Four Wheel Drive Live at the Underworld

I only heard about this gig about 10 days ago and I came mainly for Lawless the support act, but once I checked out headliners 4WD I realised they were a cool band in their own right. As it turns out this gig is a bit of a watershed for the band as the lead singer explained. For reasons unexplained they have to reboot the band in it's current format and return with a new name. I guess it's some kind of copyright issue with the band name. Any how tonight was a pre-xmas goodbye party for the band a final chance to give it all they've got as Four Wheel Drive before the enforced name change.

First up were Lawless who I've seen on this very stage supporting another band. I forget what gig it was now but I like their previous album and the new one is better still. These guys have a knack for writing cool melodic metal tunes with soaring vocals from the bald headed front man. They only had a 30 minute set and I would have liked to hear more new tunes from them but the awesome title track was at least played. This band remains pretty much unknown and that's a shame as they have talent and song writing skills in abundance to please and fan of melodic heavy metal.

At 8.30 or so the stage was finally ready for 4WD to lay waste and boy did they do that. Their AC/DC on a revved up acid trip had the fairly large Friday night crowd fully rocking out. The audience was quite a diverse bunch indeed from older rockers to some rather young girls. In general though they appeal to the older crowd but their good time heavy riffed boogie tunes went down a storm pretty much. Not being massively familiar with the tunes meant I couldn't get into the songs as much as some who were belting out every lyric but hell the energy coming off from the stage was electric. The hirsute guitarist was a ball of headbanging hair and ripped out riff after riff of molten heavy rock like his life depended on it. One of the most energetic live sets I've seen this year and well worth the £10 or so to get in. I'm glad I made it to the last ever 4WD gig and I look forward to the new version of the band in the coming months.

Morbid Angel Live at the Islington Academy

Two days later and here I am back at the Academy for the mighty Morbid Angel with support as it turns out from Benediction. So from melodic rock to full on death metal with two days and yet I love it all! I haven't actually seen the Morbid ones in quite a long time. I last saw them in 2005 actually so not far off ten years back and a lot has happened since then. David Vincent is back fronting the band which is cool as I feel his vocals best suit the band though they've changed quite a bit over the years. He doesn't sound so ghoulish any more and rasps more with a slightly higher pitch and a clearer pronunciation.

As I walked in Benediction were already just starting and sounded very heavy and it was hard to distinguish the guitars though the PA as the sound mix was quite bad. Slowly things improved and I enjoyed the songs from Transcend The Rubicon most of course. I don't really like too many of the others apart from Grind Bastard which they didn't play. A decent trip into old school death metal from these old stalwarts but I guess their style of songwriting explains why they remained a fairly small band when bands like MA, Death and Obituary or Cannibal Corpse were getting bigger back in the day.

After a fairly lengthy break the stage was finally dimmed and the Morbid ones took to the stage with a huge backdrop and smaller ones behind each guitarist with the imposing Vincent centre stage ready to strike like a poised Cobra. This tour is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album Covenant and to begin with they played the whole album through from beginning to end before playing odd songs from every album of theirs. Covenant whilst a very good album is not my fave MA but it still has some classics on it that totally sounded devillish live. The Friday night death metal crowd was a fever pitch for the Floridians as they launched into the awesome Rapture which has a beautiful slower riff. Trey was on my side of the stage though trying to get a picture of him proved pretty impossible as the moshing and pushing proved a touch too vigorous! I did manage to get a few videos although the sound was a bit too loud though crystal clear.

The band was on superb form and played like a streamlined, ancient death metal machine with metronomic precision. Trey is a guitarist that gives away very few facial expressions whilst shredding but underneath that shock of dark hair lays a very awesome guitarist with his own mesmeric riffing and solo style. I especially like it when he does these wicked spidery riffs where his fingers crawl along the fretboard like a deadly black widow or something! The band ripped through the whole of Covenant like a flash. It seems like they played the fast parts which is most of it hehe.. even faster. The most brilliant moments were Rapture, Lion's Den, Sworn to the Black and the best of the lot was Angel of Disease. I can't get over how awesome that song is with many many killer riffs and changes of speed. Very wicked stuff and the packed out crowd was loving it too. God of Emptiness was fantastic as well with it's very evil and eerie slow rumble.

