Knocking on Heaven’s Door [Gig Review]

Heaven’s Basement + Glamour of the Kill + The

Dirty Youth

Rescue Rooms

Nottingham

14.03.14

After travelling to pretty much all points of the compass including Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada in recent months, those lovable hard rockers Heaven’s Basement have returned to more familiar shores. It’s only the second date of their Welcome Home tour and already they’re playing to a sold out show here at the rescue rooms in Nottingham, the tour covers most of the UK in March and many countries in mainland Europe during April.

Over the last couple of years Heaven’s Basement have grown from strength to strength and with the release of their 2013 album Filthy Empire on Red Bull Records they have gathered around them an even bigger fan base than they had before.

I’ll keep the history lesson brief, I first saw the beginnings of this band a whole decade ago when they supported the mighty Queensrÿche in 2004, called Hurricane Party at the time the only member of that line-up in today’s band is drummer Chris Rivers. Moving on to the monsters of rock festival at Milton Keynes in 2006 and now going out under the moniker of Roadstar I caught up with the guys again, this show was guitarist Sid Glover’s first gig with the band so I’m reliably informed. 2008 and Roadstar become Heaven’s Basement but still many trials and tribulations befell the band until the beginning of 2011 when the current line-up of Aaron Buchanan (lead vocals) Rob Ellershaw (bass) Sid Glover (lead guitar) and Chris Rivers (drums) released the Unbreakable EP and thankfully three years later they’re finally breaking into the big time.

Nottingham has always been a happy stamping ground for Heaven’s Basement in the past (Trashstock, Wildside etc.) and tonight’s show is no exception, the enthusiastic crowd were packed into the rescue rooms to see the boys play a blistering set of old and new songs. As you might expect they opened up with Welcome Home the first track off the Filthy Empire album, a lot of the songs from that album are in the set tonight but I’m glad Heaven’s Basement haven’t forgot their older material. Lead guitarist Sid sings his now trademark song Paranoia about halfway though the show and the band finish off with a couple of old favourites, Reign on My Parade and Executioners Day as well as an encore of Jumping Jack Flash just for the hell of it.

It’s been about a year since I last saw Heaven’s Basement, this band have grown into a top act with stage antics by belt and braces front man Aaron Buchanan always making an impact, tonight he walked out onto the audience's hands and clambered up onto the balcony before later in the set, crowd surfing on his back whilst still singing, I remember seeing him at the High Voltage festival in London 2011 making a similar move, always impressive.

I would say tonight’s audience were bordering on 50% male to female ratio and as you probably know for rock bands this is unusual, I’m guessing both Heaven’s Basement and the main support band tonight, Glamour of the Kill are responsible for this statistic, to say they were eye candy for the girls would be a little rude so I’m not gonna say it (Oooops).

And so onto Glamour of the Kill and they’re a band I’ve not seen before, made in Yorkshire this four piece band more than held my attention for their entire set. Heavier than the headliners GOTK play slick heavy metal with very powerful double kick drum beats and a full guitar sound and although there was some ‘growly’ vocals on the whole you could hear the lyrics as being sung by front man/bassist Davey Richmond who is ably acompanied by Chris Gomerson (guitar/vocals) Mike Kingswood (lead guitar/vocals) and Ben Thomson (drums/vocals) I would go and see these guys again they seem like they’re going to be around for a long while yet.

Tonight’s show was opened by Welsh rockers The Dirty Youth, I saw them a couple of years back but sadly tonight with the show being sold out the delay between opening the doors and the first band coming on stage is very marginal for everyone to get into the venue in time to see the first band. Why it takes so long to get everyone through the doors I do not know, the queue meandered around the block so by the time I got in I only saw the last two songs of their performance. However on a more positive note the lead singer of The Dirty Youth Danni Monroe assured me they would be embarking on a headlining tour of their own later in the year so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that.

Below: GD Manofmetal & Danni Monroe.

Check out all of tonight’s bands on their websites…

Heaven’s Basement: http://heavensbasement.com/filthyempire/

Glamour of the Kill: https://www.facebook.com/glamourofthekill

The Dirty Youth: http://www.thedirtyyouth.co.uk/

GD Manofmetal.

