My Year in Music and Meows

2019 was an unusual year in music for me. For the first time in a decade I’ve had more important stuff going on than getting to shows and spinning new releases. This must be what growing up feels like. So, here’s a rundown of the shows and releases which were so good I just had to make time for them.

Working a full time job with two freelance side-gigs and raising a kitten is why I’m so grateful for days like Girlz Rawk 2019. This was a proper all-dayer showcasing the very best of loud and fresh music from all over Europe. The only criteria for getting on a Girlz Rawk bill seem to be having bags of riffs, at least one lady in the band, and being cool with playing with Evyltyde (which, unless you hate fun, should never be a problem).

Evyltyde are going to be mentioned in this scrawl a lot, so let’s introduce them properly. It’s been a big year for the English metal mob, with a new record, loads of shows, and the triumphant return of bassist and King Shagger Noah to the fold for most of 2019. They play old-school metal with shades of Maiden, Priest, Dio, Doro, and all the greats with an almost unparalleled sense of fun. Watching them feels like seeing your mates hit the bigtime, and they are everyone in the London metal scene’s mates. Every single time I’ve watched them they’ve made a point of saying hello and having a drink and a laugh with the crowd, welcoming old friends back and inviting new faces to join in with the shenanigans. In a city as big and isolating as London, with its fractured live music scene, Evyltyde are the warm beating heart of the heavy metal community.

After *ahem* a couple with Danny and Noah from Evyltyde and Cloe Corpse

Back to the all-dayer. Highlights for me on this day-long Guinness and guitar get-together were kooky, spooky mosh n’ roll rabble-rousers Novacrow, incendiary punks I Destroy, and Italy’s mighty Kalidia. The latter might sound like something you’ll get if you’re silly and don’t wrap your willy, but with their brand of rousing, goth-flavoured pop-metal anthems and electrifying stage presence, Kalidia are easily one of the most fun bands on the Euro circuit right now. The way in which they get the whole crowd involved, charging through the audience and inviting fans up on stage one-by-one to sing along with their favourite songs will make them truly legendary. I’ve seen literally hundreds of live bands and not one appreciates and loves their fans like Kalidia do.

On stage with Kalidia.

Girlz Rawk’s bookers brought another of my favourite Mediterranean groups over later in the year: the spectacular Secret Rule. Pioneers of the distinctively Italian gothic/ melodic/ pop metal sound, Secret Rule have a greater emphasis on the riffs than the likes of Kalidia but, if anything, even catchier hooks. Support at this show was first class: the endlessly fun Evyltyde (did I mention that I dig them yet?) and probably my favourite new discovery of the year, Elysian Divide. This English/ Latvian group bring the choruses and anthemic tunes of European metal and lay it over a Terminator skeleton of Bay Area thrash. Absolutely smashin’ stuff!

At this gig I also met Nika Balkind, who runs the fantastic English Rocks language programme. She teaches the Queen’s through hard rock culture and lyrics. Her videos are tons of fun and she runs regular meet-ups all over Europe, which are great resources for metal fans learning English!

2019 was the year I really learned to appreciate English heavy metal, and there was a brilliant celebration at the legendary Fiddler’s Elbow back in May. Bournemouth’s Metaprism, a brilliant melodic-yet-malicious group for fans of DevilDriver and Arch Enemy, made their long-overdue return to the capital with support from The Loved and Lost. They’re another of my picks for breakthrough act of the year with their raw, emotive gothic rock and high-energy live show. Evyltyde were there too (I hope I get a tshirt out of this), bringing their heavy metal party atmosphere once again. But what made this night so special was Cloe Corpse finally reclaiming the London stage.

Nobody makes music like Cloe Corpse. On the surface, she plays Madonna-esque, neon-lit pop. But scratch beneath the surface and there’s an ominous atmosphere and shades of emo and goth bands from the MySpace days running through her sound and lyrics. Her stage persona is something else too. It’s beguiling and mesmerising and casts her as the witch-queen of the Camden coven. Her new single, ‘Crazy Like a Vampire’, is a late contender for track of the year: giving her established formula a vodka-RedBull to bring its diabolical energy to dizzying new heights.

Thinking beyond England, another long overdue comeback was the presence of Indian bands on the international touring scene. 2019’s breakout band from the subcontinent was undoubtedly Bloodywood, whose ridiculously fun mashup of bhangra, western pop, and modern metal made them a hit on the Euro festival circuit. I caught their London club show and it was just as raucous as they sound on record, with a great turn out from fans of every kind of rock as well as desi music. The atmosphere was brilliant, and demonstrated how much better shows would be if we got rid of all this genre-tribalism nonsense.

Bloodywood are damn good fun, but they’re not India’s best metal band. I’ve been following and writing about this uniquely vibrant scene, which has produced some of the loudest, most intense, and most creative music I’ve ever abused my lugs with, since I was in high school, so I’m qualified to say that. For me, the subcontinent’s superstars of the year have been death-metal destroyers Gutslit. They also invaded Europe, but, alas, didn’t make it as far as England this time. As the name suggests, they’re playing nasty, guttural, truly revolting music which channels the genre’s heritage while making it hookier, heavier, and turning up the intensity a few thousand Scovilles in a way only Indian artists can. Other desi bands I’ve discovered this year include Godless (Lamb of God with heatstroke) and Zygnema (ferociously feral thrash). It was also great to hear scene veterans Bhayanak Maut release something new for the first time since I was a student. Make no mistake, looking to the future of heavy music means looking East, and that future is already burning so bright it’s nigh-on blinding.

