Music / Previews
Metal & Prog Picks: March 2018
The fallout from the Bierkeller’s abrupt closure continues with several relocated gigs. The Cannibal Corpse show will now be at the Marble Factory, while Venom Inc and Omnium Gatherum have both moved to Fiddlers. If you fancy booking ahead for the end of the year, Clutch and Blackberry Smoke have both just announced shows at the O2 Academy. Otherwise, eyes down for everything from afrobeat metal to thrash, death metal, classic prog and a global superstar aboard the Thekla (Myles Kennedy, for it is he).
UPDATE: Snow stopped play at the Here Lies Man show (see below), but this has now been rescheduled for Sunday 4 March at 2pm. That’s right – a matinee gig!
is needed now More than ever
Exchange, March 4 (see above)
“What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” Yep – it’s one of those genre mash-ups, but Here Lies Man have an interesting pedigree. This LA quintet was founded by Marcos Garcia of Fela Kuti-influenced afrobeat act Antibalas to indulge his heavier tastes, with Geoff Mann (son of jazzer Herbie Mann) on drums. Anyone who enjoys Goat should take a listen. “Enormously enjoyable,” reckoned Metal Hammer. “Like Funkadelic at their early 70s heavy zenith or the darker works of post-punk pioneers The Pop Group: dancefloor fillers for the black of heart.” This is their first European tour.
Damian Wilson and Adam Wakeman
Chapel Arts Centre, Bath, March 2
The first of two prog/metal-oriented events in quick succession at Bath’s rather lovely Chapel Arts Centre, this one brings together Rick Wakeman’s classically trained pianist son Adam – who inherited his dad’s keyboard playing role with Black Sabbath on their epic The End jaunt – and prog songwriter/vocalist Damian Wilson. They’re both members of prog-metallers Headspace, but tonight will come over all acoustic to play songs from many of the acts they’ve been associated with as well as material from their own collaborations, such as the rather excellent, folky Weir Keeper’s Tale album.
Stone Broken/Jared James Nichols/The Bad Flowers
Fleece, March 7
‘Britain’s answer to Nickelback’ is a description that’ll either have you flocking or fleeing in horror. But it has to be said that, as they demonstrated while supporting Glenn Hughes at this very venue last February, Stone Broken pull this stuff off pretty well. If that isn’t enough to have you parting with hard cash for a ticket, they’re bringing two excellent support acts as part of this big-value package. Multiple award-winning Wisconsin blues-rock guitarist Jared James Nichols has toured with the likes of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Zakk Wylde and was last seen here with his Cream/Mountain-style trio on the 2017 summer festival circuit. His second album, Black Magic, is out now. Cannock’s The Bad Flowers are a promising classic rock trio who released their debut album, Starting Gun, last month.
Louisiana, March 8
Another addition to the very short list of Swiss rockers (Eluveitie, Celtic Frost, Gotthard, Monkey3, er, Krokus), Daxx & Roxanne are a mightily enjoyable, defiantly old-school classic rock band whose debut album was rather splendidly entitled Ticket to Rock. They supported HIM on their farewell shows at the Roundhouse and now head out on their first full UK tour in support of new single Junk Food Hangover.
Chapel Arts Centre, Bath, March 9
Best known as the keyboard player in Magnum for umpteen years until their spectacular, unexplained falling out, Mark Stanway published his autobiography back in 2015 and is now touring his ‘An intimate evening with…’ show of music and anecdotage. While Magnum aren’t exactly renowned for their backstage debauchery, Mark has also worked with Roy Wood, Robert Plant and Phil Lynott, which should provide a few tasty yarns. And, of course, this also gives us a chance to revisit that clip of Magnum on The Tube back in the day, miming like troopers (if that is indeed what troopers do).