Sometimes it's forgotten how popular these death metal legends really are and despite the miss step of the last album, the band's fans still treat every note from Trey's guitar like the unholy coming of Beelzebub himself. Existo Vulgore is still a great song from the new album and was played at warp speed. The wickedly sick Where the Slime Live was stupendous as it slithered out of the PA. The ahhha ahhhha parts from Vincent in Immortal Rites were classic and the whole crowd was doing them back at him in that awesome early MA classic. They played close to the allotted curfew time and left with horns high and the crowd baying for more but alas there was no time. I would say as a band Morbid Angel is super strong now and do not even come close to missing the Commando behind the drum kit. The new man Tony Yeung is a tremendous drummer himself and nailed everything down superbly. I was a bit surprised at how amazingly intense and tight the band sounds these. Let's hope this fires them up to make the next record classic Morbid Angel with no experimentations. This was a night to remember classic death metal played veteran masters of the dark arts. The Lava flowed as Trey would say!

HEAT Live at the Islington Academy

A hectic 2 gigs in 3 days as we approach the end of the year with first HEAT and then Morbid Angel two days later. A quick recap for the HEAT gig first followed by the darkly dealings from the legends aka Morbid Angel. This is my second time seeing HEAT this year after being pretty much blown away by them at the Garage earlier on this year. That was one hell of a gig so they had a lot to live up to in the slightly bigger hall that is the Islington Academy. Two supports were up first. Love Zombies who I don't know at all. They played pop light happy punk with a jumping energetic front gal bouncing here there and everywhere. Not really my cuppa but I guess I've heard worse opening bands. At least she was fun to look at and pretty cute too if nothing else.














































Next up were muscular modern rock from fellow Swedes Sherlock Brothers. I've actually come across these guys on my travails on the cyberweb quite recently and what I heard was quite palatable but I sort of forgot about them. I didn't know they were the main support for tonight until I got in the venue tonight so I thought cool I get to check these guys live as well before I've heard their album. They were a much more muscular offering than the first band and went down well with the more filled out crowd than Love Zombies. The frontman has an earthy powerful voice and their tunes are built around heavy melodic grooves and big riffage. Vocally the front man has a decent set of pipes and sounds very manly indeed. So if you like your chest beating modern rock with a lot of melodic riffs and coolish choruses then Sherlock Brothers are worth a listen. They were a very suitable warm up act for HEAT as well it must be said.

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The venue had filled out well but I would say it was probably only a half to 2/3 full with plenty of space at the back but standing right in row 2 I could care less about that. I remember the Garage being pretty rammed but it is a smaller place. Anyway I was expecting a hugely entertaining show from the Swedish boys and once again they delivered big time. I don't mean no dis-service to the other guys in the band but it's all about Erik Gronwall as far as I'm concerned. The guys seriously owns the stage and is one of the best front men I've ever seen. And for such a young guy to be that confident in his own ability to sing his ass off and provide a spectacle for the fans takes some guts and deserves immense praise. Of course he still has to have the vocals and he has that in spades.

The guy is a bona fide rock star and then some. If you could bottle that much enthusiasm and energy and sell it the world would be a much happier place. The band of course concentrated on the two albums with Erik mostly which they did last time as well. The songs sound so tight and well played live that you really get into it more than you would playing the album at home. In fact Tearing Down The Walls which I consider inferior to Address The Nation comes into it's own when the songs from it are played live. There's just a bit more oomph and purpose to it all and the crowd feeds off of it big time. There wasn't a single moment in the set that felt wasted or pedestrian in anyway. The band plays with smiles on their faces throughout and with a front man like Erik you just cut him loose and the crowd is just putty in his hands. Two amazing gigs this year from HEAT a band you can never take your eyes off when it comes to live performance.