But, as I said at the start, real life’s been starting to get in the way of my dalliances with new loud sounds. I’m now thoroughly domesticated with The Steph, and while she’s more than proven her metal credentials down the front at Venom Prison and Hatebreed, her being a theatrical type means the Moana soundtrack is more par for the course than Megadeth or Myrkur at home. So I’ve had to get creative, finding music which has some heavy metal heritage but is still chilled enough for cosy candlelit dinners.

Enter Marcela Bovio. If you’e into my kind of gothic/ poppy stuff, you’ll have heard her melancholic melodies pervade Mayan and Stream of Passion’s output. Marcela’s solo stuff isn’t metal, but the self-styled ‘chamber pop’ is dripping with the same atmospheric emotion and heartbreaking power. On her sophomore record, released in the dying breaths of last year, my favourite track is the upbeat, almost jazzy, interlude ‘Magic Powers’.

This was the perfect preparation for the biggest change in my life this year, adopting a kitten. I grew up with a cat, but I’ve never raised one from teeny tiny kittenhood. Marcela’s ode to her moggy, ‘It’s freaking 4am/ And his majesty thinks the day must begin’, were a charming warning of just how rapidly Meena’s stadium-sized personality would grow, and just how quickly my whole world would start to revolve around her and not the concert and release calendar. Yet Marcela ultimately champions cat-parenthood, singing:

Meena sitting pretty.

‘But as he curls up in your lap you’ll see/ That he has magic powers/ He will make you smile when everything is grim.’

Just like a favourite band, Meena has an uncanny ability to slap a grin on my face and to energise and inspire me. And like the very best metal bands, she’s ferociously tearing about one minute, calm and serene the next, and utterly, unpredictably, entertaining.

So here’s to all of the wonderful people and spectacular sounds of 2019. I’m already looking forward to a tremendous new decade of gigs and records and good times with pals old and new. You’ll just have to forgive me if I miss the first band ’cause Meena was snoozing on my lap.

Selfie with Meena.

Ryan Callander is a writer and former contributor to The Moshville Times and inthescene magazines. He is also a tour guide and prepares bespoke itineraries for heavy metal fans visiting European cities.

@RyansLondonTours

 

 

Temperance, Of Jupiter and Moons: Album Review

Tarot cards on the table, I am a big fan of Temperance.

The virtue? Fuck off, keep ’em coming. The band? Fuck yes.

This is the band which I’ve been telling my mates, barmen when I’ve had a few, and disinterested Tinder dates about for two and a bit years.

I used to affectionately describe them as ‘pop-metal’, ‘Bonnie Tyler with riffs’. And while I stand by that as a fair summary of their early stuff (‘Save Me’ and ‘Hero’ being prime examples), they are now so much more. A fully-fledged, relentlessly ambitious melodic metal behemoth which should have the likes of Epica, Nightwish, and Amaranthe sleeping with one eye open, gripping their pillow tight.

We knew Temperance were capable of this from their last album, The Earth Embraces Us All. Opening with a sweeping, cinematic soundscape and closing with the epic ‘Restless Ride’, they made their Tolkein-scale ambitions well known. Clearly a lot more Avantasia than Anastasia was being spun on that tour bus.

Sonically, Of Jupiter and Moons represents a coming of age of such impulses. This is the widest range of textures ever felt on a Temperance disc, and, I hazard, and heavy release you’re likely to hear this year. It’s got some of their heaviest material ever. Opening track ‘Last Hope in a World of Hopes’ is a statement of intent with a furious undercurrent, while ‘Way Back Home’ has moments of pure moshpit fuel. By contrast, there’s an honest to goodness ballad, which, admittedly, might not be to trve fvcking metal fans’ tastes, but shows that Temperance’s links with the eighties are still strong. There’s also a continuation of the ‘let’s try this batshit idea and see what happens’ element of the previous album in (my favourite track after two days of listening) ‘The Art of Believing’. A powerhouse display of the talents of new vocalist Alessia Scolletti (we’ll get to that in a minute…), there’s a brilliantly bizarre bit which starts off feeling like a tribute to Dio-era Rainbow before descending into a full on soul-rock number, complete with gospel choir.

The best news for returning fans is that Temperance have absolutely perfected their skills in writing earworm hooks. I defy anyone to give this album a  spin and not have the chorus to the opener, ‘We Are Free’, or that instantly lovable title track rattling around their skull for the rest of the day.

So, business as usual, the next chapter in Temperance’s stratospheric rise to power? Well, kind of. This is undoubtedly a new chapter for the band, and it’s consciously referenced in the lyrics. Alessia’s “Time for a change in this journey…” in the opening verse sets par for the course. While there was nothing like the mass exodus which rocked, say, Sabaton just before Carolus Rex came out, the fact that bassist Luca Negro and guitarist/ vocalist/ ringmaster Marco Pastorino stand as the only original members is significant. I’m sure you can read about the hows and whys behind this on even nerdier blogs than this, but out of respect for all Temperance members past and present (I’ve always been treated like royalty by every one of them whenever I’ve had the pleasure of catching them live) I’m keeping well out of that.

Suffice to say, I like Temperance 2018 every bit as much as previous lineups. Batterista Alfonso Mocerino has already more than proven himself live and brings that same indomitable energy to this disc. Luca and Marco are giving the performances of their careers, with relentlessly groovy, intricate basslines and guitar solos to get Herman Li all hot and bothered. Yet, for me, the biggest change was the introduction of two lead vocalists in Michele Guaitoli and Alessia. They absolutely slay, bringing refinement, gravitas, and soul as the crowning glory of this new, grown up Temperance sound. Both vocalists get plenty of chances to shine, there’s never a sense that they’re competing, and when they come together on the harmonies (which bring to mind Temperance touring buddies and absolute prime shaggers Cryonic Temple) we get some of the very best moments on the record.

