If you call your band Skull Fist you should really have a certain obligation towards your audience.  That band needs to play music as ridiculously brutal as the name, but with just that touch of cheese.  It’s a name that shouldn’t take itself too seriously, sadly Chasing The Dream fails to hit those goals.
Bastions – Bedfellows: The Bastard Son
British hardcore gang Bastions are two albums into their career and appear to provide something different from the gang of Gallows inspired bands currently on the market.  Rather than being obsessed with being fast and brutal, this is a group that infuse their hardcore with emotion, in a style that is very similar to the likes of Touche Amore (although featuring less melody) and Converge.  Their latest release is an EP by the name of Bedfellows: The Bastard Son.
Download Announcement… I’ve lost count on how many it is.
As I’m an equal opportunities festival man, I shall be continuing to talk about the Download line-up. Â It’s currently much more fleshed out than the Soni line-up and yesterday we got a nice bumper batch of bands to add to an already very strong group, even if I still think the headliners are pretty weak. Â So here’s my round up of what I think.
Continue reading “Download Announcement… I’ve lost count on how many it is.”
Dripback – Inhaling the Ashes
Opening by roaring “come on you cunts” is a great way to get anyone’s attention, following that up with a collection of six angry angry songs is a good way to make sure people stick around .  That’s exactly what Dripback do on their EP, Inhaling the Ashes.
Iced Earth – Plagues of Babylon
The revolving door that is Iced Earth has been doing it’s thing once again and Plagues of Babylon, which was only released around a week ago, already features an ex member, drummer Raphael Saini, who admittedly was only working on a short term basis until they found a full time replacement for Brent Smedley.  It’s also the first album for bassist Luke Appleton and the eleventh that Jon Schaffer’s heavy metal baby have released, on which he is the only permanent fixture.
Weekly Playlist 13/1/2014
So the holidays are well and truly over and we are now entering 2014, where we have a whole host of excitement ahead of us. Â With the dawn of the new year I am now determined that I will actually post a playlist every week, so here is the first, where I am focusing on bands we can expect new material from in the coming year. Â My first review of the year should also be up later today.
Sonisphere Announcement 3
So Sonisphere have begun the process of fleshing out their undercard, which let’s face it, is really the best part of any festival.  As anyone who reads regularly (do those people exist?  I have no idea) will know, I have a ticket to this festival already so I have a slight (or possibly large) personal investment in it being good. So let’s see what they’ve given me.
American Hustle
“Some of these events are true”.  The words that open American Hustle are a fair reflection of the liberties this film has taken with the story of the Abscam con.  Directed by David S. Russell and seen by him as the spiritual third part of a trilogy that also includes The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle see’s the return of many of the stars who graced those previous efforts and much like those films, is well on it’s way to sweeping up this awards season.
Top 5 gigs of 2013
So to continue my end of year round ups we have the top five gigs (that I attended, can’t really give my opinion on ones I wasn’t at) from this year.
Top 5 Films of 2013
So with albums down, I now move onto films.  I’m only going to do a top 5, mainly because I haven’t been reviewing throughout the whole year.  The list only includes post award season films.  With the thought being that you can find a million sources online to tell you why you should go see Lincoln etc.  I also don’t think many of them would make the list anyway.Â
