music – Page 36 – Fooyah

December 23 2013October 25 2019

Combichrist – Electrowerkz

Saturday 21 December. A date that will live in my memory and on this communication. Andy and I travelled to The Angel to see Combichrist at Electrowerkz venue.

This is the running order, taken after I went to the “rest rooms”.

The whole venue was a bit weird. Pretty much a dark room in a strange building with a bar and unisex toilets. The black painted walls were painted with phrases and sayings and my favourite was the one that said “Hadley’s Hope” – the terraforming city on LV426 in the film Aliens. The mixing desk was hanging from the ceiling and the bottom edge of this construction was just at head height.

The first band on were shit. I reckon my staff band at work were better than them. They said they were from Coventry. Not sure if that’s a causation thing or not.

One of the things about listening to the type of music I like now is that the whole musician thing is constantly questioned. The eighteen year old me would hate me. I like electronic music which can be played using a laptop. Das Kapital (below) had three laptops and bopped around behind them. My issue with this is that although I might enjoy the music I don’t understand the creation process. Surely if your music is samples and drum tracks why don’t you just press play? Perhaps I need to see more of this type of music created. If only there was a festival dedicated to alternative music, somewhere like in Kettering next year.

Combichrist consisted of two people. Singer and mixer-dude. They were very good. It was brilliant to hear the old songs played – the gig was billed as the Old School Electro Set. I didn’t take any photos as I was about two rows back from the very front. As much as it ashames me I held my hand up and got to hold hands with the singer twice. I am such a teenager.

Songs I remember them playing:

Body Beat
Blut Royale
This S*it Will Fcuk You Up
Like To Thank My Buddies
Electrohead

There were others and I am sure I could find them if I searched the internet thingy but I can’t be bothered.

Andy gave this gig a 10. I am bordering on 10 but at the moment more than likely it is: 9.9 < r < 10. Don’t know why, there was just a little something missing and I’m not sure what that was.

December 7 2013December 7 2013

Bullet In Wembley

Went to see Bullet For My Valentine on Thursday (5 December). Travelled over to Wembley Arena and saw three bands. On the way we took a wrong turn thanks to poor Sat-Nav instructions and me not paying attention (I wasn’t driving) and we ended up on the bottom of the M1 heading north where the first place to turn around is Watford, added half an hour to our journey, but we still arrived on time.

First band on were Young Guns. I think rather than be disparaging about their music it would be best to describe their set as very not my kinda stuff. Dave, who I went with, said this band looked like a “metal boy-band”, a bit manufactured.

Next up on the stage were a band called Asking Alexandria. Apparently from “somewhere up north” and from this fair isle of Great Britain this five piece were much better than Young Guns. Not brilliant but better. I was impressed, but then again, not enough to buy their album. The music was good but there was too much shouting singing for me and it didn’t sound like anything new. Skinny guitarists!

Next up were Bullet For My Valentine. They had a lovely curtain in front of their set. It made me almost patriotic. What I would say was that about one third of Wembley Arena was not used. There were curtains blocking the back part of the arena and some of the seats were covered. This could have been intentional to make it a more intimate gig but maybe they can’t sell 12,500 tickets in London?

The music in between bands was good. There was lots of AC/DC played and I liked that but the song that everyone sings is “Run to the hills” by Iron Maiden. This is not the first gig I’ve been to where everyone sings that song. It must be some kinda anthem for us British metal fans.

So, the opening music was Carmina Burana to get the crowd excited. This is, unfortunately, an overused piece of music. Ozzy used it in the 80s and 90s and I was seriously expecting him to come on stage. Also, the X Factor use it. Grow up and choose something really dark and mysterious. “Night on a bare mountain” for instance.

When they came on they played a song I had never heard. Never a good start. I really liked “Scream, Aim, Fire”. Over all they played a solid set and were musically impressive. Stage presence is something they don’t have and overall the stage show was a bit shit. It lacked something. Oh, they had flames and sparkly shit when they came on and then there was nothing but the unveiling of a giant screen that showed everything in black and white. The encore was 30 minutes long and they played a montage. I hate montages. Metallica played a “Kill ‘Em All” montage in 1990 and I hated that then and I hate montages now. Fuck off and play all the songs, or come on earlier. Oh, and they played a ballad. I don’t care if other people like them, I don’t. Oh, and further, oh, there was a guitar solo. Shit, a guitar solo. Bollocks. I was actually texting a mate during the ballad and ensuing solo. Arse.
Anyway, overall it was a 6 or 7 out of ten. The audience was composed of different types of people than I am used to, more women and more make up. I guess that might be who this music appeals to. If that’s the case then it’s a shame I listened to my stuff all this time (few women!).

The journey home was much easier than expected.

October 29 2013

Device – Device

This album is from the singer dude from Disturbed. Let’s face it, it sounds like a Disturbed album. It’s good. Not outstanding, but good.

He does have a song with a woman singing along with him. I don’t like that.

October 29 2013

Demonstrous – Demonstrous

Somehow I ended up downloading this from iTunes, probably following a “what other people bought link”. I was searching for some music rather like Slayer and Evile but something a bit new.

