Theories of Revolution

Throne of Demise

My Silent Wake

Rager

Gelgothen

 

This was a special gig for us, taking my partners son Alex along for his first Death Metal gig was an honour and a privilege, seeing the last gig by Gelgothen was a sad yet triumphant day and seeing the fantastic My Silent Wake for the first time was a drop into the emotional heart of extreme music.

 

Now the Biker Rock Crew are starting to get noticed at gigs, we get a little a smile here or even an enthusiastic hug there and it is lovely, but and this is an important point, the reason we are here is because we want to show our support to the local scene. Ask your self this question; do you love big bands like Slayer or Metallica? Would it not have been amazing to see them when they were small bands, playing intimate gigs in small clubs like this? Well, every band here tonight has the ability to one day be the next Slayer, the next Metallica or the next world touring super band, so with that as a given, lets get on with talking about some fantastic local music.

 

Theories of Revolution

The first band to hit the small stage are Theories of Revolution, a Stoner Metal band with a Post Rock Vibe, in their sound I can hear vague hints of Neurosis, Black Sabbath obviously and the whole dark bleak existence that has led them to this night. The rooms acoustics did not lend themselves to a full rich sound for these guys, but when they performed a song whose title I did not quite grasp, but do know that it is connected to Egyption history and mythology, I could have performed the goth sway until the end of time! This band has evolved a little since I last saw them, they are slicker, darker and with a gloomy sound that in the right place will absolutely make your doom laden evening.

 

During the break following the first band I introduced myself to Ian and Kate of My Silent Wake, who I had noticed had entered the venue and a more pleasant and gentle couple you could not hope to meet. Luckily for me they confirmed that it was not my ears that were ruined, but a dirty sound in the room for the first band. They mentioned a slight concern about how they would sound and modestly hoped that they would impress the crowd. Such modesty was really not needed though.

 

Throne of Demise

I have seen this band a couple of times already and every time I have heard them, I have been impressed by their fun death metal sound. This evening though, there was a more intense vibe, a more dangerous feel to them. What hit me the hardest was when they performed their song Send in the Plagues, was this. Feck me, that boy can sing! His voice has a maturity to it that is going to continue to impress the death metal scene. It is imperative that these boys get an album out soon. The gathered crowd clearly love this band and with good reason. This is a classic Death Metal band in the making and they deserve a bigger audience.

So half way through their set, the band ask us to join in with them by shouting our favourite swear words. Once again a room of people shouting fuck, cunt or Tory Government is greeted with a laugh and the words “Your language is atrocious!” Their sound is big, the pummelling intensity of artillery and there is a casualty to this. The internals of one of the stage lights lets go of its hold, drops out of the box and falls to the floor. This band are so heavy, they can kill inanimate objects. That is heavy!

 

Following their set, guitarist Max came and politely spoke to me, as is the way with musicians who play such extreme music, he was a well spoken, clearly knows his stuff and he was concerned that I had enjoyed his show. What could I say that did not make me sound like a creepy old lady? I can assure you Max, your band is awesome. We at Biker Rock Radio have a strong belief in what we do here. We will not give a bad review based on us not liking a band. What we intend to do is to report what we see, if a band needs more practice, we will say so. Yet, if a band rocks our evening we will tell you. Throne of Demise rocked my night.

 

My Silent Wake

Right, just to clarify a point, I was really looking forwards to seeing My Silent Wake live for the first time. You know when you hear a band on album and they totally blow your mind with a beautiful sound and how you then hope that they can perform that well on stage? Well, that is what I felt; my expectations for this band were high after I was recently given a copy of their newest album “Iv et lux perpetua” which I though was utterly fantastic, if you love bands like My Dying Bride then you are going to love this band too. I do not have the words to describe the album, but with just one listen you will feel the sombre atmosphere that they create, creep wraithlike into your soul.

 

Seeing them live, it is exactly the same, they take to the stage quietly, almost like an ethereal mist and then they start to play. The room went cool, the hairs on the back of my neck rose and I entered the dark sad world of My Silent Wake, as their haunting introduction engulfed my soul. How dark can this get I asked my self and that question was quickly answered. The music of My Silent Wake is the music of a broken heart; it is darkly beautiful and is so heavy that it crushes the light from the room with the inevitability of a Black Hole. This band is a singularity, they have a gravity that draws you in to their world where the music produced has an integrity and seriousness to it that makes every other band look like an overly cheerful clown making bad jokes at a funeral. This band is not a soulless pop group produced by a man who has sold his soul to Satan. This is a band that makes music with soulful intent and deep meaning and on stage that meaning can make you weep. This is possibly one of the most beautiful bands that I have heard in a very long time and suddenly the sadness from the scattering of dear friend’s ashes earlier that day had a voice and a release with in me. For that alone I was thankful.