Fiddlers, March 9
If you ever find yourself asked the question: “Hey, old timer, who exactly invented black metal then, eh?” the correct answer is that it was a trio of Geordie buffoons named Conrad, Jeffrey and Anthony, who went by the stage names of Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon. Venom’s music was pretty rudimentary and, inevitably, ignored by most of the UK music press back in the early 1980s. But a lot of teenagers were playing very close attention – especially in Scandinavia. Inevitably, Venom fell out, split up, re-formed and so on over the next couple of decades. Cronos even became an aerobics instructor at one point. (I’m not making this shit up.) Anyhoo, he continues to tour and record as Venom while Abaddon and Mantas have now put together Venom Inc with Tony ‘Demolition Man’ Dolan, who served in one of the later Venom line-ups. Their debut album as Venom Inc, Avé, is out now. This double headliner teams them with Long Island veterans and Nuclear Blast labelmates Suffocation, who pretty much laid down the technical death metal template with their debut, Effigy of the Forgotten, back in 1991. Now they’re back in town to show the whippersnappers how it’s done. Suffocation’s eighth album, …Of the Dark Light, came out last year.
SWX, March 13
With Max and Igor Cavalera revisiting the Roots album in its entirety on tour last year, there are now effectively two Sepulturas. But it’s a good 21 years since Max left the Brazilian global metal pioneers and guitarist Andreas Kisser has continued to forge ahead with bassist Paulo Jr and imposing ‘new’ vocalist Derrick Green – a PETA-supporting vegetarian, despite his ferocious image – for eight albums now, the latest of which is 2017’s concept piece, Machine Messiah. Drummer Eloy Casagrande is the band’s most recent recruit, and proved himself more than equal to the challenge of playing those complex tribal rhythms when Sepultura last played Bristol back in 2015. Fascinating trivia fact: Derrick Green’s sister Renée is an award-winning artist, filmmaker and academic.
Colston Hall, March 13
The veteran proggers kick off the UK leg of their 50th anniversary tour with what promises to be a real treat for those of us who were too young to hear it performed the first time round: the most critically reviled concept album in the history of rock, which was recently given a revelatory 5.1 remix by progmeister Steven Wilson. That’s right: they’ll be playing sides one (The Revealing Science of God – Dance of the Dawn) and four (Ritual – Nous Sommes du Soleil) of 1973’s Tales from Topographic Oceans, the first Yes album to top the UK charts, along with an excerpt from side three (The Ancient – Giants Under the Sun). The current state of the great ongoing Yes soap opera means that only two of the musicians who played on that album – guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White – are currently in the band, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman having their own project. But that didn’t prevent this show selling out well in advance. Expect plenty of greatest hits alongside the concept epic. Oh, and pedants may wish to note that in the clip above Geoff Downes misidentifies the Bristol Hippodrome, where Yes filmed a live show, as the Colston Hall.
Cannibal Corpse/The Black Dahlia Murder
Marble Factory, March 16
Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt, anybody? Yes, it’s the very naughty boys of death metal, who were once cited by Bob Dole, alongside 2 Live Crew and the Geto Boys, as “undermining the national character of the United States”. The gore-fixated Corpse have been going for 30 years and succeeded in getting themselves banned in Germany, Russia and Australia at various times. They’re mostly in their fifties now and are used to batting away the censorious (“Music’s always been an easy target,” vocalist George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher told Metal Hammer last year. “No one questions Stephen King about his novels, do they?”). And having hit upon a winning formula, they show no inclination to vary it: new album Red Before Black is as brutal as any of its predecessors. Amusing trivia fact number one: Cannibal Corpse appear briefly in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, performing Hammer Smashed Face. Amusing trivia fact number two: their fans include palaeontology professor Mats E. Eriksson, who last year named an extinct monstrous worm Websteroprion armstrongi after the Corpse’s bassist Alex Webster, who pronounced himself suitably honoured. Support comes from equally taste-free Michigan melodic death metallers The Black Dahlia Murder, who succeeded in whipping up a huge circle pit in the Fleece a couple of years back. They’re touring new album Nightbringers.