What I got I would pretty much call an instant classic. This album is awesome. It’s got all the elements that make a great thrash album. There are chugging riffs, melodies, awesome vocals. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good bit of thrash.

Looking into the band I can see that they only managed this one album. Fair enough. The best music seems to come from the friction and hatred from working together to produce something that works.

This album is well worth the money.

August 22 2013October 22 2018

Front Line Assembly – The Garage

I went to watch Front Line Assembly at the Garage in Highbury. It was a venue I’d not been to before and a band I hadn’t seen before either. The company I was keeping was delightful, although I did accidentally miss a tube stop. Started with drinks at the Porterhouse and then went on to Highbury and Islington.

The venue was nice and small-medium sized. Bigger than the Underworld but smaller than Brixton Academy. The sound was good and the drinks prices seemed reasonable to me. There was only one main area and it was pretty hot in the room (it was a hot day outside too). There didn’t seem to be any form of air-conditioning which was a bit of a shame (the Underworld beats you there!).

First band on were (as far as I can tell) iVardensphere. I really liked them, probably not enough to buy any of their stuff but enough to watch and enjoy. Heavy electronic music. Pretty good, nice and upbeat too.

Second band were Haujobb. Their songs were probably better crafted than the first band but their pace was a bit slower and I didn’t like it as much. They were still pretty good at the music they make though.

Headline act were Front Line Assembly. The latest album is more electronic than some I have heard and a bit slower. They were very good and had a live drummer, which is becoming more important to me as I watch more of these EBM bands. Quite clearly they were the best band last night and it was good to tick them off my list. I probably wouldn’t see them again, I think I’d rather take a punt on an unknown band and see what happens (much like my restaurant-food-choice policy).

Overall, a very enjoyable evening.

August 18 2013

Decade of Aggression – Slayer

This review is easy to write.

I first got this album on double music cassette in about 1992. I had seen Slayer as part of the “Clash of the Titans” tour at Wembley Arena and really liked them. They recorded the video to “War Ensemble” at that particular concert. I think that some of the songs on this album were recorded at that exact gig that I saw. The tape version has since been supplemented by a CD version and finally an MP3 version on the NAS drive.

This is an AWESOME album.

If you only buy one thrash metal album then it had better be this one and then in all honesty you only need to play the first song as it covers all needs of guitar based turn-on.

My favourite songs on this album are (and I don’t apologise for the length of the list):

Hell Awaits
War Ensemble
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Dead Skin Mask
Seasons in the Abyss
Mandatory Suicide
Angel of Death
Hallowed Point
Blood Red
Postmortem
Chemical Warfare

The atmosphere conveyed by these disks is brilliant. You can only find one better live album out there (Live After Death). This puts all others to shame. Get it. Play it. LOUD.

August 16 2013

Dark Roots Of Earth – Testament

I bought this album because I was going to see Testament play at KoKo in London. I know “Practice What You Preach” from my days at school and I thought I needed to know a few more songs and so I got their latest album.

Old Dog applies to this album, but I would say it definitely works well. There’s a maturity in the song writing and it is also well produced. The anger is still there but reduced slightly from those heady days of teenage testosterone. They played a few songs live and they sounded good. There’s something funny about middle-aged rockers trying to maintain the anger at the establishment, but also becoming part of the machine they hated.

It’s worth a listen.

August 6 2013August 16 2013

D – HexRx

HexRx make dirty hellectro music. That’s quite curious because hellectro is rather dirty in itself. HexRx take many samples from horror films and then build “tunes” around them. I can listen for about an album at a time and then it’s time for something else.

I like it, I just can’t take too much. Listening is an experience, which is a bit of a theme with this album.

August 6 2013

D.O.A. – Throbbing Gristle

The full title of this album is:

D.O.A. The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

This is seminal. When you take the members of Throbbing Gristle and look into their backgrounds and previous work you start to understand where they were coming from. In 1976 COUM Transmissions were doing this sort of crazy stuff. And modern day artists like to think that they are pushing the boundaries. I guess they are, but I can’t help thinking that it’s all been done before.

So, Throbbing Gristle, they made “music” to challenge pre-conceptions and to see how far they could take it. You might not like listening to it, but your life will be enriched for doing so (unlike a 1D album). You have to remember when this was made. 1978. The technology they were using was ground-breaking and their sound was something special. To understand the origins of modern industrial music you HAVE to include TG.

Favourite tracks include:

I.B.M.
Hit By A Rock
Dead On Arrival
Hamburger Lady (one of the most disturbing songs I have ever heard)
AB/7A
Blood On The Floor

Listen, appreciate, take some paracetamol (you’ll need it).

August 3 2013August 3 2013

Antithesis – The Ivy

Went to see a few bands at The Ivy in Sheerness last night. I was most interested in the band called:

The Antithesis

I’ve seen this band a number of times and really enjoy their music. I thought they were good. Also saw Where’s Billy? who were ok. It was an enjoyable evening. Thanks Dave.