So, Of Jupiter and Moons is a realisation of the potential of one of the most promising bands in European heavy music, a smorgasbord of everything heavy metal can be today, and a showcase of some groundbreaking talents. But the reason that I think it deserves your time, above all, is that it’s just so much fun! I’ve been spinning this in the sunsets of the recent good weather and this has been the musical equivalent of an Aperol Spritz. Temperance are a band which never fail to fill my heart with absolute joy, and this record has taken that to a whole new level of elation. If that’s not the hallmark of a truly great band then I don’t know what is.

Ryan Callander

Of Jupiter and Moons is out now on Scarlet Records.

Temperance tour dates:

04.27 Officine Sonore, Vercelli – Italy / RELEASE PARTY
04.28 Le Plan, Ris Orangis – France
04.29 Colosseum, Genk – Belgium
04.30 Rocking Bull, Antwerp – Belgium
05.01 Le Midland, Lille – France
05.02 Sbuside, Birmingham – U.K.
05.03 Iron Road, Evesham – U.K.
05.05 Trillians, Newcastle – U.K.
05.06 Iron Horse, Sidcup – U.K. (I’m gonna be at this one, come and get full of grappa!)

05.26 Vegallomas Klub, Szombathely – Hungary
05.27 Melodka, Brno – Czech Republic

06.24 Druso, Bergamo – Italy
06.30 Area Verde, Acqui Terme – Italy
07.01 MetalTrave, Travesio – Italy

SYMPHONIC METAL NIGHTS TOUR
supporting SERENITY, VISION OF ATLANTIS and DRAGONY
10.24 Musicburg, Aarburg – Switzerland
10.25 Cafe Central, Weinheim – Germany
10.26 MTC, Koln – Germany
10.27 Atak, Enschede – Netherlands
10.28 Gebr. De Nobel, Leiden – Netherlands
10.29 ClubCANN, Stuttgart – Germany
10.30 CCO, Lyon – France
10.31 Arci Tom, Mantova – Italy
11.01 Explosiv, Graz – Austria
11.02 Durer Kert, Budapest – Hungary
11.03 Szene, Wien – Austria

11.04 Gasoline, Trento – Italy

11.17 Underworld, London – U.K

 

 

 

Eating Lightning and Crapping Thunder: Why KINGPIN are Your New Favourite band

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for Glasgow’s crossover titans KINGPIN. Numerous lineup changes and scuppered hopes of a Euro tour would have left lesser bands reeling on the mat. But Kingpin are not one of those bands, and in 2016 they promise to embody the ethos of ‘It’s not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward’.

Bringing together local metal and hardcore hero Lev on vocals, thrashers Neevo Burrell and Gary Smith of Insomniac on guitar and bass, and a veteran of countless English hardcore legends, Den Bonura, on drums, Kingpin were poised to be champions from the start. Lev first met Gary and Neevo at a local metal gig, where a mutual pal was wearing a Rocky shirt. Lev had just recorded with another band: ‘Whenever I’m recording vocals I bring a championship belt with me, and this time I had the belt from the Rocky films with me. It was in the back of my motor so I was like ‘wait two minutes mate, you’ve got tae see this. And everybody just went mental! Getting pictures with the belt and singin’ ‘Eye of the Tiger’, and I just realised, these guys are gonna be my mates for life.’

The band quickly adopted the Italian Stallion’s workmanlike attitude, rapidly churning out the band’s 2013 demo. Neevo tells us ‘We only had three practises with Den before we released the demo. He learnt two existing tracks, ‘Former Glory’ and ‘Choking Dust’, making them slower and heavier.’ Lev summarises, ‘With Neevo and Gary bringing the thrash, Den bringing the hardcore, and me tying it all up, it was just a formula for success!’

The next eighteen months saw the band go from strength to strength, rising to the top of Glasgow’s metal and hardcore scene. Their live shows were, and are, all but peerless. A thunderous groove offset by thrashy licks, rapid pace, crushing breakdowns, and anger-fuelled anthems you can’t help but chant along with. Their stage presence is indomitable, due in no small part to the sight of an enraged Lev, commanding proceedings with relentless, kinetic brutality, contrasted by the Apollo-Creed-esque Gary, leaping and stomping around the stage while delivering knockout punches with his bass. This raw talent for showmanship earned them an enviable reputation, and the small privilege of opening for a rogue’s gallery of thrash and hardcore heavyweights, including the likes of Iron Reagan, Toxic Holocaust, Twitching Tongues, M.O.D., and Sick Of it All.

This time also saw the release of their first 7”, They Serve Themselves. A true statement of intent, and that rare record that truly captures the intensity of such a euphoric live show on vinyl. However, plans to support the release around Europe were put on hold with the departure of Neevo. Guitarists Goat Lord and Beck stepped in, bolstering the band’s sound with their two-axe assault, but the tour was scrapped when Den also left.

Regardless, the band maintained their relentless resolve and persevered. Bringing in local death metal master George behind the kit, they continued their unrelenting gigging, taking in the UK and Ireland on a tour with fellow crossover kings Hollow Truth. Writing also began on their second EP, Truth. Eventually released in late 2015, in support of UNHCR, this did the near impossible and lived up to TSTS, serving as another testament to the band’s phenomenal live sound while showcasing their growing talents for writing life-affirming anthems.

