Music / Previews
Metal/Prog picks of the month: September 2015
Beese’s Tea Gardens, Sept 5
is needed now More than ever
Something of a regular visitor to Beese’s and certainly the only one to turn up in a cowboy hat and boots (with spurs!), Jason and the Scorchers guitarist Warner E. Hodges has played here twice with the Bluefields and once with Dan Baird and Homemade Sin. The Nashville twanger is one hell of a guitarist and an exceedingly nice fella to boot. As if that wasn’t attraction enough, he’s appearing with his own band at Beese’s 10th annual Beer, Cider and Music Festival. Note that admission is by ticket only, as this grand piss-up is always over-subscribed.
Marble Factory, Sept 9
Easily the world’s greatest Egyptology-fixated technical death metal band (it’s a small field), South Carolina veterans Nile are touring their ominously titled eighth album, What Should Not Be Unearthed. Under the stewardship of founder Karl Sanders, they specialise in complex, ultra-fast extreme metal with distinctive Middle Eastern tones. It’s mightily impressive stuff, but they certainly don’t make it easy on fans who want to shout out for their favourite songs. Good luck with demanding Liber Stellae – Rubaeae or Kem Khefa Kehshef.
John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest
The Lantern, Colston Hall, Sept 17
Following the deaths of Woolly Wolstenholme and Mel Pritchard, there are now two surviving members of the Poor Man’s Moody Blues, as one of the Oldham prog titans’ self-deprecating song titles described them. And guess what? They both front different bands trading under the BJH banner. JLBJH are the most productive, having released two CDs. It’s fair to say that the latest of these, North, received mixed reviews. Still, you can be confident that their set will include such Lees-penned classics as Mocking Bird and Hymn.
Thekla, Sept 19
Last seen at the Fleece back in January 2013 when they were riding the wave of being that month’s Randomly Selected Metal Band it’s Cool to Like, The Sword have been slowly moving away from their restrictive stoner/doom roots and shedding the ‘Sabbath clone’ label. Rather fine fifth album High Country sees them venture further into the classic/hard rock realm with plenty of melodic old-skool guitar harmonising and a strong ZZ Top/Thin Lizzy influence.
Marble Factory, Sept 23
Seriously – if you get to only one gig in September, this is the one to go for. Norway’s magnificent Enslaved have been following an adventurous path from extreme metal to prog, as previously trodden by the likes of Anathema and Opeth. Acclaimed new album In Times is both thrilling and boundary-pushing, embracing complex song structures without abandoning the band’s black metal roots. Prog traditionalists (an oxymoron if ever there was one) and black metal purist trolls will sneer, but these people are tossers and can safely be ignored. Co-headliners are splendidly Dio-esque riff-worshipping Swedish trio Grand Magus. Pleasingly, every single musician on stage at this show looks as though they’ve just stepped off the set of Game of Thrones.
The Wildhearts/Baby Chaos/Hey! Hello!
Academy, Sept 24
You just know that when ornery old Ginger says the Wildhearts have split for good, they’ll be back in the saddle after a brief hiatus. While one can never predict his mood, we do at least know what to expect musically: the band’s most commercially successful album, P.H.U.Q. (number six, 1995), in its glorious entirety from I Wanna Go Where the People Go to the singalong Don’t Worry ’bout Me, via fan faves Nita Nitro and Caprice. Support comes from the Wildhearts’ recently reformed contemporaries Baby Chaos and Ginger’s own power pop side project Hey! Hello! with new singer Hollis Mahady.
Exchange, Sept 27
The only rock guitarist with his own Huffington Post column (check out The Day I Met Johnny Cash (and Sold Him a Nirvana Record)), opinionated Canadian Danko Jones is a polymath in the Henry Rollins/Scott Ian mould, equally happy with rockin’ out and spoken word/’lecture’ tours. New album Fire Music is rather more slick than its six predecessors, but sticks with the high-adrenaline rock and roll formula. His trio will have to work hard tonight to avoid being upstaged by support act The Amorettes. This young all-girl trio of Scottish rockers sound like Girlschool channelling AC/DC and made quite an impression when they were last in town supporting Europe and Black Star Riders at the Academy.
Thekla, Sept 28
There’s something awfully familiar about Atlanta’s Biters. But with Motley Crue allegedly checking into the old rockers’ home, a vacancy has arisen for a young sleazy, punky rock’n’roll band with a metal edge – and this lot might just be the band to fill it. Musically speaking, however, they’re more Buckcherry-meets-Cheap Trick. Biters recently signed to canny Brit indie death metal/grindcore label Earache, who’ve enjoyed great commercial success by branching out into classic rock with The Temperance Movement and Rival Sons.
Further Ahead
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition, including plenty of annoying clashes.
Leprous, Fleece, Oct 15
Cradle of Filth, Motion, Oct 17
Riverside, Marble Factory, Oct 21
Delain, Marble Factory, Oct 22
Carcass/Obituary/Napalm Death/Voivod, Motion, Oct 27
Focus, Tunnels, Oct 27
Dan Baird + Homemade Sin, Thunderbolt, Oct 28
Steve Hackett, Colston Hall, Oct 28
Leaves Eyes, Marble Factory, Nov 4
Joe Satriani, Colston Hall, Nov 8
Epica/Eluveitie, Academy, Nov 11
Skindred, Academy, Nov 12
Kadavar, Marble Factory, Nov 12
Pat McManus Band, Tunnels, Nov 12
Crobot/Scorpion Child, Exchange, Nov 15
Cherrie Currie, Bierkeller, Nov 16
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Fleece, Nov 18
Sepultura, Marble Factory, Nov 19
Clutch, Academy, Nov 25
Apocalyptica, Academy, Nov 29
The Zombies, Fleece, Dec 3
Fish, Academy, Dec 3
Orange Goblin, Bierkeller, Dec 4
Fear Factory, Motion, Dec 7
The Darkness, Academy, Dec 13
The Aristocrats, Bierkeller, Dec 17
Stackridge, Fiddlers, Dec 19
Ghost/Dead Soul, Academy, Dec 20
Steven Wilson, Colston Hall, Jan 26
Bowling For Soup, Academy, Feb 15
Graham Bonnet, Bierkeller, Feb 19
Sabaton/Alestorm, Marble Factory, March 8
Yes, Colston Hall, May 4
Temples Festival, ‘Secret Location’, June 2-5
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