Music / Previews
Metal & Prog Picks: March 2023
March brings the year’s most annoying clash to date, when Bloodywood play the Fleece on the same night that Devin Townsend is at the Academy. Plenty of shows are already sold out too, including Punk Rock Factory, Lamb of God, WASP, Ville Valo and Bloodywood.
Damian Wilson and Adam Wakeman
Chapel Arts Centre Bath, March 1
is needed now More than ever
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 – join forces with prog songwriter/vocalist Damian Wilson. They’re both members of prog-metallers Headspace, but tonight they return to Chapel Arts to come over all acoustic as they play songs from many of the acts they’ve been associated with as well as material from their own collaborations. The duo’s latest release is Stripped, which sets out to capture their onstage chemistry
Fleece, March 2
Pop-punk is a little outside the remit of this section, but South Wales quartet Punk Rock Factory seem like a lot of fun. They made their live debut at Bloodstock in 2021 and have become enormously popular on that TicketyTockity thing young people enjoy so much. Their new album, It’s Just a Stage We’re Going Through, comprises suitably raucous cover versions of songs from musicals (Hamilton, Grease, Les Miserables, The Greatest Showman, etc) and is out on March 31. This show is sold out, but they’ve already announced their return to Bristol in the Autumn when they play SWX on October 19.
Thekla, March 6
Having got the old band back together for a successful run of shows back in 2015 because he wanted to do something “a bit more Newport”, Skindred’s Benji Webbe has continued with the project alongside his hugely successful main band. Last year, they even released their first album in 25 years, Westgate Under Fire, on Earache (clearly having patched up their differences with the label). As veterans of Dub War’s shows at the Fleece back in the early 90s will not need reminding, this was a band whose genre boundary disrespecting brand of ragga-punk-metal was way ahead of its time. Support tonight comes from gender identity generation rockers Gen and the Degenerates, who supported Skunk Anansie at the Academy last year.
O2 Academy, March 7
It’s been a while, but the grindcore kings are finally back, having last played here with Carcass back in 2015. (Hands up all those who remember Napalm Death’s very first Bristol show at a Tropic Club packed with steaming, malodorous punks back in the 1980s.) Napalm’s latest release is their 16th album, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, on Century Media. It seems reasonable to assume that Nazi punks will be invited to fuck off, as usual.
Lamb of God/Kreator/Municipal Waste
O2 Academy, March 8
It finally looks at though it might actually happen! This oft-postponed, sold-out show was originally supposed to take place in April 2020, but we all know what happened next. Still, at least the Virginia metal titans released their splendid Omens album last October. Joining them on this State of Unrest tour are veteran German thrashers Kreator, playing their first show at the Academy in nearly a decade. And opening proceedings are terrific second-genration thrashers Municipal Waste, who enjoy playing in Bristol so much that last time they were here, with Anthrax back in October, they stuck around to play an unofficial additional show at the Golden Lion on Gloucester Road the following night.
Exchange, March 9
A glorious soup of prog, space rock and metal? We’re sold already. Built on the distinctive guitar playing of Paul Swarbrick, Wigan’s Boss Keloid deliver a cracking blend of big riffs and twiddly bits that’s been winning fans from multiple subcultures. Great song titles too. Their fifth album, Family the Smiling Thrush, is out now.
O2 Academy, March 10
Yes, Finland’s Mr. Love Metal is back! Chiselled Ville last delighted the laydeez at this very venue with HIM (His Infernal Majesty) way back in 2004 and the band played their farewell tour in 2017. Now the fella who started out working in his dad’s sex shop has returned as VV, with a solo album entitled Neon Noir, and is presumably looking forward to getting the same reaction as HIM did back in the day (” . . . something like Bealtemania directed by Tim Burton,” as Metal Hammer put it). The punters certainly don’t seem to have forgotten him. This show is already sold out.
Thekla, March 19
Another comeback tour. Downpatrick’s The Answer never achieved the success they so richly deserved the first time round, despite a world tour supporting AC/DC. A change of direction with 2016’s Solas album didn’t really pay off. The subsequent hiatus permitted frontman Cormac Neeson to pursue his solo career, but now The Answer are back with Sundowners, their first album in seven years, which is being released, appropriately enough, on St. Patrick’s Day. Alas, things go off to a poor start to this tour last month, when The Answer’s van containing all their gear was stolen from outside their Birmingham hotel last month. Support comes from Oli Brown and the Dead Collective, the new project from the British blues titan who’s best know to rockers for RavenEye. Joining them on additional guitar for this tour is busy Sam Wood, who was last seen at the Academy with Black Star Riders.