Yet 2015 saw more personnel changes. Goat Lord’s unfortunate resignation was happily offset by the return of Neevo, creating a formidable lineup which blasted through some of the band’s best shows of the year: not least a phenomenal set at Den and Lev’s annual celebration of the Scottish hardcore scene, The Playa’s Ball. Den returned to drum duties in December, storming through a brilliant comeback set of the band’s earlier material while performing at a secret show with Scottish hardcore leviathan Revulsion. Kingpin, bloodied, bruised, but far from broken, had persevered to the tenth round.

And 2016 looks set to be Kingpin’s best year yet. With an unmissable headliner at Belfast’s Warzone less than a week away, their first hometown show of the year fast approaching, and new music in the pipeline, they have everything to fight for. And you can bet that through sheer grit and determination they’ll make it happen in triumphant style.

Look out for them jumping with their fists in the air at the top of the Buchanan steps.

Ryan Callander

Kingpin headline Belfast’s Warzone Centre on 5 February.
Kingpin play Infestation, alongside Acid Trial, Circle of Tyrants, and God Damn Brewery, at Glasgow’s Ivory Blacks on 20 February.
Kingpin support Power Trip at Belfast’s Warzone Centre on 29 May.
Truth is available now, with all proceeds going to UNHCR.

TRIAL & ERROR, REVULSION, VETO, RAINFALLS, MERCY: LIVE REVIEW

Audio, Thursday 10 September

The Glasgow HardCore scene is no stranger to a DIY work ethic. A community united by a passion for heavy music, every show, record, venue, and Tshirt has been put together by fans, for the fans.

A similar can-do attitude is being applied by the Scottish people to the ongoing refugee crisis. Having absolutely none of Westminster’s lacklustre response, individuals, families, and groups from around the country have decided to take matters into their own hands, filling up cars and vans with clothes, food, toiletries, and anything else they can to make the lives of the people in the makeshift refugee camps in Calais a little easier.

Its therefore feels natural, but nonetheless awesome, to see the GHC get involved. Spearheaded by Andy Wilson, of Revulsion, Mercy, and Trial & Error fame, and Ross Wilson, the man behind Thanks For Nothing Records, the community responded accordingly, and in less than a week put together this fundraiser show.

As the clothing donations pile up, Mercy take the stage in front of a striking banner proudly declaring ‘REFUGEES WELCOME’. From the first note this is a truly bombastic set; hardly surprising considering that they feature members of Revulsion, Adjust, and Trial & Error, casting them as something of a scene supergroup. Regardless, for a second ever show this is stunning, not least because their music sounds like nothing else in hardcore. It still has the chugging guitars, spat vocals, and riot-inciting breakdowns which are the hallmarks of modern Scottish hardcore, but this is offset by huge, mournful guitars, and phenomenal singing. This soaks the whole set in a massive, melancholic atmosphere, casting them as something different from any other band on the national, if not global, scene.

Rainfalls continue the more considered start to the evening with their ambitious brand of melodic hardcore. Big leads and a dark tone pair them nicely with Mercy, but this is where the similarities end. This is not conventional hardcore by any means; in fact, it’s a bit of a stretch to call them hardcore at all. Not that this is a bad thing; this is accomplished, adventurous music, with so many textures at play here building up to a progressive feel; testament to the variety of sounds and styles emerging as the Glasgow scene grows and evolves. Definitely one to watch.

The ominous gloom of tonight’s openers is contrasted in triumphant style by Veto, who’s lively, youthful pop-hardcore makes for one of the strongest sets not only of tonight, but this year. Channelling a mastery of balancing bounciness, heaviness, and big, singalong choruses in the vein of a ballsier Neck Deep, the sheer energy of Veto’s set slaps a smile on the face of every punter in the crowd. Their frontman is pop-punk’s answer to Jamey Jasta, involving the audience at every opportunity in a show which already has more kinetic energy than the Power Rangers on Dragon Soop. This is a band destined to fill festival arenas.

Already well on their way to filling arenas are Revulsion, who after this set really are frontrunners in UK heavy music. Imagine if Lamb of God threw New American Gospel at the wall for not being heavy enough, listened to more Bolt Thrower, then went and picked a fight on the wrong side of the tracks, and you’re getting close to Revulsion’s sound. It’s brutal, it’s ugly, and it’s gargantuan live. A kick to the teeth (and there’s plenty of those happening in the pit), but nuanced enough to lift them out of the ‘heavy but nothing else’ trap many similar bands fall into. Immense doesn’t even start to cover it.

Trial & Error round off a triumphant night in style with a special reunion set. Their straight-up metallic hardcore, while maybe not as innovative as some of the sounds on this bill, fuels one of the most energetic performances of the night. The whole of Audio’s floor turns into a pit for a blistering twenty minute set celebrating one of the first truly essential bands to emerge from this generation of Scottish hardcore. The demise of Trial & Error may have brought about better things, namely Mercy and Revulsion, but with tunes this aggressive and groovy, and a live set this fun, here’s hoping this won’t be their last reunion show.

Ryan Callander

For more info on ways you can help those affected by the refugee crisis, and more fundraiser events, visit the Scottish Action For Refugees Facebook page

And Now For Something Completely Different: In Conversation With ZOAX

Audio, 31 March 2015

ZOAX have had a pretty good couple of years. Two stellar EPs, high-profile support slots with the likes of The Safety Fire and Feed The Rhino, and glowing reviews from Kerrang! and RockSound have placed them in pole position to be recognised as ‘the next big thing’. Tonight is their chance to stake their claim; this is their first ever headline show, kicking off their first ever headline tour. The mood is understandably uneasy backstage.