Videos From The Rescue Rooms By GD Manofmetal:

Discworld 2014 [Eximius Humanus]

Morpheus Rising - Eximius Humanus [CD Review]

Melodic Revolution Records

Released: February 2014

Formed in 2008 Morpheus Rising are a five piece rock/metal band based in York and although  they released their debut album Let The Sleeper Awake in 2011, I have to confess they didn’t come to my attention until last year when Ex Saxon & ODS drummer Nigel Durham joined the band. Now a couple of years on from that debut CD and the band have another album out on Melodic Revolution Records titled Eximius Humanus which they launched in February at the Robin 2 Bilston.

Heavily inspired by the NWOBHM genre Morpheus Rising (MR) also combine many other influences in their music, the new album is ten tracks of heavy metal for the twenty-first century but there’s also a progressive sound to some of the songs on Eximius Humanus reminiscent of prog metal bands like Queensrÿche for example.

Track one; Super Human is really only an intro to track two, Looking For Life, the latter with it’s sci-fi concept of searching for a new earth combining with the formers search for the superman we all hope lurks within us all and while track one is an electronic jingling build up, an overture if you will to track two which sounds more typical of MR, all powerful riffs and durable drum beats.

All ten songs have been written by Pete Harwood (guitar) and Si Wright (lead vocals) and the rest of MR’s line up is Damien Sweeting (guitar) Andy Smith (bass) and the aforementioned Nigel Durham (drums) together they’ve produced a commanding, well crafter album that almost seems like a concept album so significant are the lyrics, no insipid love songs or brash battle metal anthems will ye find here.

Day Number One is the third track, a song about getting back to the beginning, starting again, renewing our view of the world, it’s a melodic number with lots of harmonising backing vocals. Mega City One comes next and is one of the best songs on the album, you’ll know all about this distopian vision of the future if you’ve ever read a Judge Dredd comic book. Musically Mega City One has catchy riffs, blistering guitar breaks and a sing along chorus; it leads directly into Fly Higher an uplifting tune about achieving great things, lyrically a complete antithesis to the previous number.

Tracks six, seven and eight are all weighty hard rock songs with tantalising guitar riffs and lead breaks. Eximius Humanus’ penultimate song, Touch The Sky is slower in tempo, it’s a kind of superpower ballad and for all it’s popular familiarly the lyrics don’t dumb down any “Ectopic beats born through anxiety, My heart skips another beat and I’m far away, into the blackening blue, I dream I’m flying with you, higher and higher we climb, I never want to Wake” is the opening verse, weighty stuff I’m sure you’ll agree.

The album concludes with the excellent Superpower and we’re pretty much back to where we started, as I said earlier this isn’t a concept album but many of the underlying themes of the individual songs imbue the listener with a sense of the familiar. An overall anticipation of achievement coupled with the fear of disaster pervade throughout every song on Eximius Humanus in short an album packed with thought provoking lyrics, backed up with exemplary tuneful heavy metal music.

Get your copy of Eximius Humanus on Morpheus Rising’s website:

http://www.morpheusrising.co.uk/

GD Manofmetal. 

Nine Men in Black [Gig Review]

JD & The FDCs [FDCs] + The Idol Dead [TID]

Tap N’ Tumbler [TNT]

Nottingham

27.02.14

This week I’m off to see two bands that I’ve not only seen many times before but two bands I’ve already seen this year. JD & The FDCs and The Idol Dead are playing the Tap N’ Tumbler in Nottingham on the last Thursday in February and I for one am not gonna miss this show. Back in the middle of January I caught up with them both at the twelve band extravaganza that was Martin Short’s sixtieth birthday bash at the Maze. Tonight however they will both get a longer set than they did that night, the FDCs are headlining so it’s the turn of some of Yorkshires finest sons in the form of The Idol Dead to play first.

