Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
It has become accepted that Slipknot can fill venues like the Hydro. However, when you sit down and think about it, that fact is insane. 9 masked men wearing boiler suits and playing pretty extreme metal, should not be coming close to filling places like this. Yet, here we are.
Continue reading “Live Review: Slipknot w/ Korn and King 810”
Machine Head are having one hell of a year. Their Killers and Kings tour, where they hit up places in the UK they hadn’t been in a long time and played venues they were too big for 15 years ago, led to some of the best live shows the UK has ever seen. While their latest album, Bloodstone & Diamonds, saw a return to form, after the slightly patchy, Unto the Locust. Now they are out on tour in support of said album and sadly back in the kind of venues you expect to see one of the UK’s favourite metal bands in. Although, I have to admit, I really hate the O2 Academy in Glasgow.
Continue reading “Live Review: Machine Head w/ Darkest Hour and Heart of a Coward”
There aren’t going to be many bills that can compete with just how metal Behemoth’s current touring party is and therefore, it is nice to see them playing a venue the size of Glasgow’s O2 ABC. The beer might be overpriced and it’s not actually sold out, but it show’s that extreme metal doesn’t have to exist solely in the underground.
Continue reading “Behemoth w/ Decapitated, Grand Magus and Winterfylleth.”
Hacktivist are beginning to make a habit of coming to Electric Circus, with this being their second performance here within a year. Therefore, it’s kind of strange that tonight seems to actually see a smaller crowd come out for the Milton Keynes band. Although the lack of new material and the fact it’s a Wednesday night might have also played into that.
Continue reading “Hacktivist w/ Dead Harts and The One Hundred”
So on Friday I nipped down to Caberet Voltaire in Edinburgh on a whim, to check out a few local bands. I came into this gig with exactly zero knowledge of any of these bands, except for the description on the Cab Vol website and came away very pleasantly surprised, as all four bands put on a great show. Not bad for a fiver.
Having dropped the best album of their career, Feed the Rhino made the decision to hold off on starting their UK tour. Instead, they waited a few months before rolling into Glasgow with their electrifying live show.
Continue reading “Feed the Rhino w/ Night Verses and Baby Godzilla at Ivory Blacks, 21/10/2014”
Heights are dead. Not in the sense that Alex Monty and co have actually keeled over and slipped off their mortal coil, but in the sense that the band are saying goodbye. Anyone who has paid attention to my blogs for the last few years, will be well aware that I have a great deal of affection for this band. In a UK where there are more hardcore bands than ever before, they stood out as something a bit special and I am genuinely gutted to see them go. However, the opportunity to go and see them live one last time – they played their last ever show in London last night and were in Glasgow on Saturday – was something I wasn’t going to miss.
Continue reading “Heights w/ Echoes, Swallows and Flakes at Classic Grand, Glasgow, 4/10/14”
Some bands are made to play small dingy clubs, others are meant to fill arenas. While I’m sure Nine Inch Nails would destroy your average club, their set at the Glasgow Hydro shows that they are very much in the later camp. It was hardly a surprise to see Trent Reznor return to the Nine Inch Nails model, after taking several years out on hiatus during which he won an Oscar, but the return of the band that made the man was still greeted with joy by fans. Nine Inch Nails are a band that transcend genres, being as equally loved by fans of Joy Division and Depeche Mode as they are fans of Slayer and Black Flag.
Package tours are becoming more and more common, but few this year are likely to elicit the response that the announcement of Trivium and Killswitch Engage taking to the road together did. These two metal titans have been on redemptive paths in the last few years. Killswitch reuniting with Jesse Leach and remembering how to kick ass (although I was actually a Howard fan) and Trivium slowly rebuilding their damaged reputation and fighting back up to the top of the metal ladder (which they should have been on top of a long time ago.)
The fact that Skindred aren’t the biggest band in the world right now is a tragedy. However, it is reassuring to look out over the Glasgow ABC and see that while it isn’t sold out, they have pulled one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen them play to outside of festival bills. Maybe the message is finally getting out there about these incredible performers.
Continue reading “Skindred w/ SOiL and Viza. 27th January 2014 at Glasgow O2 ABC.”
Ramblings About Wrestling 