“Nervous? Absolutely.”, quips frontman Adam Carroll, while guitarist Doug Wotherspoon undermines the Scottish stereotype by sticking firmly to just one pre-show drink. “I like to be pretty focused, on edge. Maybe five, six days into the tour it’ll be a bit more, but if I try to play the first night half cut it’ll be an absolute disaster.”. Despite this, the lads remain in good spirits, with the simple practicalities of playing a headline set weighing heaviest on their minds. “We’ve never played for forty-five minutes, fifty minutes before , so if possible, if we could have an ambulance outside waiting for us…”, jokes Adam. This is typical of the young band’s attitude, and seeing the tour as another opportunity to have fun seems paramount. “We’re dead excited. We just like being on the road.” insists Adam, before Doug excitedly reveals “We’ve done a few little things to try and make this our own and really change the vibe into what we really want a show to be.”.

And the show is really something to behold. As a support act, ZOAX, completed by bassist Joe Copcutt, drummer Jonny Rogers, and guitarist Shaun Weir, blew every band they played with clean out of the water. Led by Adam, a showman not afraid to throw himself amongst the crowd and involve every single person present, the band delivered performances full of kinetic bombast. Tonight, this is amplified to a massive scale. The crowd is in Adam’s hand from the second they launch into new single Lonely Souls, and he keeps them there as the band shift through their diverse textures. Burn It To The Ground, an aggressive anthem of gargantuan proportions, puts every fist in the air, but an unexpected acoustic rendition of the heartfelt Innocent Eyes holds the audience equally transfixed. The band surpass everything that they’ve ever brought to a live show tonight, and the hosting of this event in Glasgow certainly seems to contribute to this.

“Glasgow is the place we’ve played the most, ever, and it’s always been really good”, says Adam. “Everybody seems to be good fun. We’ve only ever done this venue [Audio] and the Classic Grand, and both times just everyone seems to be enthusiastic. And I always get to talk about wrestling to people here.”, he adds, with a knowing smile for his not-so-secret passion. For Doug, Glasgow has a more personal significance. “I’m Scottish living in London so it’s pretty great to be up in Scotland playing shows when your band’s based in London… Personally, being up in Scotland playing shows, especially in Glasgow, which is where the majority of live music is really happening in Scotland is great. You feel like you’re doing it; I feel like we’re really doing something.”.

But the live show is only part of ZOAX’s early success; a lot of that has to do with their truly unique sound. While Adam and Doug are quick to identify personal heroes as influences (Faith No More’s Mike Patton and Rage Against The Machine’s Timmy C are respectively cited), they do not invite comparisons with any other band. “[Our sound] satisfies all our different musical vices.”, explains Doug. “We all love different stuff… I wouldn’t say we all saw a band collectively and were like ‘that’s what we should do’.”. This is certainly something which comes across in their songwriting, which brings together the best elements of electric music in the broadest sense. They exhibit by turns crushingly heavy, moshpit-inciting fury, and smooth, almost jazzy serenity. There is no other band that sounds quite like ZOAX, and this is something they were very keen to emphasise on their stunning new EP, Is Everybody Listening?. Adam tells me, “we wanted to.. bring the different sound that we always kinda wanted to do into this. We always love a good riff… we love a boogie, we love a groove, and we like to have a little dance on stage so we wanted to capture all that on this new EP and just, like, see how people responded to it, and people were like, ‘yeah, this is great!’”.

But never ones to rest on their laurels, ZOAX are already working on new material, just a month after IEL‘s release. Adam remains coy about their “secret session”, but promises that new music will add even more depth and diversity to the band’s sound. The frontman describes their recent writing as “a different path again, but I’ve never felt more confident about it, so I’m excited.”. Doug shares his enthusiasm for this new direction, saying “Yeah, it’s gonna be different, but we’re still a guitar-based band. I think people will hear it and be like ‘I was not expecting that’.”. Pushing boundaries and refusing to be pigeon-holed are defining aspects of ZOAX’s collective artistic personality, attitudes which have definitely contributed to their sharp yet seemingly unstoppable rise. Adam is keen to wear these on the group’s sleeves as the new material takes shape. “We are all super, super, super into so much music… So why would any musician want to close doors on certain genres? If you want to do it, do it!”.

Truly exceptional live shows and an avant-garde musical vision are two things which would be the envy of most bands today, but Adam identifies one other factor in ZOAX’s early success. “We get on like a house on fire, everyone in the band is very very close friends. It sounds so fucking cheesy, but it literally was the number one thing I heard when I first came over to see if I was gonna go into this band. The first thing Joe was telling me was ‘we just want five mates, who just get on and just enjoy the shows and have a good time’.” And this is certainly something that comes from any exposure to ZOAX, their sheer sense of fun. Their music, their show, everything about this band is brimming with an energy which ensures that every man on stage, and every individual in the crowd, leaves with a huge smile on their face. Absolutely unmissable.

Ryan Callander

ZOAX are on tour now. Check out the tour dates here.

Special thanks to The Noise Cartel for setting up this interview.

Like Room 24 on Facebook.

Bhayanak Maut, Man: Album Review

Heavy metal is now a truly global phenomenon. Anyone with even the most passing interest in the genre is aware of this, even if only thanks to Japan’s Babymetal. And the balance of power within the genre, as with the world, has shifted significantly since its 1980s, Anglo-American dominated, heyday. The creative, if not commercial, centre of the heavy metal universe is now undoubtedly in India.

