Sunday, September 30, 2012

What went down this past week

The past week and a bit has been a busy one to say the least but I’ll get through some of the best points quickly. It kicked off last Sunday when the mighty Hexis played in Dublin, playing a seriously devastating set along with touring mates This Gift is a Curse. I interviewed the five guys early on in the day, which should hopefully be online tomorrow, or in the coming days, on CVLT Nation.

On Tuesday, I went over to London to witness some history – Nasum’s only UK show on their farewell tour. Needless to say, it was something special. Nasum are probably my favourite grindcore band, in fact they were the band that introduced me to grind so finally getting to hear tracks like ‘Inhale/Exhale’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Closer to the End’ (I could go on and on) was amazing. Shane Embury (from Napalm Death, in case you’re a bit slow) joined them to play bass for ‘The Masked Face’, which was a nice touch. This was a memorable night to say the least. Black Breath and Dripback supported, the former were fairly mediocre and the latter didn’t do anything for me but that’s neither here nor there.

Here's a really shit photo I took of Nasum
Roll on Thursday then for a double header of gigs. Dutch atmospheric black metallers Urfaust were in town for their set at Dublin Doom Days on Friday but played an “acoustic” show downstairs in Bruxelles. It was a hit and miss show. Firstly, it wasn’t acoustic as advertised, more like a regular Urfaust gig but without a full drum kit. It was also Arthur’s Day so the rest of Bruxelles was packed and noisy, which definitely hampered the atmosphere. The gig was originally meant to take place in the basement of Into The Void Records, which would have been so much better. It’s a tiny little room where the shop used to hold intimate acoustic shows, most notably Patrick Walker last year.

Here's another shit photo, this time of Urfaust
After Urfaust, the next destination was the Button Factory for OM. Dead Skeletons were originally headlining the venue that night but poor sales meant their gig was merged with OM, who were initially booked for The Twisted Pepper. This caused some problems. I got in for about the last 20 minutes of Dead Skeletons, who weren’t my bag at all, actually they were pretty boring, but their set was shortened because of the gig merge. OM’s set was also shortened, playing less than an hour, but what they did play were phenomenal, particularly ‘State of Non-Return’. These set time cuts apparently led to some quarrels from Dead Skeletons with OM and the promoter. There was a strict curfew too for 11pm and as we were leaving the usual night club crowd were already filing in, the venue must have been anxious to get those out on the beer for Arthur’s Day inside the club. When I left the venue there was a group of young lads in the queue setting fire to a cardboard box, y’know… for the craic. Ah, Dublin. So Thursday was a mixed bag to say the least.

But Friday was the continuation of a September tradition – Dublin Doom Day. Except this year was Doom Days, with the festival expanded to two days. Every year is fantastic and always a gig highlight of the year and this was no exception. You’ll be able read my full review soon but the standouts of Friday were The Wounded Kings first and foremost and Urfaust coming in second. Solstice stole the show on Saturday but Hour of 13 killed it too and Pantheist were great.  I also had the pleasure of interviewing Hour of 13 on Saturday afternoon, Chad Davis and Phil Swanson are two of the nicest dudes you could hope to meet, so that’s always a plus.

So this hasn’t been a live review or anything like that, just an update on what was a fantastic week. October is upon us so 2012 really is flying by quickly but there are still some amazing shows coming up too.

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