EUROBLAST TOUR: JEFF LOOMIS, Monuments,Vildhjarta, Stealing Axion @Academy 3 Birmingham 27/10/12

A bit of an odd bill this. Jeff Loomis, the guitar genius behind the fantastic Nevermore and three bands from the “djent” side of things, but you know us, RTM likes that sort of thing so off we go.

First up are Tacoma newbies Stealing Axion. We have a lot of time for their “Moments” album, with its Periphery-esque grooves, and happily they translate the songs well in a live setting. “Mirage of Hope” and their heaviest moment “47 Days Later” are particularly impressive.

Next up are Vildhjarta, and if the Swedes and if the Swedes are hiding their Meshuggah fixation they don’t bother to do it well. However, they do have two vocalists and thus offer a different take on things. Modern progressive metal needs technical excellence and they have that in abundance, they also have more synchronized stage moves than Status Quo. There are plenty of good songs in their set too, “Dagger” and the new, unnamed song (the band tell the crowd to give their merch guy suggested monikers) are heavy and sprawling, but “All These Feelings” was the obvious highlight.

London’s Monuments provide the British interest, their set mostly being culled from the recently released “Gnosis” record. They do this stuff with a rather English twist, adding elements of hardcore to their mix. After entering to some truly awful dance music, they rip into “Doxa” like they really mean it – a feeling that “Regenerate” does little to diminish. “Denial” becomes a duet with Vildjharta and “Memoirs,” a song they have released to raise money for an ill friend is a fine song. Monuments are a band, you feel, that like Tesseract, are going to become the UK standard bearers for this type of metal.

Jeff Loomis is widely recognised as being one of the finest guitarists of his generation. His new album “Plains of Oblivion” is superb. We had been promised earlier in the evening, by Stealing Axion’s Dan Forbrich, that the former Nevermore man was going to “shred our faces off” so his arrival onstage was eagerly anticipated.

Loomis sets about living up to that promise during opener “Jato Unit” but as if eager not to rest on his laurels – and also to show off his new band – two recently recorded songs, “A Liars Chain” and “Speak of Nothing” are aired. These both have lyrics and take things into an almost black metal direction, which is rather unexpected. “Shouting Fire At A Funeral” puts us back on familiar ground.

Loomis chooses not to say a word throughout the hour-long set, preferring instead to let fellow guitarist, and nominal frontman, Joe Nurre, do any talking that needs to be done, and whilst Loomis’ fretwork could never be questioned, he perhaps lacks the charisma of some of his contemporaries.

The end of the evening rather neatly encapsulates this point. Nurre offers a “thanks Birmingham, you’ve been fantastic,” the house lights go up, and there is no encore. Which offers the rather incongruous thought that for one of the world’s most flashy metal guitarists, Jeff Loomis is a rather solid and unspectacular individual.

EVILE, Wolf @Academy 3 Birmingham 25/10/12

Anyone who goes to a gig in Birmingham must be used to it by now. You know, that bit of the evening where the band says something like “It is a great honour for us to be playing the home of heavy metal.”

Sweden’s Wolf – who get a generous hour-long set - do it pretty early on. The thing is, with them, you have to suspect that it might be more sincere than with most groups. The four piece are very much from the same ilk as obvious contemporaries Enforcer and Cauldron, really a horns-up gallop through some fine Priest/Maiden inspired rock – and what’s more they are great fun.

“Hail Caeser” a crowd singalong of “Voodoo,” “The Fight,” “Genocide” and closer “Speed On” are never going to win any prizes for originality, but they will put a smile on your face, indeed bass man Anders Modd barely stops grinning all night. Their website claims they are “real metal for true bastards” and who are we to argue.

Evile have been slogging around for years now. Frontman Ol Drake informs us that next year is actually the bands 10^th anniversary. During that time they have been hotly tipped (just ask all the people that RTM bored about them after seeing them support Megadeth in 2008) and have had to overcome tragedy with the terrible death of Mike Alexander. While all this was going on they continued to release brilliant records.

Last years “Five Serpents Teeth” was no exception and saw them make some headway. As such it must be gratifying for the band to see the Academy 3 nearly full this, their biggest headline tour to date.

Although most of tonight’s 80 minutes is drawn from “….Teeth” It is with an old song that they choose to begin and the title track of proper debut album “Enter The Grave,” which leads into the fine “Cult.”

Drake explains – as he did at Bloodstock when the band showed their considerable talents with a show stealing Sunday afternoon main stage slot – that the band are shaking things up this time around and the rarely played “In Dreams Of Terror” and “Origin Of Oblivion” both make appearances.