The Indian metal scene, despite bubbling away for more than two decades now, has witnessed a surge in innovative vigour in recent years. This is reflected by seemingly every one of their home-grown talents, from the genre-defying anthemic wizardry of The Circus, through the modern Pantera-worship of Undying Inc., to the operatic grandeur of Demonic Resurrection. The undisputed kings of this vibrant scene, however, are Bhayanak Maut, and it’s their latest album, Man, which will propel them and their entire national scene to total global domination.

The seventeen-track leviathan marks a beautiful transition from the reigning ‘New Wave of American Heavy Metal’ of the likes of Lamb of God and DevilDriver to whatever the next ten years will bring. Opening tracks ‘I Am Man’, ‘All Glory To The Beard’, and ‘Genosis’ follow Bhayanak Maut’s established formula, undoubtedly inspired by these American groups, of furious pace, hook-laden riffs, and titanic vocals. But this is presented with a sense of grandeur and bombast never before expressed by the band, or, indeed, any other metal release of 2014. The sheer power of this sound alone casts it as futuristic.

An atmospheric, ethereal guitar interlude makes a clean break with the past, before introducing the more creative elements of the album. As ‘Perfecting the Suture’ reaches its climax a crushing riff provides the background to a young girl’s speech, with hauntingly beautiful results. This avant-garde inventiveness, further marked by the industrial overtones of ‘Xoxoxo’ and the symphonic scale of ‘For Science’, which redefines the boundaries of ‘harsh’ metal vocals, reaches its crescendo in the record’s final track, ‘Stage 5: Residuum’. An elegant piano solo is succeeded by ten minutes of silence, then, out of nowhere, an ominous guitar creeps in. Then a voice, introducing the rest of the song as a transcendental experience ‘See the possibilities. See the world that you can create.’ The rest of the track consists of disjointed sounds coming together into riffs, before falling away again – each one a song in miniature, lasting only a few seconds, but all of them warranting further investigation. Pretentious? Yes; but this feels like being on the very frontline of musical innovation.

If any criticism can be made of this record, it’s that it does lack the kind of instant, groove-ridden anthem that Bhayanak Maut have proven themselves to be so good at on previous releases (‘Ranti Nasha’ and ‘Dear <name>’ being but two glowing examples). But, when experienced as a whole, Man reveals itself as that rare record, that only appears once a generation, which totally redefines the genre, paving the way for things to come. This album easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Slayer’s Reign In Blood and Metallica’s Black Album. Man will prove itself to be the most influential record of the decade, and has opened the doors to a very exciting future for heavy metal worldwide.

Ryan Callander

Man is available now.

Like Room 24 on Facebook.

The Nine – A one off Scottish tribute to Slipknot: Live Review

Classic Grand, 1 November 2014

For heavy music fans, and undoubtedly a good chunk of the laity too, Slipknot have been an unavoidable presence in recent weeks. Through telly ads and conquest of social media, as well as relentless articles and interviews documenting the apparent impossibility of working with frontman Corey Taylor, the band’s marketing team made a US #1 album for the metal stalwarts all but a certainty.

Such bare-faced suckling at the teat of commercialism therefore makes it easy to forget what Slipknot were about in the first place. For many, certainly the bulk of the crowd here tonight, they served as a gateway into the macabre theatricality and aural brutality of heavy music. Fortunately, Scottish tribute band The Nine are here to remind us of what established the group as cultural icons, or at least Catty staples.

After a haunting yet tantalising audiovisual intro, the band explode onto the stage with enough force and vigour to put even the rabid Halloween-weekend audience on the back foot. Donning the famous horror movie circus masks and utterly dominating the space, they are an instantly engaging spectacle. They run around the stage like demented animals, smacking steel drums with baseball bats, leaning into the crowd to scream into grinning faces, and generally cause an absolute riot. The impact of their stage presence can not be stressed enough, but it doesn’t stop the gas-mask-clad #0 from jumping off the stage and stoking the moshpit whenever he feels like it.

The music too sounds as fresh and vital as ever. Sticking strictly to choice cuts from their namesake’s first two records, the likes of ‘(sic)’, ‘Wait and Bleed’, and ‘Duality’ remind any sceptics in the room why Slipknot weren’t immediately dismissed as gimmicks. This is relentlessly powerful stuff; a fact affirmed beyond all doubt by a rousing chant-along encore of angst-ridden anthem ‘People=Shit’.

If any criticism can be made, and this really is splitting dreadlocked hairs, it’s that The Nine stick to just a small portion of the Slipknot oeuvre. It’s easy to forget that the band now have a career spanning nineteen years. For many in attendance tonight, 2004’s Volume 3, or even 2008’s All Hope is Gone, will have been their Slipknot record; undoubtedly weaker releases, but certainly not without their nostalgia-inducing moments.

Apart from that, The Nine are everything an awesome tribute band should be. They channel the energy and atmosphere of the genuine article perfectly, allowing a riled crowd to utterly lose themselves in the finest tracks of the soundtrack to a particularly loud youth. If the real deal are anything like as good as this in January, it’ll definitely be worth the forty quid. And having to stand through KoЯn.

Ryan Callander

Like Room 24 on Facebook.

Upon A Burning Body, The World Is My Enemy Now: Album Review

Charles Dickens wrote ‘Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed.’. A glance at their press photos, and Upon A Burning Body appear as the embodiment of this sentiment. Five impeccably dressed young men, sporting tailored waistcoats, finely pressed shirts and trousers, and remarkably well matched ties and handkerchiefs. In fact, only ear gauges and tattoos creeping their way up their necks serve to identify them as anything other than a jazz quintet, an easy listening covers band, or Michael Buble’s backing singers. But they are the antithesis of Dickens’ concept, and are instead the single most virulent, violent, and volatile hardcore metal band to commit their sounds to record this year.