With bottled water and towels in place on stage courtesy of Craig the land lord (all it needed was some Robertson’s barley water and you’d have thought we were at Wimbledon) and its show time. Opening up with the brilliantly fast paced Buckle N’ Howl (note to self: video this next time) TID immediately invigorate the crowd with chant along lines like ‘hell yeah!’ and fuck yeah!’ this is a great song to open with. The Leeds based band’s personnel are Polly Phluid (lead vocals) Tim (lead guitar) KC Duggan (lead guitar) Suggy (bass) and Nish (drums)looking resplendent as they do in their black shirts and lime green ties. TID play post punk hard rock (a cliché I know) but then again fulfilling clichés are one of the bands ambitions apparently. Although all the members of TID give it 100% on stage a special mention has to be made about the over excited antics of KC on guitar and Polly’s St Vitas dance like movements they both draw the eye. The poignant song Travelling Man is one of the highlights of their set for me but the only draw back is they only played half a dozen songs or so; a few more would not have gone a miss. I.D.O.L is the final song it’s a rip roaring sing along number with mucho contributions from the audience as a microphone wielding Polly Phluid weaves his way in and out of the masses. Both bands tonight have an array of merchandise on sale but I have to mention TID’s green and black ‘punky’ teddy bears, you wouldn’t give one to a small child in case they had nightmares. 

If you was wondering why this review is titled Nine Men in Black then wonder no longer, when the FDCs take to the stage they always wear black shirts with white armbands sporting the legend FDCs so tonight we’ve seen nine similarly clad band members on the TNT stage (like nine back riders in the lord of the rings) ok well not really like that but it’s what ran through my weird imagination at the time. Opening up with Ujpest Dozsa an upbeat song that’s become a staple of the FDCs set it’s swiftly followed by This Ship is Going Down, the crowd are ‘up for it’ as JD leads his band of merry men through an unfamiliar set which contains three brand new songs even I’ve never heard before. For those of you reading this who aren’t familiar with the FDCs they are Jamie ‘JD’ Delerict (lead vocals/guitar) Dazmondo (lead guitar/vocals) Joey Strange (bass/vocals) and Danny Gunn (lead drums) this band seem to be constantly on the road and have reached a wide audience over the last four years or so that they’ve been together. Although front man JD was struggling a bit with a bad throat the new stuff came across well and the man flu didn’t effect his sardonic banter with the crowd and with his fellow band members, I think Dazmondo has been ‘sacked’ at just about every gig they’ve played. The penultimate number of the FDCs set is the now anthemic Burn This City Down, with audience participation at maximum it would be easy to finish on this one, however no FDCs gig would be complete without the trademark Stupid Music Played by Idiots (whimsically dedicated to The Idol Dead) another crowd participation song, many of the audience shying away from JD as he pounces on unsuspecting victims to sing along. In fact the FDCs are a band that get the crowd joining in all the time, from ‘Slade thumbs’ to constant shouts of YES! A word written on the back of Daz’s guitar lest we forget it. They’re a band that you either ‘get’ or you don’t get, it makes no difference to Jamie he is a man driven by the force of rock n’ roll and I think he’s never gonna stop. 

If you were at this gig tonight you will have witnessed two groups who express the real meaning of what live rock music is all about, I also know many like them that give so much of their valuable time to the cause for very little financial reward. I’d better get off my soap box now before I get started on about bands with no more talent than these guys who manage somehow to get away with charging exorbitant amounts of money to go see them in an arena… Never… Gonna… Stop!

Find both tonight’s bands on their websites…

JD & The FDCs: http://www.jdandthefdcs.com/

The Idol Dead: http://theidoldead.com/

GD Manofmetal.

Both videos bellow shot @ The Tap N' Tumbler Nottingham by GD:

Sons of Wolves [Gig Review]

Sons of Icarus [SOI] + Fighting Wolves [FW]

Tap N’ Tumbler [TNT]

Nottingham

22.02.14

Tonight I’m at the tap n’ tumbler in Nottingham to check out not one but two rock bands from down south, from Guilford it’s the much talked about Sons of Icarus who are currently on a nine date co-headlining tour with London’s Fighting Wolves. Both bands are unfamiliar to me which seems to be a reoccurring theme to 2014 so far.

