The UK's Most Dedicated Metal Blog
It would seem that Prog truly does live in the heart of North London. With the holy trinity of venues being homes away from home for bands the world over. From the Islington 02 Academy, Union Chapel and now the Islington Assembly Halls. A quaint venue which has been the home to some of the more regal of Progressive leanings. Tonight we welcome back one of the genre’s most nostalgic of bands, Riverside.
Over the summer we travelled to Northern Germany to once again attend the heavy metal mecca, Wacken Open Air. We start the 4-day festivities at the crossroads of joy and despair, as a torrential rainstorm strikes the festival in day one!
The Spanish folk metallers have flown under the radar for too long with their experimental style, and decided to create some more accessible music with their previous album ‘Vida‘. With the change in style dividing some of the fan base, the band power forward with a double album that features singles of some seriously powerful songwriting. Is ‘Sueños‘ the one to make amends?
Death Metal itself as a genre has seen many different incarnations, currently in a state of revival though none were as pertinent as the nineties. Seeing bands sprout from nothing, these were the real beginnings of the Death Metal scene. Waving the flag proudly for New York Suffocation emerged to create some of the most sonically crushing music there has been. With releases like the classic Effigy Of The Forgotten, Breeding The Spawn and Pierced From Within it wouldn’t be far from the truth to call the band Death Metal royalty. On their most recent UK stint with Nile we were lucky enough to be able to speak to both Terrance Hobbs and Derek Boyer about the current state of their new album, what it’s like to be one of the Death Metal greats listen to the unedited interview on our Soundcloud below for all things Suffocation.
The best laids plans of mice and men often go awry. Arriving bright eyed and bushy tailed for tonight’s performance it seems that perhaps our Norwegian’s don’t share quite the same enthusiasm. Annoyingly the band are stuck in traffic after some problems in transit but at last arrive at the slightly later than planned time. Normally not being an issue but as we are treated to three bands on tonight’s bill it does cause some problems for some.
Relationships are one of the corner stones of the makeup of humanity. Coming in all different shapes and sizes, the bond that a band and its fans shares is something unique that only the listener and the artist will ever truly understand.
Having previously been able to speak to Between The Buried And Me mastermind on the eve of their brand new album Coma Ecliptic we were lucky enough to speak to Dan yet again. Delving deeper into the process of Coma Ecliptic and what elements the band employ to create a record of such grandeur we sat down with the bassist on their recent London date prior to their pitch perfect show. Turn on the “Node” and step into “The Coma Machine”…
It would seem that the classic old adage that great things come in three’s is incredibly apparent. As we begin to move into Autumn venues are once again beginning to be filled up after the sonic drought that was August. With one of the best line ups this month we saw English doom mongers Paradise Lost bring the moping tonight. Though before we can get onto our main act there is the small act of the incredible support presented tonight.