The World Is My Enemy Now is, as its subtle title suggests, a no-holds-barred, tour-de-force of the most punishing sounds being ripped from strings, skins and throats right now. ‘Red Razor Wrists’ sets the tone for the next forty minutes with its infectious groove, relentless breakdowns, gargantuan chorus, and angst-riddled lyrics. The power of this music is unbelievable; it simultaneously feels like it should fill the biggest stadiums and the walls of Glasgow’s dirtiest underground boxing rings. All within the first three minutes.

The next few tracks show no sign of slowing or pulling back; if anything, their monumental aggression is building and building. This hits a towering climax during ‘Bring The Rain’, deceptively introduced as a (relatively) mid-paced number, with the focus on emotional lyrics rather than violence. Until the two-twenty, mark that is. The guitars drop out, leaving a mumbling bass and drums. Two spoken bars, then… ‘THUNDER’! It’s impossible not to want to break bones to this drop. It’s very rare for any band to distil the atmosphere of a live show onto disc, but this illustrates an absolute mastery of stagecraft in its most rousing form.

The band charges on with utter conviction, never dulling despite the relentless intensity of each track. Things are kept varied and fresh by ‘The New Breed’, and ‘A Toda Madre o un Desmadre’. The former is a swaggering, Southern-fried groove worthy of Pantera in their prime, and the latter a Spanish guitar instrumental, a brief moment of relative calm, which bleeds slickly into another war cry in the form of ‘Judgement’. Both tracks showcase the range of Upon A Burning Body’s musical talents, casting them as skilled songwriters, able to write more than just catchy choruses and brutal breakdowns.

They may be well dressed, but Upon A Burning Body are in anything but good spirits, and with worse tempers. And this makes The World Is My Enemy Now the most blisteringly brilliant metal record of the year. The World should be worried.

Ryan Callander

The World Is My Enemy Now is out now
Upon A Burning Body play the Cathouse on 23 November

KEEPER OF THE 7-INCHES: Cornucopia Records’ Alastair Mabon talks about running a record shop in 2014

Last month I was in Dublin, on the best holiday I’ve ever had. Not only because I was there with my best pal, ensuring obscene levels of drunken debauchery, or because of the uniquely excellent pubs which facilitated this; but because the city is an absolute haven for the music lover. The locals have a passion and reverence for music of all kinds, expressed prominently and proudly through, for example, a statue of Phil Lynott, as well as Roxelles, Whealan’s, Fibber Magee’s, and a plethora of other dedicated venues and bars. But the display of this which I found most striking was something which just a few years ago would have been nothing out of the ordinary in Glasgow; an abundance of record shops.

I’m relating this experience, my delight at discovering these stores still flourishing in 2014, to Alastair Mabon. As the owner of Cornucopia Records, he’s one of the few people in Glasgow willing to have a crack at the dedicated music shop game. He agrees that Europe have done a lot more to maintain physical music sales. “ See, if you go to Berlin I bet there’s like ten shops selling stuff like this, and there’s nothing in Glasgow.”

With this in mind, Alastair’s enterprise is a brave one, a fact exaggerated by the fact that he’s proudly a specialist in heavy metal, punk, and hardcore. “I don’t know if [people] are just ignorant or if they’re scared. I had a couple of guys in today; they looked through that first box of records, ‘S to Z’ of the extreme metal collection, and just turned around and walked away. But if they’d come here they’d have seen that I’ve got a blues section, a reggae section, a second hand section… if there’s not something out of all of these that they’d have liked, I’d have been amazed.” Whilst underground metal and punk records are undoubtedly a hard sell to the general populace, Alastair sees it as something that gives him an edge as a businessman. “If someone comes in asking me about stuff I don’t know, I’m totally high and dry, but with this stuff… it’s mostly stuff I like. It’s 90% stuff that would be in my own record collection, and I think that’s what you should do. I worked in [another Glasgow record shop] for years for a boss who didn’t care about the music, who was just into it to make money. Record stores used to be, in the seventies, eighties, nineties, a good way of making money; like owning a café these days… Everyone bought records… As a result, [surviving record shops] are just owned by cynical guys, who aren’t really into music; they’re into making money.”

Despite this, Alastair is the first to admit that selling records is far from being the golden goose that it used to be. “The kind of people who are just into music, they don’t make money from this.” When I ask him what he would advise any young entrepreneur looking to step into the market, his advice is “Honestly, from a money perspective, I’d say don’t do it. You’re not gonna make a good living from it… In terms of new record shops, I don’t see how it would be possible unless you had a lot of money. Records just cost a fortune these days; what are you supposed to do when they cost £15 to buy in?”

But for Alastair himself, the approach was quite different. In high school he began a fanzine championing underground music, which led to a burgeoning career as a distributor. At uni he met “guys who would record their pals, make CDRs on their computers, do their own cases, and they would punt them for £4 at gigs… When I saw what all these guys were doing I thought I could do that better!” Working life after uni saw this relegated to a hobby, but after being made redundant from his “evil” job in a bank a few years ago he decided to make it a full time gig. Yet again the vicious reality of the industry became apparent and he was forced to pick up extra work on the side, but ‘real-world’ practicalities ultimately inspired Cornucopia Records in its present form. “I got married last year… And [my wife] was like, “You’ve got so much stuff!”. This [stock] was all in my spare room, which is a quarter of the size of this room. She was like “You’re gonna have to do something about this… why don’t you try just opening up a shop?”… and I was like, it’s worth a go!”