On arrival I find the TNT already packed to the rafters a whole hour or so before show time and after the sound checks it’s even more crowded and the air of anticipation has increased to maximum. Around half past nine we see the first band hit the stage, Fighting Wolves are Paul Blue (lead vocals/guitar) Danny Martin (drums) Jack Bourne (guitar) Connor Blue (bass) and Pierre Badass (guitar) he’s from France you know. FW are a post grunge rock band who you will like if you’re into bands such as the Foo Fighters, amongst their achievements so far are playing the steelhouse festival in 2013 the year they released their debut album Chapter 1. Tonight they open their set with the song Breath in Breath Out, it’s a slow build up rising to a crescendo, front man Paul Blue injects plenty of energy into his performance so much so he seems to have to hang onto his trousers for the entirety of the set (tighten ya belt dude). In fact most of their songs go up and down in tempo from melodic lyrics one minute to hard edged grungy vocals the next, all the songs are driven by rock solid drum beats and punchy riffs. FW finished their ten song set with One Minute More a cracking number which raised the roof at the TNT and rounded off a very entertaining show, Paul Blue humbly declaring to the audience to stick around for Sons of Icarus “they’re a much better band than us” pretty much highlighted what a great bunch of guys Fighting Wolves are.

A quick change over, well not that quick and it’s time for Sons of Icarus to entertain the Nottingham masses, this young four piece band were not what I was expecting and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The presence of Maria Artingstoll in the audience should have alerted me to the quality and style of SOI, she is the former booking agent for the now defunct Mars Bonfire (boy, they were a band). Over the last few years SOI have played with the likes of Black Stone Cherry, Rival Sons, The Answer and Clutch to name just a few and apparently they played Sonisphere in 2011, I was there but sadly missed their set. Describing them selves as “a brand new, young, British, organic, visceral four piece hard rock band” and comprising of Andy Masson (lead vocals/guitar) Steve Balkwill (guitar) Alex Masson (bass/backing vocals) and Mike ‘Quilly’ McQuillan (drums) SOI immediately had the TNT crowd eating out of their hands. Musically reminiscent of the afore mentioned Rival Sons SOI mixed up their set with both original songs and a few covers in fact when I spoke to Quilly after the show he told me they gauge the content of their set by the audience, playing what feels right at the time. Their original songs like Sick to the Teeth, You Want it All and Can’t Let Go are prime examples of the bands inherent style, rip roaring vocals from Andy Masson (suffering no ill effects from having his hair cut short) to immense lead brakes from guitarist Steve Balkwill are bound to impress. The band eventually finished with their new single Let it Burn, I say eventually because the usual trick of leaving the stage and waiting for the audience to shout encore backfired on them, they came back and made us have it anyway. Let it burn isn’t typical of most SOI songs it’s a fast paced rock number that will grab wider attention but that’s what singles are meant to do after all. If you get the chance to catch SOI live then go see them I will definitely be checking them out again in the future. 

With the curtain coming down on yet another great show at the Tap N’ Tumbler the boys from both bands are heading north of the border up to Glasgow after spending the rest of the night in fun filled Nottingham.

GD Manofmetal.

Check out both bands on their websites:

Fighting Wolves: http://www.fightingwolves.com/

Sons of Icarus: http://sonsoficarus.com/

Videos of Fighting Wolves & Sons of Icarus from the Tap N' Tumbler by GD:

Ship Ahoy! [Gig Review]

East Town Pirates + Lipshock

The Tap N’ Tumbler/ Sitwell Tavern

Nottingham/ Derby

06/07.02.14

Last September I was Shanghaied by a scurvy bunch of pirates I sailed off into the seven seas of sin with the East Town Pirates, they were the support band for JD & The FDCs on two back to back gigs at the tap n’ tumbler Nottingham and the following night at the Sitwell tavern Derby. They were an instant hit with me, I bought both of their albums the eponymously titled East Town Pirates released in 2010 and the 2013 album Seven Seas of Sin and I’ve hardly stopped playing them ever since.

So another year and two more back to back gigs at the same venues they played last year, this time however the East Town Pirates are travelling from their home port of Ipswich to the East Midlands to headline both shows.

