Although London can provide any experience you could possibly imagine, sometimes you just want to walk into a packed music venue and get pummelled by heavy songs for a few hours. The next time that urge consumes you, book a ticket for the nearest Svalbard (8/10) show and get involved. With two shows remaining on their tour with Comeback Kid, and even more Read more…
Brixton Academy has been one of the greatest venues in London for decades. A staggering number of history’s greatest musicians have taken the stage in full view of an audience guaranteed a great view thanks to the gently sloping floor, and smashed their shows out of the park. Babymetal (10/10) are one of the best live groups out there in 2019, and their set in London this week served to Read more…
The night before this show, Phil Anselmo and the Illegals laid waste to the Underworld with a set primarily composed of Pantera covers. Their audience spent the entire night moshing like maniacs while singing along to some of the most legendary metal songs of all time. Bleeding Through (10/10), however, inspired even more insanity – on a Sunday night, no Read more…
Phil Anselmo is one of metal’s ultimate icons, a consistently controversial, divisive, and confrontational figurehead whose signature vocals have propelled entire albums into the history books. The fact that Phil Anselmo is even standing today is a testament to his bloody-minded resilience, his refusal to lie down and let the world roll over him – even as it does its best to suffocate his will to continue. There’s no denying that he’s made mistakes along the way – but on the eve of Anselmo’s 51st birthday, the Underworld crowd made it clear that they were ready to Read more…
Between The Buried And Me – and their consistently versatile vocalist Tommy Rogers – have had one hell of a year. As a band, they dropped their latest album Automata in two well-received and equally epic parts, while Rogers (aka Thomas Giles) also put out his own solo record, the widely acclaimed Don’t Touch The Outside. As BTBAM neared the end of a recent UK run with Tesseract that took in a monstrous London show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, I caught up with Tommy to look back at 2018 – and ended up discussing a unique BTBAM live experience that needs to happen as soon as the required technology exists…
You’ve got a lot going on right now! You’re finishing a UK tour, you’ve technically put out three albums this year, and you’ve got another tour in America coming up next February. So how are you feeling?
I’m great! Tour’s almost done, so I get to Read more…
Very few bands make it through three and a half decades – but over the course of multiple lineup adjustments, creative direction changes, tragedies and triumphs, Voivod have kept the dream alive since the early 80s. Whether laying down 17-minute songs or covering the Batman theme, Voivod keep pushing their boundaries and stretching Read more…
Since 2014, Monuments have managed to stay near the top of the tech-metal pile on the back of The Amanuensis, which happens to be one of the greatest albums to ever emerge from that particular scene Read more…
The Arusha Accord named themselves after a set of failed peace agreements, and their own history has been defined by dramatic struggles and attempts at conflict resolution. After an extended absence and 2017 comeback, both vocalist Alex Green and guitarist Tom Hollings departed into the sunset while the remaining members fought to Read more…
MØL are rising swiftly in the blackgaze scene, a genre-bending niche that fuses black metal and shoegaze into one overwhelming onslaught. Shortly before MØL were due to hit ArcTanGent 2018, I caught up with guitarist Nicolai to chat about his band’s current goings-on, early crowd walkouts, and Read more…
Although attractiveness is subjective, ArcTanGent happens to be situated in an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – and if you visit it and look around, you’d probably agree with the government’s judgment for once. As for the music you can expect to experience at the UK’s most respected prog, math, and post-everything festival, it may serve a very specific niche, but the fans who love the styles in question tend to Read more…