Music / Previews
Metal & Prog picks: December 2021
We’ve had to endure several postponements in recent weeks, many of them Covid-related (Caravan, Wayward Sons, Focus, Black Spiders, Bowling For Soup acoustic singalong) but, hey, at least we’ve had that long sold-out Alestorm/Gloryhammer/Aether Realm triple-bill knees-up at the Academy to look forward to on December 10. Or at least we did until recently. No, it hasn’t been called off. After singer Thomas Winkler was abruptly fired from Gloryhammer, screenshots of racist and misogynistic private messages between band members were leaked online. Vincent Jackson Jones, bassist and vocalist of Aether Realm – who also plays with Alestorm/Gloryhammer mainman Chris Bowes in Wizardthrone – promptly announced that Aether Realm were withdrawing from the tour and that he would cease to work with Bowes, whom he urged to make a statement. This eventually turned up, with Bowes offering an abject apology taking full responsibility for the “frankly horrific things I’ve said in conversations with bandmates” and asserting that he was “working with professionals to help me get a better understanding of the damage I caused”. All of which leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, which is not what one expects to feel when anticipating a jolly evening of comedy metal. On the grounds that racism and misogyny have no place in metal, we’ll be giving this one a miss. This isn’t intended as a judgement from the Cancellation Taliban, by the way. Read what was said and form your own opinion.
Still, at least The Darkness are coming make us smirk this month. And they haven’t said or done anything dodgy. Unless you count those catsuits.
is needed now More than ever
Fleece, Dec 1
Let’s just recycle what we said two years ago: “It’s the biennial Hayseed Dixie show at the Fleece and nothing much seems to have changed in the rockgrass pioneers’ world since their previous gig here.” They have, however, released yet another album, Blast from the Grassed. Unlike their rivals in this field, Finland’s Steve’n’Segaulls, Hayseed Dixie continue to dilute the rock’n’metal covers with some unwelcome other stuff (Blue Monday, Stayin’ Alive, etc). John Wheeler is still at the helm, alongside Hippy Joe Hymas (mandolin), Tim Carter (banjo) and Jake Byers (acoustic bass).
O2 Academy, Dec 3
Back in town following his enjoyable intimate acoustic solo show at the Thekla back in March 2018, Alter Bridge frontman and Slash sidekick Myles Kennedy is bringing a full band this time. If the air-punching arena rock of Alter Bridge is not to your taste, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that his solo work tends to be rather more introspective, with an occasional Americana vibe. Rest assured, however, that he still rocks and has one of the best voices in the business, as evidenced on his latest solo album The Ides of March. This is the opening UK date on Kennedy’s first tour in 30 months and if the US set lists are anything to go by he’ll be dusting down an Alter Bridge song or two as well as reaching all the way back to his days with the Mayfield Four, whose drummer Zia Uddin is part of his current three-piece band alongside bassist/manager Tim Tournier.
O2 Academy, Dec 7
“Gimme a D!” Yes, it’s those lovable . . . arkness chaps, playing in Bristol for the first time since their Colston Hall show four years ago. New album Motorheart sticks to the winning formula by blending rockin’ and daftness in equal measure, opening with a love letter to Glasgow, Welcome Ta Glasgae (“The women are gorgeous and the food is okay”) and taking in a paean to the joys of masturbation (Sticky Situations) and a song about sex with an alien (It’s Love, Jim). After Steve Harris’s British Lion pulled out of the tour, they’ve been replaced by Lancaster’s fabulously Slade/Quo-fixated Massive Wagons, who seem like a much better fit. They’re a great live act, as they proved when supporting the wildhearts at SWX, and their latest album, House of Noise, made the UK top ten last year.
Exchange, Dec 13
It’s never been entirely clear what ‘post-metal’ is supposed to mean, but if you enjoy really heavy, riff-driven prog-metal you should be quite at home with Bossk, who went down a storm at the recent Damnation Festival. They’ve also finally got around to releasing their impressive second album, Migration.
