CAVALAR, VIRUS, FERAL, XENOCHORD Live At The Gaff 13.12.09 (Gig Review)

CAVALAR
VIRUS
FERAL
XENOCHORD

The Gaff, Holloway 13.12.09

XENOCHORD
Hells teeth!
Stunninng death metal with a progresssive edge, a perfect match of agression and
melody, truley awesome power is displayed on songs like 'Sunday Morning' and 'Absinthe'
and one of the coolest bass lines ever on 'delirium'.

FERAL
Playing one of their most relaxed and fun sets i have seen sometime, the melodic
thrashers and really coming into their own now, great songs flow with catchy riffs and
outstanding vocals.

VIRUS
Exactley one year ago the reborn Thrash legends Virus took to the stage at the rock
attic in streatham a little nervous and a handfull of old songs.So for their first anniversary they once more take the stage, this time full of confidence and armed with some new songs.

In many ways this is a different band, now the musicianship has found its level of
professionlism, they looked comfortable on the stage and put on their best performance
to date.
Whilst the old songs like 'Testify To Me' and 'Lunacy' remain crowd favourites and
classics of the genre it is the new songs such as 'Skulls Of My Enemies' which have
their attention now and the ones which define the band as a major force on the current
scene.

CAVALAR
When vocalist Luca takes to the stage he always manages to turn the room into a
stadium, its maybe a little difficult to explain but he is just such a fantastic
frontman (without a doubt the best frontman in rock full stop!) he gives this larger
than life performance.
Backed by the powerhouse drumming of Arn, fantastic bass playing from Max and jaw dropping guitaring from Dan, cavalar remain the best in their field.

I would like to add a personal note here and thank every member of each band for
playing this gig as part of my sons birthday celebrations, thank you guys it meant a
lot to me!!

STU

XENOCHORD

FERAL

VIRUS

CAVALAR

DECEMBER GIG FLYERS

ACHILLA ACOUSTIC SHOW - ACOUSTIC EP (Cd Review)

01.Arashi
02.The Devil's Eyes
03.Wild Flower
04.Hunted


Martamaria (Vocals)
Daniele Panza (Acoustic Guitar/Vocals)


Most of you should know the first track in its symphonic rock version as it was on a free cd given away with metal hammer a few moths back, somehow this version brings a new element to it and that is real emotion.

This same emotion is in 'Devils Eyes' along with some amazing high notes from Marta and brilliant guitar work from Dan with a definate classical influence showing through.

This is a highly chraged and very dark song summed up by the line "i dont want your body, its only dust".

There is no question in my mind that this is nothing short of perfection, it rates along side Kristen Hershes 'Your Ghost', All About Eve's 'Marthas Harbour' and Led Zeppelin's 'Battle Of Evermore'.

Next up is the rockiest track, its a guitar driven piece and again showcases Dans superb playing.

Finally we come to 'Hunted', this falls into the classic folk rock field, its a tale of a hunter a cold hearted man and is reminiscent of those old Sandy Denny/Jacqui McShee songs from the late sixties.

What can i say ?
Great guitar and very subtle backing vocals from Dan and the most amazing vocal performance from Marta go to make this the best acoustic ep i have ever heard.

Rating 10/10


For Fans Of : Achilla, Nightwish, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, The Trees

STU

CAVALAR - RECOIL (Cd Review)

01.All Your Rage

02.The One To Be Pleased

03.The Score Of All Time

04.Up In The Air

05.Grand Northern Evil

06.Through The Demons Door

07.Cant Deny You

08.Genocidal Minds

09.Higher

10.In Fear

11.Hell Is Blue

12.No Second Plan

13.The Outsiders

14.No Mans Land

Luca Ravasio (Vocals)

Daniele Panza (Guitar)

Max Torres (Bass)

Arnaldo Rogano (Drums)

Having formed in 2004 they have worked hard on the live circuit building up a solid fanbase and of course released the best selling album 'As A Metal Of Fact' in 2006 (Re-issued in 2008), it drew comparisons with black sabbath and a host of classic rock bands.

But last year it was apparent that the band wanted to evolve musically and take a much heavier approach and lyrically a darker edge.

This is a different beast altogether, Cavalar means in Portuguese 'super charged' and 'excessive' and believe me with this album they are highly charged and have gone way beyond normal limits to create 'Recoil'.

