbow (Guitars)
Chris Chantler (Drums)




"In dreams I hear him calling out from the restless slumber in these mindless towers.." - 'The Coral of Chaos'

First gathered together in Southampton in the year 2000 - with the formative ambition of
being slower and heavier than the slowest, heaviest band you can think of - MOSS is known
for unleashing true audial darkness and claustrophobia upon their listeners.

The crypt-crushing, drug-crazed occult horror sound of 2005's Cthonic Rites, 2008's Sub Templum,
2009's Tombs Of The Blind Drugged 10" and the Eternal Return 12" gradually refined and redefined their suffocating underground doom with impenetrable esoteric themes, and gained them a fearsome reputation as one of the worlds foremost purveyors of what is unequivocally heavy. After 13 years, where does such a band go from there? How can they push the envelope any further than it has already been pushed? Enter 2013's Horrible Night…

"we wanted to write something that would stand up over time...no disrespect to our earlier recordings - we feel the essence and atmosphere of those is still very much with us, but they were of a time and place that we're no longer part of..."

Recorded during the summer and autumn of 2012 at Hampshire's Earth Terminal and London's
Earthworks studios, Horrible Night is the sound of MOSS emerging from its cocoon a much more savage, intelligent and all the more terrifying beast. While no longer obsessed with extremity for its own sake - with weirdly infectious riffs, eccentric vocal melodies and no song over 12 minutes - MOSS remain heavier-than-thou, broadening their horror beyond any imposed 'scene' expectations.



Kicking off with 'Horrible Nights' their mastery of the craft is evident, written back in 2010 it sets the course for the album, taking their twisting death-crawl and administering a lethal dose of addictive melody, laden with colossal riffs leaving tracks like 'The Coral of Chaos' and 'Dark Lady' to simply expand further upon this potent formula.

With just six tracks, MOSS proves more than ever why this English cult band is regarded exactly as such. While still no easy pill to swallow for the uninitiated, over its duration Horrible Night will demand complete mind control blending its heady mix of horror and the unknown with pure Doom Metal.

Although traditionally a reluctant live act, in 2013 MOSS are set to embark on their first European headline tour, as well as a return trip to Holland's Roadburn Festival, playing Jus Oborn's Electric Acid Orgy with Electric Wizard, Psychic TV and the Pretty Things.

Rating 10/10

For Fans Of : Witchsorrow, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Serpent Venom

INFERNAL SEA - CALL OF THE AUGUR (Cd Review)

01.A Prayer For Cleansing
02.Malevolence Of Our Lord
03.Sermon Of The Augur
04.Catastrophic Reprisals
05.Condemned To Psychosis
06.The Gathering
07.Ritual Incantation

Dean Lettice (Vocals)
Geoff Taha (Bass)
Jonathan Egmore (Guitar)
James Burke (Drums)




The Infernal Sea formed in East Anglia in early 2010 from the ashes of UK acts such as The Argent Dawn,Raise the Dead and Middenhelm. They combine black metal melodies with old school death metal brutality to create some uncompromising metal music.
Having often been compared to bands such as Belphegor, At the Gates, Behemoth and Thorns
(to name a few), the band clearly wear their influences on their sleeves.

Having already shared the stage with bands such as Napalm Death, 1349, Annal Nathrakh, Vreid, Abgott, Martyr Defiled and Romeo Must Die the band are rapidly gaining a dedicated
fan base worldwide.
They released thier debut album ‘Call of the Augur‘ to an overwhelming response and the album is already on its second print run.
The future looks bright for the band with a handful of upcoming tours in the UK and Europe. The Infernal Sea are
currently writing/demoing material for the next release with the intentions to record the follow up album in late 2013 and have just released a limited edition cassette tape of older demos.

First 2 songs come in with a Darkthrone/Mayhem vibe, fast drums, heavy riffing and gutteral vocals, in fact so old school black metal that im surprised the band look so  normal and are not dressed in leather, studs and corpse paint!

'Sermon Of The Augur' is an atmospheric acoustic interlude with some good sampling in the background and leads perfectly into the brutality that is 'Catastrophic Reprisals'.