The first of these being at the tap n’ tumbler in Nottingham and the decks have been swabbed, the bar staff have matching pirate eye patches and there’s some spiced rum punch served up in a Captain Morgan’s cannonballs with the dubious title of ‘cannonballs deep’ it had to be drunk so it did me hearties oooh arrrrr!

Support on both the shows comes in the form of Coventry hard rockers Lipshock who describe their musical style as “trashy, hook-laden rock n’ roll from the heart of the UK” and they sure do have an eclectic sound, there’s Black Sabbath style riffs, sleazy vocals reminiscent at times of Buckcherry, it’s hard to pin this band’s style down. The twin guitar sound perfected by Thin Lizzy back in the 70’s is all there and it sounds to me like the creative influences behind their song writing is harvested from many sources ranging from Velvet Revolver to The Sweet. The cover that they finished the Derby show with was Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music (White Boy) well I didn’t see that coming, well I did because they played it in Nottingham the night before but it was not what you’d expect from this band. If you get the chance go check out Lipshock don’t hesitate, they had the girls at the Sitwell tavern dancing, a big stamp of approval and no mistake.

Ahoy me hearties it’s all hands on deck for tis time to weigh anchor and splice the mainsail for our journey to the seven seas of sin as the East Town Pirates (ETP) prepare to fire a broadside salvo, so avast ye scurvy varmints and come along a me. There’s no way I can finish this review writing like that and indeed apart from the lyrics of their songs the ETP don’t go overboard with the old pirate thing, musically they’re a rock punk band as opposed to a punk rock band. Hailing as they do from the east coast port of Ipswich it’s easy to see where they got their name and the crew members are, Rikki Rumoldew (lead vocals) Shameless Seamus (bass/vocals) Kutthroat Kev (guitar/vocals) Jonnie Murder (guitar/vocals) and last but not least Zac Cousteau (drums).

From their first moment on stage right to their last the ETP ignite a powder keg among the audience with their infectiously addictive songs, songs like Glory Days, Ship Ahoy and the titular East Town Pirates are guaranteed to get you singing and even dancing along. Lead singer Rikki is 100% punk rock with his delivery while the rest of the band provide harmonic backing vocals throughout the set of lively songs, most of which have a story to tell.

The Ballad of Tobias Gill is one such song, based on the true story of a negro Dragoon found guilty of murder in 1750 it was only after he’d been hanged that they realised he was innocent. Another song is The Revenge of Emmy Tot it’s about how a lady was abducted by a Dutch sea captain and how subsequently she escapes by cutting his head off and The Curse of Captain Blood is another tale of caution.

John Dobbs’ Bones is witty ditty about how when someone committed suicide they used to be buried face down at a crossroads, all these songs are introduced by Rikki like he’s auditioning for Jackanory.

Every song is a jig dancing gem all played out tongue in cheek the lyrics of Throw Your Arms Around Me Darling are worthy of a ‘carry on’ double entendre “let me take you in the galley let me love you fore and aft let me chase you round the poop deck cos’ I know it makes you laugh” queue Sid James laugh ooh no stop messin’ about. At the Sitwell gig the ETP played a brand new song Voodoo Pirate Rock n’ Roll it came over as being more ‘glam rock’ than punk and if there was any justice in this world it would be number one in the hit parade (does that even happen any more?) this song was dedicated to Mr. Jamie Delerict of JD & The FDCs fame who was lurking about at the Sitwell, it’s not often I see him in his civvies.

Both these gigs were maximum fun, they made the sun shine indoors while it blew a gale outside and I have to say this, having only seen the ETP a couple of times before from the moment I walked in the tap n’ tumbler they personally came over to talk to me as if we were old ship mates, that kind of personal touch can make all the difference when it comes to show time. In Derby the ETP came into the Weatherspoon’s pub for something to eat before the gig, I happened to be there as well, we all sat around a big table as if we were in the ships galley eating hard tack or was it Nachos? Anyway the upshot of all this was, I think I’ve been hired as their catering manager, “it says two sausages” Rikki.