 

Nester the sound engineer does a frankly amazing job and if anyone out there needs a professional sound guy to make a metal band sound fabulous, do look him up. The guy is dedicated to his work and loves what he does. His mix for My Silent Wake was as good as it could be and the delicate sound was not lost on me, they have the pulse of a dying animal in their music and with a sound that has hints of Black Sabbath, mixed with Hawkwind and flavoured with a sprinkle of My Dying Bride, this band are unique, utterly beautiful and very, very dark.

 

Alex was suitably impressed and spoke to me about buying a T-Shirt, this was after all his very first death metal gig and what better band to wear on his t-shirt than My Silent Wake?

 

Rager

I have not seen or heard of Rager before and sadly this is their last gig too, as they get set to disband to university too. They are it seems a three piece Thrash/Death cross over band, a band that years ago we have bragged to our mates were a super fast Speed Metal band. However, as it turns out that they are actually a four piece, but one member has got lost somewhere on their way to the gig! If this was true, then I am impressed because they did not sound like they lacked a musician. They have a sound that is at first a little garbled, but Nester the sound man gets this quickly under control and the clear sound of a technically proficient band shines through. They remind me of Dark Angel at times with violent powerful solos and angry vocals. The lead singer joked that if he forgot any words, they would simply just growl out some noises, I am sure a remember an early Death Metal band saying that this was imply what they did all of the time! Sadly, I found that about half way through their highly energetic set, I was ready for the next band because I was getting tired, such is the joy of being an old whatsit! Anyway, Rager, old school speed/thrash/death, call it what you like, they played it with conviction.

 

Gelgothen

What can I tell you about this band that I have not said before? That I love them? No, I am pretty sure I have said that already. That they are awesome with their relentless brutal delivery, that they are hugely fun and that they play with a professional edge that shows a dedicated and well polished band? No, I have said that all before too. So let me say this instead, good bye my dears. I shall truly miss you.

 

Gelgothen, a bunch of young lads with a musical ability that belies their age, with guitarists that can out play Kerry King, a lead singer who shows signs of psychosis, probably induced by too many clown horror movies! What ever it is, that lad can bounce and scream like he is demented. This is their good bye show, the band are splitting up so that half of them can head off to University. The saddest part to of this is that for those people who are going to meet these guys, they wont know what we do. They wont know that these guys can shred harder than Sepultura, that they can command a stage with more ferocity than Pantera and that they can communicate with a crowd with more passion than any idiot currently in Government. We do know this though and we will mourn Gelgothen.

 

So the set starts with the singer wearing a long black wig and a monocle! They start by blasting right away, there is not gentle build up to this onslaught, they start as if they have been sprinting to it, they start and we leap into it too. The crowd love this band, the previous bands still stood around watching also love this band and Nester the sound guy grins with the slightly manic glee you usually only see on the mentally ill! Gelgothen are a brutal assault of a band, they are crushing and play an absolutely blistering set. Half way through they announce that Ricci the Guitarist has recently had a motorbike crash (something that many of us have done!) and they promptly tease him about it, shouting “Mirror, signal crash into the car infront!” at him, poor guy. Despite any injuries he may have, he still plays a blinding performance.

 

Now this band have an honest fun nature to them, they are loving this as much as we are, there is no pretension here, they play this stuff because they enjoy it and that is clear, some of the songs played are silly and the biggest grin I saw all night was on Alex’s face when they played a cover of Surfin’ Bird, Death Metal style. You have to hear it to believe it, it is fantastic and funny and awesome and silly all at the same time. Massive respect to them for mastering that one. During the song, there are stage divers, people moshing like loons and even the band join in at one point. Maybe dedicating a song to the nerds in the audience would get boos at any other gig, but here it gets cheers to which they replay with the question of why are we so proud of being nerds? Well to be honest guys, you may well play blistering Death Metal, but you are one of us too and we love you for it. So Gelgothen, absolutely epic, probably one of the best bands in the region if not the country and now laid to rest. Good bye old friend. You will be missed.

 

At the end of the gig, Alex and I went off to pester Jonny the bassist for posters and a tape! Yes, a real actual cassette tape. You remember those days when you used to swap tapes with your friends, you would press the tape in your twin deck and using high speed dubbing, record it off. A ninety minute tape would take about half an hour to do, tape trading we called it. It was how dark underground bands got their music out and we loved it. Gelgothen have decided to revive the tape trading art and seeing a tape again is just lovely, but now I have to sort through the pile of discarded but working bits of Hi-Fi at the back of the cupboard just to find my old tape deck and then wire it into my amplifier, the one that is barely filled up with just a DVD player and the computer, leaving empty those slots for twin tape decks, record players and even a Minidisk! To think that some folks say that MP3s are killing the music industry. I like your style boys, I truly do.