Sons of Liberty/Preacher Stone
Thekla, March 22
Bristol’s very own southern rockers return to their old stomping ground after that storming show with FM last year. They’re making steady progress on their new album and are continuing their upward trajectory as a live act, with a slot booked below Airbourne and Skindred on the Jeff Beck Memorial Stage at this year’s inaugural Made of Stone festival (the successor to the Ramblin’ Man Fair). For this tour, dubbed the Old Country Ramble, they’ve teamed up with authentic southern rockers Preacher Stone from North Carolina, for what promises to be a riff-tastic feast of a double-header.
O2 Academy, March 23
To say that Blackie Lawless’s mob have an unfortunate history at the Bristol Academy would be an understatement. Back in 2012, they played for barely an hour before fucking off again. Next time, Blackie had an enormous argument with Academy management about the commission the venue would take on merchandise sales and stomped off without playing the show, which was cancelled with just a couple of hours’ notice. Let’s hope they’ve all kissed and made up for this 40th anniversary gig, which is already sold out. Blackie is the sole remaining original member of the band, who first played the Colston Hall, supported by Doro Pesch’s Warlock, back in 1986. Wonder if he’ll bring the exploding codpiece for old time’s sake.
SWX, March 23
Ace Britproggers Haken appear to be following in Leprous’s footsteps by moving up to SWX from the Fleece, where they played their previous two Bristol shows. Alas, they’ve lost keyboard player Diego Tejeida since their last gig here, but there’s a follow-up to the Virus album on the horizon, entitled Fauna, which is billed as “their most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date”. Support tonight comes from North Carolina prog-metallers Between the Buried and Me.
O2 Academy, March 29
Yay! Heavy Devy returns to the Academy after his acoustic show at St. George’s, on this tour to promote his melodic, arena-friendly recent Lightwork album. Will he play some overblown prog-metal too? Of course he bloody well will. Support comes from French art-metal collective Klone, who are signed to Kscope, and Norwegan metalcore/post-metal act Fixation.
Fleece, March 29
There’s a distinct whiff of Rage Against the Machine about India’s leading folk-metal band, the splendidly named Bloodywood, who finally get to play the Fleece a full year after they were originally supposed to, thanks to that pesky virus. Founded in New Delhi by corporate lawyer Karan Katiyar and Jayant Bhadula, they initially performed as a duo, playing mostly covers, before recruiting additional members. Rakshak (it means ‘guardian’ in Hindi), their first album of original material, was released independently last year. The mainstream media have yet to notice them, so they haven’t been landed with that ‘novelty act’ tag, but Metal Hammer‘s reviewer was suitably impressed by the breadth of material on Rakshak, describing it as “thrilling”. Actually, this isn’t the first time Bloodywood have played in Bristol. They did a show at The Lanes back in 2019. Search YouTube for their enjoyable documentary Raj Against the Machine and you’ll find footage of them playing bowls while they were here.
Steve Hillage/The Utopia Strong
O2 Academy, March 30
Few developments in rock have been more heartening than Steve Hillage’s return to the genre. On this ‘Golden Vibe Tour’, he’ll be playing stuff from four of his best albums (Fish Rising, L, Motivation Radio and Green) backed by the great, hard-driving psychedelic current incarnation of Gong, who were on such fine form at the Trinity late last year. Support comes from The Utopia Strong, comprising Gong frontman Kavus Torabi and former snooker champ-turned-prog-evangelist Steve Davis (on modular synthesizer).
Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary
Bath Forum, March 31
Yep, it’s the show that was seen at the Bristol Hippodrome back in February, now finishing its long run at the lovely Bath Forum.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Henry Rollins, Komedia, April 4
Finntroll/Skálmöld, Fleece, April 4
The Zombies, Fleece, April 13
Goat, SWX, April 15
Massive Wagons, Fleece, April 15
Cannibal Corpse, O2 Academy, April 18
Voivod, Fleece, April 18
Tragedy/Nanowar of Steel, Thekla, April 29
Graveyard/Kadavar, SWX, May 3
Heriot, Strange Brew, May 12
The Quireboys, Exchange, May 20
Steel Panther, O2 Academy, May 21
Carcass, Fleece, June 7
The Aristocrats, Fleece, June 15
Vended, Fleece, June 20
Pitchshifter, Exchange, July 7
HR, Fleece, July 27
ArcTanGent Festival: Heilung, VOLA, Cave In, Elder, etc., Fernhill Farm, August 16-19
Wishbone Ash, St. George’s, Oct 3
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