The night after the Sitwell gig the boys were setting sail for Coventry to round off a three gig raid on the east midlands but I’m sure we’ll be able to shout ship ahoy!  Before too long when the East Town Pirates next sail into port to play for us their nautical ditties of smuggling and mutiny.

Check out both bands on facebook…

East Town Pirates: https://www.facebook.com/easttownpirates.1

Lipshock: https://www.facebook.com/lipshock

GD Manofmetal.

Seven Seas of Sin [East Town Pirates Videos]

Six videos from the East Town Pirates gigs @ The Tap n' Tumbler Nottingham & The Sitwell Tavern Derby (February 6th & 7th 2014)

Casket Case [Gig Review]

Teenage Casket Company [TCC] + Three Thirds Below + LeeTabix

Tap N’ Tumbler [TNT]

Nottingham

30.01.14

For the first time sine the Noize Level Critical all-dayer back in May of last year I’m off to see Teenage Casket Co. play a full ‘plugged in’ set tonight at the Tap n’ Tumbler in Nottingham and I can’t wait. I’ve been going to see TCC since 2005 an unbelievable nine years ago, coming through several trials and tribulations over the years the current line-up of the band, Rob Wylde (lead vocals/guitar) Rob Lane (bass) Mike ‘Spike’ Hollinshead (drums) and new boy Dave ‘Silverjet’ Kerr (lead guitar) give a different dynamic and slightly different direction than previous line-ups have. Most of the old favourite TCC songs are still in the live set occupying around 50% of the stage time were as the rest of the time is filled up with their new songs off their brand new album, the aptly named Still Standing.  

But I’m getting a head of myself a little, it’s Thursday night here at the TNT and around the corner at The Rescue Rooms The Quireboys are playing an acoustic set so the turn out at this gig is quite a remarkable achievement and speaks volumes for how much TCC are loved in Nottingham. First up tonight are a last minute (and I mean last minute) replacement support band called Three Thirds Below a four piece local group who describe themselves as a post hardcore alternative band, I’ve never seen them before but after playing around a forty minute set I would definitely go see these young guys again. They sounded like a melodic ‘classic rock’ band but they had a hard core edge and boy can they play. 

During the changeover between the bands we were entertained by one man oral percussion orchestra LeeTabix this guy is an insane ‘beatboxer’ with an amazing talent, you wouldn’t believe the sounds he can achieve however at the risk of sounding like an old fart, I just don’t get why he was playing this gig, musically his repertoire had nothing to do with rock music and belonged more in a R&B club.

Back to the main action and TCC’s set opened with the title track off the new album Still Standing, this was swiftly followed by other new songs First Night of Your Life, You only Love Me When You Hate me and Takes a Little Time. For a couple of years TCC went out as a three piece and the one guitar approach to their material didn’t work in my opinion so with ‘new’ boy Dave Kerr, an accomplished guitarist, lead singer and song writer in his own right joining the band their sound is now ‘full’ once again. In fact all four members of TCC have many other musical projects on the go all at the same time, Rob Wylde is a current member of the glam rock legends that are Tigertailz and Rob’ Laney 74’ Lane has played for many other bands in his time including LA hard rockers the Bullet Boys and together they form half of the Poison tribute band Poizon.

Spike plays a plethora of instruments as well as the drums and peruse many solo projects whereas Dave Kerr front’s his own rock band Silverjet.

Sadly I had to leave at the start of TCC’s penultimate song, Cocaine a song from their 2006 EP Eat your heart out, it’s Thursday night and when the last bus goes GD Manofmetal is out of here, maybe starting the show a tad earlier on a week day would be the sensible approach. Having read the set list I know another old favourite, Don’t Look at Me Like That was due to be the
last song of the night but by then I was on the Rainbow 1 heading for the boarder. 

The Videos below were shot @ the tap n' tumbler Nottingham (30.01.14)

Check out the bands on their websites:

Teenage Casket Co.: http://www.teenagecasketcompany.co.uk/

Three Thirds Below: https://www.facebook.com/Threethirdsbelow

LeeTabix: https://www.facebook.com/leetabixuk

GD Manofmetal.