Everything about this album screams modern heavy metal with a power metal influence, this becomes clear right from the start with the Helloween'ish "All Your Rage" an incredibly powerful song with full on guitar work, pounding bass and drums and Luca's amazing vocal abilities.
Track 2 hits like you wouldnt believe, could be a Zakk Wylde song, Dan's guitarwork is really heavy and the vocal is again powerful with some great harmony in the mix.
"Up In The Air" is a powerful piece and really stands out with a modern Zepp feeling and a great guitar solo.
The next few songs just keep moving in the same feel, let seems to be no let up in the force that comes through the speakers!
From the acoustic intro of "Cant Deny You" we are treated to the longest track on the album, this is followed by the shortest track and possibley the heaviest track on the album "Genocidal Winds" a song derstined to be a classic, as the song "The Outsiders".
The final track "No Mans Land" is a real drum driven track and once again is packed full of great guitar and vocal delivery.

I should point out that this album is not available yet, you should check their myspace page for updates.

Rating 10/10

For Fans Of : Helloween, Black Label Society, Blood Island Raiders, Viking Skull

STU

www.myspace.com/cavalarrock

ACHILLA ACOUSTIC SHOW, FROM GREAT HEIGHT, '77 Live At The Gaff 25.08.09

ACHILLA ACOUSTIC SHOW
FROM GREAT HEIGHT
'77

THE GAFF, HOLLOWAY ROAD 25.08.09

'77
Tonights evening of diverse talent kicks off with the Spanish band '77.
Now there was a slight hint of Ac/Dc in their set and performance, in fact it was a whole lotta dc.
A quite breathtaking set based around the early days of Bon Scott's rocking outfit, yet they only did 'TNT' the rest were original songs though again pure ac/dc.

FROM GREAT HEIGHT
Playing a shorter set this evening due the fact that their bassist was still on holiday.
Depping for said bassist was Joe Simms from 9blind, and he did a fantastic job.
FGH seem to grow on each audience they play to and it was a stunning set, the Pink Floyd cover attracting the attention of those who were not watching at the time.

They ended their set with 'Split Seconds' and 'Initial' both of which gained a few headbanging and sing-a-long moments.
Watch out for them over the next 12 months because they are going to reach a "Great Height" and their neo-prog rock/metal hybrid will continue to win over new fans all the time.

ACHILLA ACOUSTIC SHOW
For those of you who dont know Achilla are a London based Symphonic/Progressive rock group fronted by the Martamaria, a singer with a world record beating voice.

We were treated to a huge set and all those songs that we were used to as electric full on metal were suddenley turned upside down and given the most amazing makeover.

Songs like 'Arashi' and 'Devils Eyes' have become revitalised and reborn, Dan's guitar playing is as breathtaking as Marta's voice.

Added tonight was a brand new song that will be performed by the usual band soon, and a few inspired covers from Alice In Chains 'Down In A Hole', Nightwish 'Kuolema teke Tajteilian' (Which Marta sang in Finnish and frankley blew Tarja off the planet) and a quite moving cover of Metallica (YUK!!) 'Nothing Else Matters'.

So endeth an awesome and diverse evening.Here's to the next one.

STU

'77


FROM GREAT HEIGHT

ACHILLA ACOUSTIC SHOW

CAVALAR, AFFLUENZA, FERAL, XENOCHORD, CATFIGHT Live At The Gaff 27.06.09 (Gig Review)

CAVALAR
AFFLUENZA
FERAL
XENOCHORD
CATFIGHT

The Gaff, Holloway Road 27.06.09

CATFIGHT
4 months ago they made their debut at the gaff supporting Nemhain, armed with 3 covers and 1 original song, tonight they return with a full set of mostly original songs and a new guitarist and drummer.

Confident and ready to rock they take to the stage with a cover of the Misfits 'Die Die My Darling' then unleash their own songs, and they have some very good songs the audience took to them instantly at one point a mini mosh pit broke out.

One song features a duet with guitarist Samara and vocalist Marcella and it has the word "hit" written all over it, as does the catchy 'Aimia', they also threw in a cover of L7's 'Shit List' that nearly took out the original, it was that good.

Everything about the performance was 'right' Martin is a very solid drummer and held the beat perfectly, whilst guitarist Luca kept the solos going, leaving samara to keep the rhythm and alexandra to pound the bass whilst the quite beautiful and slightly mad Marcella sung and screamed her heart out whilst running around on and off the stage.

Laurence from feral described them to me afterwards as like the Dead kennedys with female vocals!!!