Slash Live at Wembley Arena

Not being a big Guns or Slash fan I was rather surprised at myself for nabbing a ticket for this show but what the hell I went for it anyway. The Arena was rather packed to say the least for this Tuesday night gig. The new Slash album is admittedly rather good if a little patchy as there are just too many songs on it. If he had picked the best 12 it would have been a real ace of melodic rock/metal in 2014.

There were two support bands to get through and unfortunately I didn't like either. First one I don't even know and the second was California Breed led by Glenn Hughes. I like Glenn's vocals but unfortunately I missed their set completely as I don't like the band so I took the chance to mill around and drink a beer or two in the bar until it was time for Slash and co to take the stage at approximately 8.50pm as I noted.

The band broke into songs from the older Slash album first which I didn't recognise to be honest but the band sounded tight and Myles was straight away in fine voice. That guy has a sweet larynx indeed with a cool high pitched tone. Slash has picked a good'un there. The first song I recognised was Night train from GnR which I don't really even remember from way back but it was cool. World on Fire and started playing a couple of tracks from it. I was hoping for Withered Delilah but it wasn't to be. Still the title track was aired and ripped hard.

Of course most of the packed Arena were here for the GnR songs and eventually they got their wish. The band sounded very good and the sound in the Arena was pretty perfect. The bassist in the band took over for two songs from Myles and he had a pretty good voice as well and it was more or less seamless in the transition between the two singers. I was thinking they would play Welcome to the Jungle but they held that one back though I don't quite know why. It's probably my fave GnR song. Slash's solo spot was a bit excruciatingly long to be honest and was starting to really send me to sleep before it finally ended. The band played a long time so the crowd got their money's worth for sure. The band ended with a rousing and hugely cheered Paradise City to send the punters home happy. An ok but not brilliant gig and at least I've seen a GnR alumni at least one in my life.

You're a Lie
Nightrain
(Guns N’ Roses cover)
Standing in the Sun
Avalon
Back from Cali
(Slash cover)
Stone Blind
Double Talkin' Jive
(Guns N’ Roses cover)
Ghost
(Slash cover)
Doctor Alibi
(Slash cover) (Todd Kerns on lead vocals)
Out Ta Get Me
(Guns N’ Roses cover) (Todd Kerns on lead vocals)
30 Years to Life
Beneath the Savage Sun
Mr. Brownstone
(Guns N’ Roses cover)
Rocket Queen
(Guns N’ Roses cover) (Incl. 15min Slash guitar solo)
Bent to Fly
World on Fire
Anastasia
Sweet Child O' Mine
(Guns N’ Roses cover)
Slither
(Velvet Revolver cover) (with "Feel Like Makin' Love" … more)
Encore:
Paradise City
(Guns N’ Roses cover)

Symphonic Queen - At the Royal Albert Hall

A couple of weeks ago now I went along to see this Symphonic rock tribute to Queen's music at the Royal Albert Hall. I wouldn't normally go to a show like this but I managed to somehow win tickets for this event from work and for a freebie it was a pretty enjoyable evening. The show lasted close to 2 hours with an intermission in between. They London Symphony orchestra played all the famous Queen classics alongside a drummer, bassist and guitarist as well as the Metro singers providing vocal choirs.

The whole arranging and undertaking of the Queen back catalogue probably took a hell of a lot of work and the conductor and arranger should be given special mention for their efforts. I don't feel all of the songs really worked in a symphonic setting but the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody were just superb and other renditions such as Radio Gaga with it's anthemic feel were also great. All in all an enjoyable evening and much different than what I am used to. Since this concert I have bought a ticket to see the real thing with Adam Lambert at the O2. We'll see how that turns out in January.

Fave power metal songs from 2014

Well 2014 ain't quite over but I made this play list for a bit of fun. It's a run down of my 20 fave power metal songs from this year. Only one song per band.