Not to say that the band have forgotten their roots and “Thrasher” sounds as good as it ever did and closing duo “Infected Nations” and “Schizophrenia” take on a new lease of life.

Often derided as mere Slayer copyists in the past, Evile deserve much more recognition. With Slayer struggling, Metallica making one decent album in a decade and the likes of Anthrax and Megadeth producing great records, but a long way from their thrash roots, it is left to the likes of Exodus, Annihilator and Testament to fly the flag across the pond.

Over here, the only reasonable heirs to the thrash crown are in front of us tonight. It is time to proclaim Evile as the best band of their type in Britain.

LACUNA COIL @Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 23/10/12

n many ways RTM can thank Megadeth for the fact we are here tonight. The first time we came across Lacuna Coil was when co-vocalist Cristina Scabbia turned up on the remake of “Tout Le Monde” a few years back.

Scabbia is very much the public face – both literally and metaphorically – of the Italian’s. As such, in common with many people we had assumed it was some sort of Nightwish/Epica type deal, all symphonic power metal, when actually their sound owes far more to the doom end of the market and with this years “Dark Adrenaline” album marking a near-career highlight, a first time view of the band live was eagerly anticipated.

The set is promised to be a mammoth, career-spanning two hour affair, but the band are short of two regular members. Bassist Marco Zelati and drummer Criz Mozatti are missing this tour due to injury and paternity leave respectively, which is a shame, but soon forgotten when “I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow” kicks us off, with twin singers Scabbia and Andrea Ferro wearing matching what look to be Army uniforms and masks.

The driving rhythm of “I Wont Tell You” soon follows and by the time “Senzafine” comes along on a wave of Paradise Lost type grooves and “To The End” has created mass headbanging the momentum is really building. 

The trouble is what happens next. After a five minute break and a costume change, the band are back – on stools – for an acoustic portion, and lets be brutal about this, for all Scabbia’s protestations that this is their favourite portion of the show, the songs don’t really lend themselves to the stripped back format.

There is then another break before the band are back for part three, and this plugged in section of pretty straight ahead metal is much, much better. “Swamped” gets things jumping, while “Fragile” is awash with Eastern rhythms and the anthemic “To The Darkness” sees the band cut lose.

“My Spirit” closes things and the band take their bows after what has been a fine show. It could have been a great one, but the mid set lull and stop-start nature rather put paid to that.

Quibbles and personal preferences notwithstanding, Lacuna Coil are a band with much to offer, and one that should be cherished as being far more important than just a vehicle for Cristina Scabbia’s considerable talents. Megadeth may have led us here, but Lacuna Coil were worth it.

DOWN, Orange Goblin, Warbeast @Institute, Birmingham 20/10/12

It is difficult to quantify the influence that Philip H Anselmo has managed to exert on modern metal music. In the late 80s he joined a struggling hard rock called Pantera as vocalist. In 1990 they band put out the seminal “Cowboys From Hell” and gave those of us that never really got grunge a band to like.

History has documented over the years just exactly what Pantera did before they imploded in acrimony, but Anselmo has always liked plenty of strings to his bow. Amongst many, many side projects, he formed Down in the early 90s with a bunch of New Orleans contemporaries. Guitarists Pepper Keenan, and Kirk Windstein from Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar respectively and drummer Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod were amongst the ranks. In 1995 the “supergroup” (as we apparently have to call these things) released an album called “NOLA” that the teenage RTM played to death. The group has reconvened plenty of times over the years and have just released their new cd to the world, the rather marvelous, “Down IV – The Purple EP.”

Throughout his controversies and problems Anselmo has always remained metal to the core, you suspect, and so it is that he spends his time while Warbeast are onstage just drinking beer and watching the band from behind the drums as avidly as any fan would.

As well as having the most metal name in the history of the world, Warbeast are signed to Anselmo’s Housecore Records label. It is easy to see what got them that deal. A mix of twin guitar metal and thrash, they headbang their way through songs like ”Scorched Earth Policy,” “Trust The Enemy” and “It” with relish. Their sound is never going to change anyone’s life,  but they keep the crowd – which is large given the ridiculously early start time – enthralled.

Orange Goblin have morphed from being a cult stoner band from the South Coast into one of the finest heavy metal bands in Britain right now. Their “Eulogy For The Damned” album will be somewhere very high in the RTM end-of-year round up, and they have the confidence in their material to pull off a simply stunning 45 minutes tonight.