More atmospheric weirdness with 'The Gathering' seems to be 3 minutes of very low growling  with some drums, but it leads into the albums finest track 'Ritual Incantation' coming in at 14 minutes, this one is stunning!
Starts off in a fairly traditional way with triggered bass drums at high speed over a simple riff with that screaming vocal, but then the song takes an intresting turn as it slows down.
Mixing a downbeat almost spoken backing vocal attempting to create some incantation from evil monks over some nice acoustic guitar, which later gives way to sound effects created on a synthersizer that sounds like water, very reminiscent of late 60's occult rock band "Jacula".

All in all a very good debut album, staying away from the symphonic style of Black Metal created by Dimmu and Cradle and sticking to a more (Im)Pure influence.

Rating 9/10

For Fans Of : Darkthrone, Mayhem, Abgott, Hellhammer, Blut Aus Nord


FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/theinfernalsea?fref=ts

AUDREY HORNE, BROKEN CHORDS Live The Garage, London 27.02.13 (Gig Review)

AUDREY HORNE
BROKEN CHORDS

THE GARAGE, LONDON  27th FEBRUARY



BROKEN CHORDS
Tonight’s only support band at Upstairs At The Garage were a 3 piece called The Broken Chords, hailing from Hertfordshire and Essex, playing a set of self described rock 'n' roll.
As is often the case for support bands, there wasn’t many people here, about 30 or so mainly hanging around the bar, leaving the first half of the venue completely empty. However this did not stop the lads from throwing everything they had at the crowd, with singer Joe Finnigan playing energetically and acting as if he was headlining the night. The band come across as well rehearsed and pretty tight.
Musically however, there were some catchy riffs and there’s no denying Joe has power in his voice, sounding at times a bit like Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother, but overall they didn’t particularly engage my interests.
They will be on the cover mount CD of the new Rock Sound magazine if you wish to check them out, or check their links below for updates and music.

AUDREY HORNE
Noticeably, as soon as the band left the stage, a few people ran straight up to the front of the stage to take their positions for the headliners tonight, Audrey Horne. I hadn’t seen this band before, nor had really heard much of their stuff before, so I didn’t know what to expect, all I knew was that they were from Norway.
The venue was now looking healthier with more people arriving, the lights dim and the band’s intro hits while the smoke machine fills the room, the band take to the stage kicking straight into opening track ‘Redemption Blues’, which is also their latest music video (watch below), instantly making an impact with their loud hard rock and attitude whilst smiling and quite obviously enjoying themselves.
After a few songs, lead singer, Toschie, announces the next song is about a lady, to which bassist Espen Lien points out he’s introducing the wrong song, and that’s the next one. After they played ‘Cards With The Devil’ Espen says that NOW you can introduce ‘There Goes A Lady’ to which Toschie replies ‘It’s good to have my teacher, mother and father rolled into one person with me today…‘ showing that the band don’t take themselves too seriously, but they mean business when it comes to the music.
I thought the vocals sounded familiar throughout the set, after a while it dawned on me that the singer doesn’t sound unlike R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe (which is a good thing).
 As the set progresses, it becomes obvious that this is party music, with a ‘feel good’ atmosphere to match, with the vocalist constantly posing for pictures for all photographers, and even high five-ing one of them.
After playing slow and down beat number ‘The King Is Dead’, Toschie says that now that he has made the audience depressed, we need cheering up and kicks straight into ‘This Ends Here’, with it’s big chorus instantly making everyone jump up and down, head bang, and smile. The vocalist also Jumps down into the audience to sing to them, taking someone’s camera phone in the process and filming himself singing, making one fan very happy!
Overall a great set with lots of energy, awesome riffs with some that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Judas Priest album, most noticeably on ‘Straight Into Your Grave’ and closing track ‘Blaze Of Ashes’. Lots of crowd participation when instructed to clap along show that the band can hold an audience well.
They announced that they will be playing at London’s Camden Underworld on May 2nd, so check them out!
Most of the tracks played tonight were from new album ‘Youngblood’, which is out now!

BROKEN CHORDS


AUDREY HORNE





PROMO VIDEO