Threshold Live Report at the Islington Academy

I believe this is my second time seeing Threshold live. The first time with the wonderful singer Mac who sadly passed away of course and now the second time with the returning singer Damian Wilson. I had been looking forward to this gig quite a lot as I love the new album immensely and was dying to hear how the new songs sounded live and boy did they sound good. But more on Threshold later. There were two support bands to get through one of which I've never heard and the second only fleetingly on youtube.

First up were Greeks The Silent Wedding. They play a sort of slightly melancholy version of prog metal with crooning vocals and slow to mid paced songs with lots of keyboard flourishes. Obviously I didn't know their songs and it was hard to gauge how they went down but I guess they were ok but not really anything special. The best song of their set was actually a pretty cool and faithful cover of Savatage's Gutter Ballet. Very nicely done and any band that covers Savatage is cool although their own material needs a bit of work to make it more catchy as it tends to meander along without much excitement. Not too bad overall though.



























































































Next up were Italian power metallers Overtures. I've heard a song or two on youtube from these guys and they were decent but nothing that made me go wow. However I must admit that they put on a very decent live show and have an engaging front man who interacts well with the crowd. His constant pleas for the crowd to boo Overtures and cheer Threshold was funny shit. The band sounded pretty spot on and maybe I should give them the time of day with their album to see if it can impress me. The singer definitely sounded very good live although somewhat accented. he did hit some seriously high notes throughout an the rest of his band mates were very impressive. In the end it's all about the songs and I'm not quite sure if Overtures have a brilliant and majestic enough arsenal to impress the power metal hordes out there but they sure made a decent fist of things last night and were a more more than able main support to Threshold although a different kind of style altogether.






































































































Finally at 9.30 or so it was time for the English kings of Prog to take to the stage with a very live wire Damian Wilson at the helm. The guy was on acid all night it seems! He was literally everywhere and he spent a god portion of the set down on the main floor in the crowd. Speaking of the crowd the Islington Academy was probably only half full but that's still around 300 or so which is not too bad at all for an unfashionable prog metal band. The band started with the catchy Slipstream and straight away sound tighter than a chicken's backside. the sound was super crisp and Damian's clean vocals came booming out of the PA with great effect. This was a very supportive and partisan crowd with a lot of singing and it seems Threshold fans are a very loyal bunch and I was surprised how much adoration they actually receive after each song and the amount of singing that goes on as well.

The band continued with The Hours before we got to hear more of the newer songs which I had been hoping for. Ground Control was amazing and very melodic. Both guitarist Groom and Morton were riffing and soloing like bona fide stars of the metal underground. Unforgiven was the first new song aired and was awesome as I suspected it would be in the live setting. Damian's vocals were truly superb on that one. Couple of older songs were aired which I was less familiar with so personally there was a slight mid set lull before Coda, Lost in Your Memory and Watch Tower on the Moon brought things back up to date with brilliant melodic intent.

The epic Pilot in the Sky of Dreams was started by Damian on the main floor as can be seen in my video. Another epic followed that with the amazing song The Box from the new album one of my favourite tracks and was sung to perfection by Damian. Mission Profile ended the main set in catchier melodic fashion before the band returned for a final encore of Ashes having played a near enough 90 minute set and gone past the curfew even.

Even at the end Damian jumped over the ledge and into the crowd to accept the applause and back slaps and took photos with the fans. The guy really puts everything out for the fans and respects the people that come to see his band play. To be honest Threshold were amazing last night and even better than when I saw them with Mac who was a far more reserved and less enthusiastic guy than the madcap Damian. He stole the show with a wonderful performance from start to finish. His vocals were superbly clear and his overall sparks of enthusiasm make the Threshold live experience something to treasure and to look forward to again and again.

Slipstream
The Hours
Liberty, Complacency, Dependency
Ground Control
Unforgiven
Siege of Baghdad
Part of the Chaos
Coda
Lost in Your Memory
Watchtower on the Moon
Pilot in the Sky of Dreams
Mission Profile
The Box
Encore:
Ashes

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