Beginning with “…Damned” opener “Red Tide Rising” and following it with perhaps it’s stand out moment in “The Filthy And The Few” their set is mostly culled from the newer end of their catalogue. Man mountain singer Ben Ward – clad in a Status Quo t-shirt – conducts things from the front, dedicating “Acid Trial” to the still watching Anselmo. By the time the mighty riffs of “Scorpionica” bring things to a close, you realise that you have just witnessed one of the greatest sets of 2012. After more than 15 years, the Goblin have arrived.

Half an hour after Ward’s men finish, the house lights go dark to usher on Down. Things might begin in rather sedate fashion, with Anselmo waving and chatting to the sold out crowd, but any notion that this will be a relaxed affair is eschewed the second the words “this one is called ‘Eyes of the South’” leaves his lips. There is – and it is no mere hyperbole to say this – absolute chaos from the first chord. If the vibe in the crowd and the quality of the bands on show, always gave rise to a suspicion that tonight could be very special indeed, the first five minutes confirm the thought.

A double whammy from the new EP follows in lead single “Witchtripper” and “Open Coffins” before “Lifer” is dedicated to Dimebag Darrell to rapturous cheers. An injury to a crowd surfer during “Ghosts of the Mississippi” brings a lull while fitness of said fan is ascertained, but it is only a brief one, as we are straight back in with “Temptation’s Wings.”

Incredibly the encore manages to up the intensity, after a crushing “Misfortune Teller” comes the anthemic “Stone The Crows,” during which Anselmo play the pantomime and refuse to play the song until the audience is on its feet.

“Hail The Leaf” follows before “Bury Me In Smoke” sees the support acts join the headliners for a jam session to being things to a close, but not before Windstein takes the mic, the effortlessly cool Keenan throws his plectrums into the gathered throng, and  Anselmo dances, grins from ear-to-ear and gives us the last line of “Stairway to Heaven.”

We file out of the venue reflecting on just how a side-project, and one that most probably formed after the members got drunk and started jamming nearly two decades ago, got be this good. But, as any music fan knows, sometimes things don’t need analysing, things just need to be enjoyed, and although it might only be October, what we saw here was most probably the gig of the year.

Tonight Down – and Orange Goblin too – were remarkable.

JIM JONES REVUE, John J Presley @Academy2 Birmingham 19/0/12

We confess to not knowing a great deal about John J Presley before this, but from the twenty minutes he and his two-piece band of a drummer and keyboard player spend onstage, you can safely say that he likes Tom Waits. In fact, if you can imagine Waits singing while Nick Cave added some twisted guitar riffs over the top you wouldn’t be far wrong.

If what he does is perhaps hard to quantify, it is nonetheless interesting. His Facebook page says that he is “blues with a folk noir twist” so we will go with that.

Living in its own little world RTM is usually blissfully unaware of what is, as the magazines used to say, hot and what is not this days in mainstream music. It is, therefore a surprise to turn up at the Academy 2 tonight and find it pretty packed. There are certainly more in attendance than a lot of the shows we have seen this year at this venue, so if its true that JJR are about crossover with the release of album number three - the just unleashed “Savage Heart” - then it does seem like a rare attack of good taste on the part of the British public.

It seems that after five years, Jim Jones and his merry men have become an overnight sensation.

They bill themselves as “garage rock” but that seems unnecessarily self-depreciating. JJR peddle something altogether more visceral and just a little bit more fun.

Jones is clearly influenced by the 1950s rock n roll sound, but he strolls onstage tonight looking like Elvis in 68 comeback special phase, however while the music is piano led we are not in Ben Folds Five territory, there is enough riffing here to keep the rockers, the blues fans and the punks all happy.

There beats a dark heart to these songs, so while Jones – a frontman in the classic strutting mode – is preening, he is doing so in a song called “Killing Spree” and in ”Catastrophe” which rhymes its title with the words “has to be” he has constructed possibly the best and worst line in rock all at once.

“The Savage Heart” is heavily and happily mined, and “Where Da Money Go,” “Eagle Eye Ball” and the swaggering “All About Me” are fine songs, sitting comfortably with older numbers such as “Dishonest John” and set closer “Burning Your House Down,” which takes on a much heavier and more passionate persona here, with the band really cutting loose in a manner they had previously hinted at during “Elemental.”

It is perhaps a cliché to say, but music really doesn’t sound like this anymore. Jim Jones Revue have the confidence, the swagger, the talent and the songs to bring it back. The Rock n Roll revival starts here.