XENOCHORD
Absinthe, Absinthe, Absinthe, Absinthe, Absinthe, Progressive Death Metal, Great Keyboards (More synthersizer would be cool though),Brilliant Musicians, Absinthe, Absinthe, Absinthe, Superb Vocalist, Fantastic Songs, Absinthe, Absinthe.
Xenochord = FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

FERAL
Dispite the heat and the fact that vocalist/guitarist Martin was tired they pulled off yet another outstanding live set and tonight introduced a new song with the working title "Blue". Its very heavy with a few timing changes in it, it has elements of old school thrash and motorhead in there but its pure Feral and shows that they have no intention of sticking to what they have now and intend to push themselves forward musically all the time.

Of course all the favourites were played 'Truth Is Lies', 'Weapon X' and the epic 'Twisted Sinister Smile' and the sweaty audience got wetter (Does that sound right??).

AFFLUENZA
Having now perfected their stage performance with great songs, clever use of samples, outstanding guitarwork from Nicky and Marcel, faultless drumming from Zack and a great vocal delivery from Al, i wonder where they can go from here?
They enjoyed themselves as did the audience, everything is just "correct" with the band...So why are they not signed????

CAVALAR
I mean this is the same Cavalar right?
They sure look the same and yes, it is Arn on Drums, Daniel on Guitar, Max on Bass and Luca on the vocals, but Cavalar are a good solid classic rock style band who released an album called 'As A Metal of Fact' (Err twice actually).

Okay i will get to the point...Fucking hell this is a full on Heavy Metal band who could be supporting Helloween or EdGuy tomorrow.

An absolutley mind blowing set, totally breathing new life into the old songs and unleashing some incredible new ones, each song delivered with passion and energy from a band who obviously mean buisness.
Luca is not only a brilliant vocalist but quite possibley the best frontman in London at the moment, his enthusiasm and ability to get the audience moving is far from contrived like some, he, like his band, has genuine passion and it shows.

STU

CATFIGHT


XENOCHORD

FERAL

AFFLUENZA

CAVALAR

JUNE GIG FLYERS

UPCOMING GIG INFORMATION

CAVALAR,ROXVILLE,VINTAGE STEEL - Rock Attic,Streatham 29.11.08 (Gig Review)

Cavalar
Roxville
Vintage Steel

Rock Attic 29.11.08

Vintage Steel
First gig from the band formed by ex Tempest guitarist Pawel and ex Tiberium bassist Mark.With a brand new vocalist who sounds like Glen Danzig they have all the right elements to be a great band, but tonight reducing their set to just 4 songs including a spirited
cover of Velvet Revolvers 'Sliter' the band clearly were not ready to play live.

Roxville
Only their fourth gig and not even been together for a year,Roxville totally exploded on
stage showing a maturity and confidence that normally comes with many years experience.
Tapping in on a wide variety of influences from Ac/Dc to Motley Crue their songs are an instant hit with the crowd, many singing along with the catchy chorus' even though they dont
know them yet, and that is a testament to the quality of this bands material it has that "feel good" factor.
I tell you this in one year this band are going to be huge, go check them out.

Cavalar
Turns out to be their fourth anniversary tonight and they are recording the whole show.
Unfortunatley vocalist Luca informs us that the set will be all new songs from their
upcoming new album.
Now there were a couple of stand out songs played 'The Outsiders' and 'Higher' but the rest
of the songs, though good, were not really for a live set (at least not until the albums
released and we have got used to hearing them).
So i was dissapointed, also the band were running very late and deciding to play a full set
at half ten when the last train is around 11:15 meant that we had to leave and miss the
rest.
So, still a great band, just not a great gig.

STU


Vintage Steel
Roxville

Roxville - Desert Storm

Cavalar

Upcoming Gigs with Nemhain,Chaosanct,Cavalar,King Lizard

Vintage Steel will make their debut supporting the excellent Cavalar.

King Lizard play their biggest show this year to promote their upcoming ep.Support comes from a reformed "For one night only" Love & Bullets featuring Lakis from Nemhain.

The mighty Chaosanct will bring their blend of melody and death metal to the nambucca,if you are lucky they may have their ep 'I Of Goliath' ready for sale.

Sad times as Nemhain play the last ever gig at the Ruskin Arms,but dont expect Iron Maiden to show up !

Nemhain should be on late afternoon,and will make history by being the last female fronted band to play there.