Category: Recently Added
Grimm Grimm/Hyperdawn/crush – Manchester, Night & Day Café – 20 February 2020
London-based experimentalist Grimm Grimm, the former vocalist for The Screaming Tea Party Koichi Yamanoha, now tours as a rather intriguing blend of experimental and psychedelic folk. Given the later than usual doors, our travelling gigaholic managed to avoid the usual travel chaos that getting to Manchester for 7pm doors entails and arrived in time for the first support act to go on stage…
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King Nun/Bandit/Cassiddy – Liverpool, Sound Basement – 18 February 2020
A local gig for some not so local bands sees our normally road-tripping gigaholic take in the aural delights of London’s King Nun, with a couple of bands in support.
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HRH Metal IV – Birmingham, O2 Academy – 15 February 2020
The ÜR team headed to Birmingham, the home of metal, on the weekend after the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath’s debut album for a weekend of metal goodness at HRH Metal. While the big lad took care of the interviews, it was left to Jonny B to cover the stages for the next couple of days. With three stages to cover and lots of competing slots, he did his best to catch as many of the bands as possible – and he didn’t do a bad job! So with things kicking off at 1pm on the first day, it was time for JB to make his way down to the third stage to check out the first band…
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Polyphia – Glasgow, Saint Luke’s And The Winged Ox – 12 February 2020
Unfortunately, due to the wonderful weather we had in Scotland the week of this gig, getting to the venue was a struggle, so getting to there in time for the support slots wasn’t possible despite Jess R’s vigorous attempts. From what she had heard, though, both of the supports, Unprocessed and Tides Of Man, they put on great shows that the crowd were able to enjoy a lot.
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Buck & Evans – Belfast, Voodoo – 18 February 2020
School night gigs, and especially those in the early part of the week, can be something of a gamble, especially when it could be argued that the act in question could also be seen to be something of an unknown quantity in the territory concerned. Fortunately, unlike some of their notoriously fickle counterparts on the local metal scene, Belfast’s blues crowds are not only extremely knowledgeable but also equally dedicated, and it was a very pleasant surprise to walk into one of our favourite venues on a freezing cold Tuesday evening and find the place practically sold out for this, the debut visit by Buck & Evans.
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Myrkur – ‘Folkesange’ (Relapse)
Myrkur? That’s that black metal artist, right? Bollocks to that, there has always been a rather more refined and tasteful side of Myrkur’s work that focuses on detail in harmonics and the beauty of minimalism to enhance her every action and sound, mixed with some much harsher sounds to show some of the darkness that may lie within. New album ‘Folkesange’ fully sheds the heavier side in search of times long gone, of days of old where the world was a far simpler place and deep into which the roots of her own Danish heritage reach deeply.
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Suicide Silence – ‘Become The Hunter’ (Nuclear Blast)
Suicide Silence are one of those bands that are undoubtedly absolutely committed to producing some of the heaviest and most terrifying music in death metal. Admittedly, our man Jase Walker didn’t even know they were working on a new album, so this one ended up on his lap without much of a warning, but he absolutely wanted to snap it up since he’d caught them a couple of times live before.
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Kvelertak – ‘Splid’ (Rise Records)
Kvelertak are another one of those bands that have always lingered just outside of Jonny B’s usual musical sphere, which is funny because every time he’s caught the odd track, he’s always enjoyed it! But then he managed to catch some of their set at Download last year, and that definitely grabbed his attention a little more, so when he was offered to take a peek at their new album, he couldn’t resist!
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PVRIS/Joywave – Manchester, Gorilla – 19 February 2020
PVRIS have been an ever-present band on a lot of festivals throughout Jase Walker’s 20s and have grown immensely over the years. Finally at the ripe old age of 32, he was finally able to catch them live in one of Manchester’s more refined gig venues, Gorilla. Bringing along Joywave for the ride throughout the ÜK and Europe, he had seen from a couple of their other shows that they’re definitely down for stage shenanigans and therefore he could not wait!
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Cage The Elephant/SWMRS/Post Animal – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse – 19 February 2020
Another trip to Manchester sees our travelling gigaholoc take in Cage The Elephant for the first time, accompanied by Chicago’s Post Animal and SWMRS from California, in Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, also his first time at the venue. Train delays are once again the norm, though the big lad managed to arrive just as Post Animal took to the stage…
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Black Royal – ‘Firebride’ (Suicide Records)
This one is a bit difficult for John B to review. There are aspects that he really likes and many that he finds wanting. Most of his issues are thematic and have less to do with the technical skill or performance, but he will get into what he was less than enthusiastic about in the second half of the review. First, it is only fair that he goes over the things I did like. Starting with the music…
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Starbenders – ‘Love Potions’ (Sumerian)
Starbenders first caught Jase Walker’s attention during their tour supporting Alice in Chains back in 2018 after some videos popped up of their energetic live performances. Admittedly he didn’t look too far into them at this point as 2018 was a bit of a rollercoaster when it came to his music tastes so a lot of music kind of fell by the wayside in favour of exploring very narrow avenues for new bands. The following year Starbenders got signed to Sumerian who happen to have a large number of bands that our boy listesn to on a regular basis on their roster and he follows them on Instagram so by way of that he started regularly seeing clips of Starbenders and eventually built a bigger interest in them in the build up to their latest album, ‘Love Potions’…
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