Whilst he admits that the store in its current form as a pop-up in the basement of popular West End café Offshore is “pretty rough and ready”, he now seems committed to the physical shop as the way to engage with the music business. Alastair is unapologetic in his nostalgia for his heyday as a distributor, where communication with others in the business via phone and letters was paramount. “I kinda feel that’s lost now… everyone’s got a Bandcamp page and a Facebook page. You go on and you just click what you want… and you get it through the post three days later and that’s it. I know that’s convenient, but part of the reason I opened up the shop was that I wanted to engage with people.” Referring to selling me a fantastically obscure and brilliant record from Japanese noisemongers CSSO the previous week, based only on my telling him that I wanted to hear something weird and different, Alastair concludes “you don’t get that when you go on a website, you only get that through spending time with a person. That’s why I need the shop.”

And it’s in this respect that the real value of what Alastair does with Cornucopia Records becomes apparent. His aforementioned love for what he sells gives him an encyclopaedic knowledge of his stock, and his unfettered enthusiasm for what he does comes through when I ask him about what he’d recommend for any Room 24 readers wanting to check out the shop. He heads straight for what he calls the “biscuit tin of evil”; a Sabbat anthology. Legendary producer Andy Sneap’s band? “Different band; Japanese black metal, before [Andy Sneap].” As he shows me the six LPs and the accompanying book I feel like I’m listening to a museum curator talk about his favourite artefact, or a kid showing off his coolest Christmas present. I’ve never heard this Sabbat before, I don’t even own a vinyl player, but I want this. As he says, this personal dimension is utterly invaluable, especially in the commercial decline of not just the music industry, but retail itself.

This is a world away from mindlessly clicking through links on Facebook or trawling through Spotify; it’s one of the few places left where like minded music aficionados can gather and share what’s new and exciting to them, a band they’ve just seen live, or an old flame that they want to give some exposure. Alastair Mabon is a hero. Glasgow loves its music; I know it does, or I’d have nothing to write about. We have some of the best live shows going, dedicated bars and venues, and half the shops on Queen Street would go out of business if it wasn’t for heavy music fans. Let’s take a leaf out of Dublin’s book and show the same support for the record shop. Jump into Cornucopia Records this weekend; you just might find your new favourite band.

Cornucopia Records can be found in the basement of Offshore, 3-5 Gibson Street, Glasgow;
Open Wed-Sun, 11.00-18.00.
Check out Alastair’s website, At War With False Noise

Ryan Callander

“Grottiness, dirt, and anger”: why The Sweats are your new favourite band

“Most of the lyrics I write are about music at the moment; how much of a farce it all is, how shit it all is. Most of the bands in Glasgow, they all get in a band for the glamorous side of it. It’s all really posey, it’s more of a brand than a band. They’re all trying to look a certain way, dress a certain way. The same kind of people follow it as well, the same kind of sheep that go on Tumblr every night.”

Clearly Robbie Houston isn’t one to mince his words. As the main songwriter and frontman for garage punk upstarts The Sweats, he’s dedicated to forcing apathy and fallacy out of the local scene, with what he describes as a much needed blast of “grottiness, dirt, and anger”.

Despite his apparent desire to cast the band as a middle finger to the Glasgow rock circuit, The Sweats, playing under the moniker Sweaty Palms, have already built up quite a following, progressing from playing a working man’s club in Govan to a packed headline slot at Pivo Pivo in only a matter of weeks. This is doubtless thanks to their phenomenal sound, pulling together bluesy swagger, the pace of punk rock, and old school rock n’ roll riffing. Houston’s musical role models come as little surprise; punk stalwarts The Stooges, rockabilly heroes The Gun Club, and rising London rockers Fat White Family are all represented proudly on the band’s sleeves, but it’s the influence of one man that seems key to their early success. “Nick Cave… that evilness, makes your skin crawl…”. Live, The Sweats do a phenomenal job of marinating the crowd in an electric, immersive atmosphere, which, like that created by Cave, can lift the room up in a wave of chant-along euphoria on one number, before forcing them down under an ominous, stifling barrage of sound on the next.

But this immense power didn’t come to them overnight; The Sweats have been in gestation for a relatively long time for such a young band. Initially formed, as doubtless many great bands are, off the back of a night on the town, the band spent six months or so establishing their creative core of Houston, Ronan Fay on lead guitars, and Shaun Montgomery on bass, going to great lengths to find their own voice before recruiting drummer Alex Abate and playing live. “We went in, and kinda fannied about with a few sounds, but then we knew exactly what sound we wanted to go for.” This time was also spent penning Houston’s deeply personal lyrics. “I don’t like just having a voice behind the music, it all needs to mean something.” Whilst “insecurities, paranoia, and hating everybody” might sound like typical angsty fare, when delivered with such conviction live, they compliment the ebb and flow of their duelling bouncy riffs and heavy blues grooves perfectly, adding further depth to an already emotionally charged performance.

This DIY perfectionism is something the band hope to hone in the studio too. With a four track EP lined up for recording this month, Houston and Fay are determined to oversee production and master recordings themselves. “[That way] it’s all in your control, nobody’s fannying about with the buttons, making it sound different from how you want it to.” And if they can channel half of the energy of their live show onto record, that sound will definitely be something worth fighting for.

If every band in Glasgow starts to show this level of passion and dedication to their music then we could be looking at a very exciting future for the local scene. Expect a lot more “grottiness, dirt, and anger” at live shows in the coming months.

The Sweats play The Admiral on September 14.
Like The Sweats on Facebook.  

Ryan Callander
Like Room 24 on Facebook.