The Road to Sonisphere….

“Perhaps you’d better start at the beginning….”

So I will! A few weeks back I went to see Suicide Silence. I bigged it up a bit on here cause it was such an awesome looking lineup, and the ‘Silence are always a top live band. The lineup was Suicide Silence (awesome), After the Burial (more awesome) and All Shall Perish (not as awesome, but far from shit).

So off we stomped to Manchester Academy 3 (the little one on the top floor, or the Hop & Grape to you old school Manchester giggers). When we got there, we were early, so we did the usual. We went to The Oxford for a pint. Now, given what happened last time we were there, this was a pint that was gone for with some trepidation! (check ‘The Mosh Lives’ Blog for details of death threats!). Fortunately this time, that weird old coffin dodger wasn’t there to spoil a perfectly good pint with his insane rantings. So we drank and headed over.

Much to my dismay, according to the stage times outside the venue, All Shall Perish weren’t on! I double checked my ticket ‘cause I was cock sure they were there. A fact confirmed by said ticket, but denied by said times list. Some band called Bleed From Within were on instead. Recognised the name, but didn’t know from where….

Definitely says 'All Shall Perish' on there!!!

So, we headed in, grabbed customary beers and headed up to watch After the Burial. A stormingly good band of sheer technical genius. I will say that everything seemed to fall right for them this night. The sound was spot on! For such technical, harmonizing guitar playing to work, the sound needed to be spot on too. Crisp, clear dual guitar shreddery was on display, and the usual behind the head riffage. Cocky bastards. Absolute class.

Headed back down for another beer then straight back up for that band that I kinda knew, but had no clue about…. AAAAAH! Now I remember Bleed From Within. As soon as we walked through the doors of the Academy 3, I spotted their guitarist with far too much flowing ginger hair and it hit me. Sonisphere 2010, while the general flock of people were off watching Corey Taylor, I wandered into the Strongbow Bar to see what it was all about and these guys started playing! They were really good too. I remember then thinking that the singer was a bit like SS’s Mitch Lucker in appearance and mannerisms, so shouldn’t have been surprised to see them supporting one day. Anyways, on the night, they were again pretty good. Tight sounding and with some stand out tunes. One to keep an eye on, defo!

Then Suicide Silence came on and did their thing. Immensely heavy sounding and raw to the point of pain. They blazed through stuff from The Cleansing and No Time To Bleed and even added a new track to the mix. Can’t remember a name or anything, but one of the lads said he’d heard it and it was nothing like their other stuff. Well, to me it sounded quite Suicide Silence in parts and was quite catchy. If catchy is a word you can use to describe deathcore type bands.

About a week later I was raring to go as it was Sonisphere week, and I’d booked the whole week off. To start the week, we’d had a few jars on the Saturday night round a mates house and some cheeky bets on the Haye/Klitschko Boxing match (I won £20 for my accurate guess of a Klitschko win on points), then Monday rolled around and it was Cavalera Conspiracy, Sylosis and Revoker in my li’l hometown of Wrexham.

Sylosis - Shredding from Reading

We all met up in a pub around the corner and proceeded to get leathered on pints of Fosters and Jager shots. Little wonder that I can hardly remember a thing about this gig! Well, I remember thinking it was awesome at the time!

We stayed in the pub around the corner for Revoker. Just not a fan of ‘em. But Sylosis on the other hand, we like. Unfortunately, they only got to play four songs, finishing with Teras as usual, so despite them being ace we were a little disappointed… …so we drank more.

Tha Rizzo - On a Tapping Frenzy

Max and Iggor took to the stage, along with Mark Rizzo (who shall henceforth be referred to as ‘Tha Rizzo’) on Guitar and Johnny Chow on Bass. So I’m expecting to hear a lot of Cavalera Conspiracy stuff and some classic Seps tunes. Which I got. Inflikted, Sanctuary, Warlord, Killing Inside, Refuse/Resist, Territory, Roots Bloody Roots, and so on. However, I was chuffed to bits when they pulled a Nailbomb track out of the bag! Yes, they played Wasting Away. Not heard that in aaaages!!! Ok, my fave Nailbomb track was Cockroaches and I’d have preferred that, but they kept that as a special little surprise for Sonisphere! Oh Yes!

As much as I enjoyed Cavalera Conspiracy, I felt that Tha Rizzo does all the work. Max just doesn’t look that arsed about playing these days. It’s like his heart’s not in it and he’s given up, while Tha Rizzo carries the whole show on his very nimble and talented fingers. Guitar wise, obviously. Iggor was still hammering shit outta the drums like his life depends on it!

So yeah, if a Sepultura reunion does happen sometime in the not too distant future, I hope Max gets his passion back and looks like he’s enjoying it more!!