Exchange, Dec 15
Best known as the band featuring George (son of Iron Maiden’s Steve) Harris on guitar, The Raven Age straddle metal styles old and new. That’s right – they’ve got 21st century facial hair and 1970s-vintage twin lead guitars. Current album Exile is a bit of an odd fish, being acoustic reworkings of earlier songs with some live tracks tacked on.
Earache Christmas Party: Dub War
Lost Horizon, Dec 16
Remember the mid-’90s? The meeja were obsessed with Britpop and the fabricated battle between Blur and Oasis, in which one yearned for both sides to lose. In rock, grunge was peaking and lank-haired Generation X pretended to be sour and world-weary until nu-metal came along. Locally, it was impossible to escape Portishead’s moody Dummy and what was to become the trip-hop millstone. So where did a positivity-radiating punk-metal-ragga quartet from Newport fit in? Nowhere, that’s where. Too popular among adventurous fans of each genre to appeal to the too-cool-for-school crowd but insufficiently popular to achieve a commercial breakthrough, Dub War eventually had a spectacular falling out with their record company and split. Benji Webbe went on to enjoy overdue success with Skindred after a long slog and that seemed to be that. But every so often, he gets the old gang back together. This rare live show is being billed as the Earache Christmas Party.
Exchange, Dec 18
Is it possible to have a jolly Christmas knees-up with a black metal band whose album titles are One Day All This Will End, It’s Hard to Have Hope and When I Die, Will I Get Better? Er, probably not. Bristol’s very own Svalbard certainly deal with some heavy-duty ishoos, ranging from depression to misogyny, but musically they’ve been broadening their palette of late into Alcest-style blackgaze as they find additional ways of channelling all that anger. Impressive stuff.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Marduk/Vader, Fleece, Jan 12
Avatar, Marble Factory, Jan 13
Tremonti, O2 Academy, Jan 15
Daniel Tompkins, Exchange, Jan 26
Cheap Trick, O2 Academy, Feb 6
Decapitated, Fleece, Feb 8
Tony MacAlpine, Exchange, Feb 11
Katatonia/Solstafir, Marble Factory, Feb 13
Paradise Lost, Marble Factory, Feb 17
Evile, Exchange, Feb 19
Kvelertak, Marble Factory, Feb 20
The Zombies, Fleece, Feb 24
Nordic Giants, Fleece, Fab 27
Van Der Graaf Generator, The Forum, Bath, March 1
The Sheepdogs, Thekla, March 6
Septicflesh, Fleece, March 9
Kris Barras Band, Marble Factory, March 14
Tangerine Dream, Trinity, March 16
Status Quo, The Forum, Bath, March 18
Big Big Train, The Forum, Bath, March 19
Caravan, Fleece, March 21
Therapy?, Fleece, March 22
In Flames, Thekla, March 22
Gong, Thekla, March 23
Eric Gales/Danny Bryant, Fleece, March 27
Bloodywood, Fleece, March 29
WASP, O2 Academy, April 7
Skunk Anansie, O2 Academy, April 12
Igorrr, Fleece, April 14
Deicide, Fleece, April 16
Primitive Man, Fleece, April 19
Frost*, Komedia, Bath, April 19
The Picturebooks, Exchange, April 24
Bongzilla, Thekla, April 27
Stoner, Thekla, May 4
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, The Forum, Bath, May 7
Karnivool, O2 Academy, May 19
OM, Fleece, May 26
Meshuggah/Zeal & Ardor, O2 Academy, May 29
The Quireboys, Thekla, June 17
High On Fire, Fleece, June 26
Mushroomhead, Thekla, June 27
Rammstein, Principality Stadium, Cardiff, June 22
Love with Johnny Echols, Fleece, July 3
Evergrey, Thekla, Sept 19
Anthrax/Municipal Waste, O2 Academy, Oct 6
Pallbearer/Elder, Fleece, Nov 3
Pitchshifter, Thekla, Nov 30
Lamb of God/Kreator, O2 Academy, Dec 16
Epica/Apocalyptica, O2 Academy, Jan 30 2023
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