Exchange, March 18
You might have expected Amplifier to be much bigger by now, given their winning, intelligent blend of prog and space-rock. But for some reason it doesn’t seem to be happening for the Mancunian four-piece. Still, as one of rock’s best-kept secrets they’ve always had a great relationship with Bristol and even released their previous show here as a live album – yep, Live at the Exchange. They’ve invited punters to choose the set list for this tour, so we can presumably expect plenty of obscure tracks and rarities. Fascinating fact: one of Amplifier’s more unlikely fans is telly academic Professor Alice Roberts, who was spotted in the audience at one of their early Fleece gigs. That’s almost as impressive as seeing the mulleted future Professor Brian Cox playing keyboards with Mancunian metallers Dare at the Bierkeller back in the early ’90s. No, really – this actually happened.
https://youtu.be/4jpf-eC-Xlk
O2 Academy, March 20
You’d have thought that by booking in a gig at such a sizeable venue, Skid Row had finally got back together with Sebastian Bach. Not a bit of it. Having worked their way through a couple of singers (Johnny Solinger, Tony Harnell), they’ve now settled on South African ZP Theart, who was last seen at the Academy fronting Brit power metallers Dragonforce. Their most recent releases are a couple of EPs under the United World Rebellion banner, but there seems to be no sign of the third one, which will mark Theart’s first recording with the band. Support comes from Toseland, the hard rockers fronted by double world superbike champion James Toseland.
Thekla, March 24
That this show sold out within minutes of going on sale is probably due to the fact that it appears to be the smallest gig on Myles Kennedy’s solo tour. Last seen in the UK fronting his regular band Alter Bridge for two sold-out shows at the Albert Hall late last year, Kennedy has also worked with Slash and was apparently Jimmy Page’s choice to replace Robert Plant after that massively over-subscribed Led Zeppelin show at the O2 (he recorded songs with the Zeppelin trio, but these have never been released). Expect something very different tonight, as he’ll be playing acoustic material from his first solo album, Year of the Tiger, which addresses the death of his father – a Christian Scientist who refused medical treatment.
Motion, March 29
Last seen round these parts when they played the Academy with our very own Onslaught back in 2009, San Francisco’s Testament have the strongest claim of any band to be part of an expanded ‘big five’ of thrash metal alongside Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. They’ve also released some of their best work and highest-charting albums in recent years, so they ain’t simply a nostalgia act. Although likeable frontman Chuck Billy provides ample evidence as to why larger gentlemen should not squeeze into very tight trousers, there’s some serious musicianship under the bonnet too, notably from ace guitarist Alex Skolnick, who moonlights with his own bebop jazz trio, and magnificent journeyman drummer Gene Hoglan, who’s best known for his work with Devin Townsend. Support comes from Canuck thrashers Annihilator, founded by guitar whizz Jeff Waters, and Polish death metallers Vader, who co-headlined last year’s Bristol Deathfest at the Bierkeller.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Earthless, Fleece, April 4
Quireboys, Thekla, April 6
Tax the Heat, Rough Trade, April 7
Epica/Myrkur/Oceans of Slumber, O2 Academy, April 8
Jethro Tull, Colston Hall, April 9
The Dead Daisies/The Treatment/The Amorettes, O2 Academy, April 14
Marillion, Colston Hall, April 17
Trivium, O2 Academy, April 19
Skindred, O2 Academy, April 25
G3 2018: Joe Satriani/John Petrucci/Uli Jon Roth, Colston Hall, April 26
Wayward Sons, Fleece, April 26
Omnium Gatherum/Skalmöld, Fiddlers, April 26
Peter Hammill, The Lantern, April 29
Bernie Marsden/Hand of Dimes, Fleece, April 29
Lionize/Planet of Zeus, Fleece, May 3
Conan/Monolord, Thekla, May 14
Machine Head, O2 Academy, May 15
Wildhearts/Reef/Terrorvision, Marble Factory, May 25
John Coghlan’s Quo, Exchange, June 8
Ministry, SWX, July 25
Camel, The Forum, Bath, Sept 11
Glenn Hughes, O2 Academy, Oct 2
Evil Scarecrow, Marble Factory, Oct 11
Blackberry Smoke, O2 Academy, Nov 11
Hawkwind, The Forum, Bath, Nov 24
Clutch, O2 Academy, Dec 18
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