GALLOWS, Feed The Rhino, Brotherhood of the Lake @Academy 2, Birmingham 17/10/12

RTM finds itself watching Plymouth’s Brotherhood of the Lake with its brother, who takes one look at them and says: “I don’t trust bands that wear hoodies onstage.” Rather odd prejudices aside, BotL are reminiscent of a less aggressive Dripback. But where the Londoners appear to be ready to smash your face in if you so much as looked like spilling their pint, the West Country mob seem ready to give you only a mild rebuke if you knocked theirs all over their new jeans. More aggression – and longer songs – needed if they are to pull this sort of music off.

Aggression is not something that Medway’s Feed The Rhino are short of. In fact, faced with a somewhat lethargic crowd response to their first few songs, vocalist Lee Tobin knows what he must do, namely remove himself from the stage and get in Brummie faces. Supporting just about every hardcore band they can find has long been a strategy FTR are doing their best to drag audience by audience with them, kicking and screaming if they have to.

That most recent album “The Burning Sons” is an improvement on the promise of the previous “Mr Red Eye” is clear and with songs as brutal as “Left For Ruins” in their arsenal, Rhino’s time can still arrive.

You can’t accuse of Gallows of not setting the bar high for this, their comeback tour. The Birmingham show is the penultimate of a mammoth 14-date trek, as a way to introduce your singer, you really cannot say fairer than that.

Of course, it helps if your new singer is pretty used to such matters and certainly Wade MacNeil, once of the rather marvelous Alexisonfire, doesn’t seem too perturbed at replacing Frank Carter after the latter made his shock exit last year.

It also helps if your new album is as good as Gallows self-titled comeback record was and is, and after things kick off with “Misery” from previous album “Grey Britain” its straight in with three from the new CD, including an aggressive “Everyone Loves You (When You’re Dead) and the lead single “Last June.”

The rest of the hour-long set is fairly even split between the three full-length releases, with MacNeil’s fake cockney sneer working a treat. The encore of “Victim Culture” and two old songs in “Abandon Ship” and “Orchestra Of Wolves” ends slightly chaotically with the frontman going crowd surfing and getting lost in the bodies, but this is, after all, essentially a punk gig, albeit one by a band who you suspect has a hardcore metal heart.

This is a comeback that doesn’t bother with baby steps and easing itself in gently, but rather runs straight for you grab you by the throat. And this version of Gallows is only just getting started.

TURBOWOLF, Black Moth, Cytota @Birmingham Institute Library, 14/10/12

The last time RTM saw Cytota, buried deep on the Rise To Remain bill in the spring, we predicted big things for them. That remains the case after our second viewing of the band. In fact, they have come on leaps and bounds in terms of confidence and stage presence. “Between Jokers And Jesters” is heavier than they have been before, while “Scars” puts us in mind of Exit Ten. The suspicion remains that, despite a somewhat lacklusture crowd response here tonight, Cytota might be ones to watch.

As are main support on this tour, Black Moth. They too suffer from a poor response from the crowd, but while it might be forgivable that this predominately stoner based audience might not have been totally into Cytota, it is less clear why Moth didn’t create a buzz.

Singer Harriet Bevan, explains that she is delighted to be here as Birmingham is the home of some of her heroes. You would guess she just meant Black Sabbath, as pretty much immediately we are transported to the 1970s in the back of some heavy and dense riffing. Debut single. “The Articulate Dead” is typical of their sound and we can expect to see a lot more of them when the magazines pick up on them.

Of all the things RTM expected to see when we turned up to watch Bristol hippie-types Turbowolf was a moshpit, but it was time to leave preconceptions at the door as the four piece are a much different proposition live than you might expect.

In fact, while the inflatable sphinx backdrop is a bit naff, it is the only thing about the 50 stunning minutes that Turbowolf give us that is. Their self-titled debut album has bothered our iPod for a while, it says much, therefore that live they manage to take things up a few notches.

Monstrously heavy, there beats a real metal heart to songs “Seven Severed Heads” and “A Rose For The Crows,” in fact the speed of a number of the songs is picked up from the album versions.

Of course, there is nothing straightforward about this particular band of 70s enthusiasts, as their choice of covers show. Lightning Bolt’s “Captain Caveman” takes on almost thrash overtones in their hands, and Jefferson Starship’s “Somebody to Love” has never sounded quite like this before.

But it is their own compositions that really showcase the bands formidable talents. “Read And Write” is perhaps the catchiest weapon in their arsenal, with its massive chorus and stabs of synth from frontman Chris Georgiadis, but new song “12 Houses,” from an album due next year, runs it close.

It is said that critics struggle with the band as their influences are too diverse. However, one thing appears to be clear. By the time that “Let’s Die” brings things to a close, mere pigeonholing is not required.

How about this instead: Turbowolf are just brilliant.