Evening folks, hope we are all doing good so far this week!
As part of the new week, we’re venturing into familiar territory … with a new series.
Bluetooth castings, Walkman emblazoned on the trouser leg. Childhood naivety and eagerness abound with electronica drum ‘n’ bass. Pendulum’s work of Witchcraft is one of those unconditional moments encased in my childhood that will forever be cherished.
Whenever I come back to it, all those memories come flooding in. Simply brilliant.
After the temptation of not relieving Slam Dunk in 2019, the local favourite festival showcasing the best of ritualistic rock and punk, returned to both locations south and north of England over the weekend for 2021.
With the likes of Don Broco, Frank Turner and While She Sleeps leading the way with hectic headline sets that lit the cities of London and Leeds, it turned to be another massive prospective turning point for live rock music.
Despite some certain health concerns regarding COVID with festival-goers and European bands struggling to get to the festival due to travel restrictions (not to mention Waterparks pulling out of the line-up due to crew staff being COVID positive), it was another world for us to implore into, forget the sadness from last year, and enjoy ourselves again in the world of live music.
Your thoughts: did you go yourself? Did anyone you know went? How did you see the festival? – all positive I hope!
Emotions ran high as one of the heaviest metal festivals returned to our fields with Bloodstock. In midst of panic and disruption caused by COVID, we were unsure about whether music would stir itself back into a frenzy come the summer, but it seems the festivals are coming back once again. We will see the likes of Skindred, KREATOR and Judas Priest renter our halls of darkness onto the fields of Catton Park in Derbyshire this weekend.
With Midlands counterpart of Download, hosting a smaller pilot version of their original mass festival, it sees a major heavy metal festival return in major fashion – full size scale with all the trimmings.
For me, I won’t be careening into festivals too soon since the pandemic, but I’m excited for lost of music fanatics and festival goers, and I’m certainly thrilled to see the many photos and videos that will come after it.
You can view all of Friday’s action so far via the link below:
Eternally divinine, Sleep Token are one of the most unique new underground acts in the heavy rock and progressive metal heading to leave its quarters of worship and share its beauty with us.
Definitive, powerful and expertly put together, Sundowning is one of my favourites that I just keep coming back to, simply to relive. I implore everyone else to do the same.
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But, don’t be put off by the glorious display of devil-like incarnations, this album is not to be trifled or spited with. Like inhabited spirits, they simply create abounding music – and simply worship those creatives before them.
Like carefully aligned pieces of music, for me, the album invokes a masterpiece – and I love it. Beautiful melodic performances, a sorrowful vocalist, the precisely-timed chaos of the arching drums, and the illusion and mystery that invokes such a piece is enough to upkeep conversations going about just how strong the progressive-metal scene is in the UK.
The sheer anonymity of the British collective just adds further to the mystery, too. Songs such as, The Offering, Dark Signs and The Night Does Not Belong to God are somewhat showing their worship to an ancient deity that can only be identified by ‘Sleep’, who appeared to the band’s lead singer, ‘Vessel’, in a dream.
I know about it just as much as you do, but you’ve got to admit it’s pretty darn cool. But where frantic progressive-metal reins in their expressiveness, moments of fleeting beauty appear so softly in the ambient tranquil of such songs like, Levitate and Give.
The album does not begin to falter though, with elements of rage – maybe due to the lack of worshipping to their inhabitants – driving us straight into Gods and Say That You Will. The full 12-listing of the album ends with a beauty that I can’t stop repeating – Blood Sugar. A chorus of melodic piano, a hymn of vocals and progressive rhythmic art, it’s a worthy contender to end it right.
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If they’re planning on delighting the Gods with this as The Offering, the Vessel, and his collaborative collective, should be mightily satisfied with their efforts.
Happy weekend, folks. With the first day of Spring finally upon us, I’d thought we’d all take a trip down to memory lane, and discuss our most treasured memories in the world of music.
With me suffering hideously with hay fever today – so fittingly on the first day of Spring, too – let’s gloss over the fact that music and it’s beautiful moments won’t be til after Summer this year, and talk about what we miss about the most, and what we have loved along the way.
I’d have to say my most treasured music memory is witnessing the rock legends, Foo Fighters live at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, UK. I remember as if it were yesterday – a year prior to when I was set to be whisked off to University in 2016, we spent one final piss-up with some lads from back home, paying a fitting tribute to Grohl and co, Royal Blood and naked-drunk music icon, Iggy Pop. Yet, this gig was simply one-of-a-kind, because we saw Grohl in a way that no one would ever see again.
After recovering from breaking his leg in Sweden earlier that year, Grohl was – rather fittingly – occupying a “rock throne,” marked up with guitar necks and luminous beauty. Despite not having the same energy and give Grohl would often given if he was his own two feet, it was still a sight to see – a moment that would be short-lived as he would recover just the year after.
Bellowing out rock classics amidst of crowd of thousands – with vivid detail of what those porta-loos looked like – whilst the sun in the shire of Buckingham settled down for the night, was and still is, one of those that will stay with me forever. It will stay with me too, especially since I saved the very ticket and wristband that got me into the gig in the first place.