Cavalera Conspiracy

After it finished, it was time for Ben to do his usual lap of badgering everyone in the room until he got a drumstick. The target of this nights annoying-to-death, was Ritchie Cavalera. Eventually, he was broken by persistence and got Ben a stick. More bugging managed to get said stick signed by Iggor Cavalera. Jammy git!

Next stop: Knebworth.

Ever Been Surprised by a Support Band?

Just a random thought I had on the way to work this morning whilst listening to ‘In Dreams’ by After the Burial, but have you ever come across a band at a gig that you’ve never heard anything by that have truly blown you away?

Generally, I like to know something by the bands I’m going to see before I can enjoy watching them.  Sometimes, and in hindsight stupidly, I’ve neglected to watch a support band at a gig because I didn’t know them (and probably because Jim said they were amazing and we don’t always agree) and have sat at the bar and missed bands the calibre of Protest the Hero and Whitechapel.  Silly me!

Anywhoo, I have found myself at a few gigs over the years where I’ve been utterly stunned into laughter by an unexpected gem of a band.  I can think of three occurrences that spring to mind.  One I’ve already mentioned on here before, so I’ll keep that one brief…

First up, was waaaaaaay back in the day. Anyone familiar with Canadian all-girl group ‘Kittie’?  Well, I went to watch them.  Didn’t have a ticket and it was sold out so I took a chance and headed to Manchester to see if I could get one off a tout.  Robbing bastard touts wanted £50 for a ticket which I was not willing to pay for a £12 gig!  So, I thought I’d try one more avenue.

I headed to the back of the venue to see if I could get my stuff signed, and lo and behold, Morgan Lander of Kittie was walking to the bus.  Jackpot.  She kindly signed all my bits n bobs, CD’s, singles et al and said “enjoy the show” to which I replied “Not coming. Couldn’t get a ticket!”.  In a move of pure genius, she got me added to the guest list!  Oh yeah!  Bingo!  I’m in.

Pretty sure Sugarcoma were supporting on that show too, but don’t quote me on that.  However, the band that made this night so damn good were about to grace the stage.  I’d heard of them, but nothing by them. They were an unknown entity on this night out, so coke in hand (I was driving) I settled in to watch the show. …and the band was ‘Shadows Fall’.

Shadows Fall

They hit the stage hard with a barrage of fast, technical wizardry and thrash-esque riffage that put me in mind of Slayer and early Metallica in parts.  They were amazing.  Thinking back, they were probably the first band of this new breed of metalcore type band that I witnessed, leading to a love of bands like Unearth, Parkway Drive, Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying and more…

I pretty much stood there laughing to myself (I was on my own) as they blasted through some amazing sounding songs with great music and vocals. Topped off by the 6-foot dreadlock windmilling by frontman Brian Fair, Shadows Fall made the ever growing list of bands I needed to hear more of!  Needless to say I nipped to the merch stall after the show and got a copy of ‘Fear Will Drag You Down’ and chatted with the band (except Fair – his autograph still eludes my CD cover, even though I have met him twice since!)

The second band that did this (and the reason for me writing this) were ‘After the Burial’.  I was off to see Caliban with Jim and Ross and supporting were After the Burial, a band I’d never heard of.  Pretty sure I MySpace checked ‘em and thought they sounded ok, but couldn’t remember the song I heard or what they were like.

So we got to the gig and watched the opening act, then on they came.  The stage was dark and then they kicked in.  Silhouettes of two guitarists with their back to the crowd and their guitars behind their heads opened the show and blazed into perfect technical shreddery of their opening song, which I think was ‘Berzerker’!  They nailed some awesome guitar playing – sweeps, the works – from the back of their heads!!!

A brilliant show of skills and some fantastic tunes came from the stage. The only off-putting thing was the god awful illuminous colours of their guitars!! Really enjoyed their set and can’t wait to see them again very soon supporting Suicide Silence along with All Shall Perish.  A beast of a line-up, I’m sure you’ll agree!

Now, here’s where I’ve done that thing where I don’t pay attention to a band only to find they’re actually fantastic and I really like them.  Also on that Caliban line-up are the third band in this story.  A band who were so heavy and bass-pulse destructive that they left me in fits of laughter at the ‘Never Say Die’ Tour in 2010.  Emmure.

Yes, I didn’t pay attention to Emmure, and if I did, they sounded nothing like they did that day at Never Say Die.  I did a full blog about that gig if you wanna know exactly what I thought, but needless to say, I thought they were pretty damn special.  I laughed through their set.  They were immense and aided a thoroughly good night out and have since added a host of great tunes to my iPod!

Have a think.  Pretty sure we all come across a band we don’t know who just stick in the mind as a “fucking hell, these are ace!” band.