Age Of Taurus - Desperate Souls Of Tortured Times (CD Review)

01.A Rush Of Power
02.Sinking City
03.Always In The Eye
04.Walk With Me My Queen
05.Desperate Souls Of Tortured Times
06.Embrace The Stone
07.The Bull And The Bear

Toby Wright (Vocals/Guitar)
Alastair Riddell (Guitar)
Richard Bruce (Bass)
Darius Claydon (Drums)

Formed in 2009 by vocalist/guitarist Toby Wright, Age of Taurus was initially a one-man doom metal mission. Inspired by masters of the craft like Candlemass, Trouble and Revelation, the project was intended more as a studio affair rather than something more alive. However, after increasing interest in the band and a succession of glowing reviews of debut demo 'In the Days of the Taurean Empire', Toby decided that there was no turning back and duly put together a fully working line up; enter bassist Richard Bruce, lead guitarist Alastair Riddell (Ex Blood Island Raiders) and drummer Darius Claydon.

The band quickly began writing together and started to develop and define a sound that suited their combined musical direction. With their feet still firmly planted in the doom metal field, the group were able to explore other paths of influence, particularly bass-driven seventies hard rock and the oh-so-punishing twin guitar attacks that ruled the speakers during NWOBHM's golden years.

Produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Angel Witch, Ghost), 'Desperate Souls of Tortured Times' is a 42 minute collection of material written during their transition over the past three years.

This is the kind of doom metal that hits you square in the head, like slab after slab of concrete hitting you, its relentless and massive!!!
Stunning vocals, powerful drums, pounding bass and epic riffing!

When we get to 'Embrace The Stone' we are treated to 8 minutes of darker stuff, rhythmic drums bounce this one along till it gets to this really slow bit with atmospheric vocals and am almost symphonic chorus backing.
Stunning piece of work! The last song returns to the heavier sound.

I didnt have much to say, but then i dont need to, the music says it all, its Doom its awesome, now go buy it!!

Rating 10/10

For fans of : Cathedral, Electric Wizard, Witchsorrow, Blood Island Raiders

BLOOD ISLAND RAIDERS, FIREBRAND SUPER ROCK, WITCHSORROW, SERPENT VENOM Live At The Gaff 02.10.09 (Gig Review)

BLOOD ISLAND RAIDERS
FIREBRAND SUPER ROCK
WITCHSORROW
SERPENT VENOM

The Gaff, Holloway Road 02.10.09

SERPENT VENOM
This is Paul from BIR other band and from the black sabbath vol 4 t-shirts he and the vocalist were wearing it was pretty obvious what we were going to get musically.But wow this was way beyond what i was expecting, sure the sabbath riffs were there and the vocalist was a remarkable mixture of early ozzy and paul rodgers, but it was a modern doom sound overall and very well executed, very powerful and it went down a storm!

WITCHSORROW
The Hampshire trio make such a big sound you'd think motorhead were on stage jamming with Cathedral!
It is an awesome set of precision doom laden heavy metal with pounding bass lines, agressive drumming and breathtaking riffage with some pretty cool vocals as well.We are still waiting for an album, but i am told that recordings are now being done!!!!It also turns out that the band played their first gig at this venue 3 years ago when it used to be a pub!

FIREBRAND SUPER ROCK
Edingburgh's finest thats for sure, possibley one of the countries finest as well, an absolutley stunning set of female fronted heavy metal reminiscent of early Warlock!The singer has a really strong voice and puts over the songs with style that blows away the gaff's audience each song greeted with cheers, if they are playing near you go see them you will not be dissapointed.

BLOOD ISLAND RAIDERS
So the big question was "is this their last gig?" , well if it was it was one of the best i have seen them play in a long time, sure the guitar was too loud, but you know what they say 'if its too loud, you're too old' but it was a masterclass in how heavy metal should be performed live.
I have to pick out their version of 'Rust', not only my favourite song (and thanks for the dedication guys)but it was a superb version complete with a great jazzy bass solo from TJ.
I hope this is not the end, never to witness Al, warren,TJ and paul again on stage would be a huge loss to music!

STU

SERPENT VENOM

WITCHSORROW

FIREBRAND SUPER ROCK

BLOOD ISLAND RAIDERS

HIROSHAMOUR - ONE (Cd Review)

01.Fever

02.Critical Mass

03.The Puppeteer

04.Suicide Bomber

05.Manji

06.Sweet Tooth

07.Orpheus

08.Sacrifice

09.Untitled

Phil Honey-Jones (Guitar/Piano/Vocals)

Tjay Tarantino (Bass)

Adam Lewis (Drums)

As its Tjay from Blood Island Raiders and he told me this was psychedelic i was expecting a sort of 'Magic Muscle' type sound, how wrong was i.

This is a complex mix of goth and industrial influences together with stoner and psychedelic music, but in many ways is more than all this.

Track one starts off with a jazzy rhythm which flows throughout the song just sounds like something Black Rebel Motorcycle Club might have knocked out a few years back.

'Critical Mass' is a much better piece, sure its Led Zeppelins 'Dazed & Confused', but it has great guitar work and some pretty outstanding bass and drums as well, no vocal to get in the way of the mood.

After a short instrumentle we come to 'Suicide Bomber' an almost techno rock piece very Bauhaus and very good, this is followed by yet another instrumentle which is just percussion.

'Sweet Tooth' bugs me, because it reminds of some old song and i cant remember what!

Its quite slow and "nice" could be from a late seventies Pink Floyd album.

After yet another short instrumentle we hit 'Sacrifice' a song that seems to meld together so many influences that id be here listing them for 10 minutes!

All in all this is top notch musicianship, great vocals and thousands of ideas all expertly put together to create one helluva cd!

Oh and the untitled track is yet another short instrumentle.

Rating 8/10

For fans of : Bauhaus, Can, (Early)Tangerine Dream, (Early) Black Sabbath, Japan, Pink Floyd

STU

OCCUPIER'S POD TYPE THING SHOW 3 (Free Download)

1.Hello My Little Friends

2.Viking Skull - Beers Drugs And Bitches

3.Jays Words Of Wisdom

4.Needleye - Hollow

5.GU Medicine - Taking Her Lead

6.Alice Through The Looking Glass (Dogma)

7.12 Ton Method - Crucify Me

8.Groucho

9.Head On - Break The Walls Down

10.More Cousin Walter

11.B-Movie Vampires - Be One Of Us

12.Interlock - Rest

13.Stinkhole - Shit Storm

14.Revenge Is Very Sweet

15.Legions - Staring Into The Abyss

16.Cavalar - Hole In The Sky (Not On 2008 CD Reissue)

17.Blood Island Raiders - Rust

18.Matron - Ultimate Bones

19.Nemhain - From The Ashes (2007 Demo Version)

20.King Lizard Introduce Themselves

21.King Lizard - Hard To Get

22.Screw You Guys Im Going Home

Running Time - 62.20

Format - wma

Size - 43.4 mb

Bit Rate - 97 kbs

Third instalment,im going to keep doing this until somebody actually downloads one and leaves me a comment :)

Download and enjoy my usual mix of music and offensive comedy.

As always go to the gigs and if they have them buy the cd's from the bands!

DOWNLOAD IT HERE : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6KHR5B3J