Arrive in Camden and meet the boys from Robot (A) and
First Process Church Of Mars.
Get a drink.
First band of the day is at the Underworld - Lifer
These guys come on and start the day off with slabs of hate
filled sludge that is loud and furious. Inbetween the singer
telling us they are a "bunch of Welsh cunts" we are told that
it is the new guitarists 2nd gig. Stood at the side of the stage quietly
but played wave after wave after wave of sonic destruction.
Saw the singer afterwards and he told me they had had no sleep since
the day before and spent the night in their van. Nice one!
Get a drink.
War Wolf were on next and they should of been higher up
in the running order. Hardcore doom played with full intensity
and passion. I though had seen the guitarist/singer before.
Bumped into him later on that day - he is also in Sea Bastard
who were great at last years Desertfest. War Wolf like short
songs that attack and mangle your ear drums. One of the fastest
bands of the day and were great.
Get a drink.
Run over to The Electric Ballroom to see Black Rainbows.
This was worth the admission price alone. Powerful, driving
psych stoner which sounded all the better because of the Ballrooms
sound system that could actually cope with the vast volume these guys
cranked out. Their excellent set was rounded of with an insanely great
version of "Black To Comm" which was simply the best MC5 cover
version that I have ever heard.
Get a drink.
Stay there for Lonely Kamel. Never heard these guys before
but it was a real treat of stoner grooviness.
The band really got the crowd going and I made a mental note to track
down the albums. According to those who know about such things,
the version of "Grim Reefer" was note perfect and awesome.
Refuse a drink - getting a bit wobbly!
Run like a bastard to see the start of Wolfs Head at the Black
Heart. In this tiny venue, Wolfs Head seen an unstoppable force of nature
mixing elements of almost black metal with hardcore. Special mention must
go to the drummer. He produced the best drum sound I have heard in a
long time - sounded like a machine gun being fired in your ears.
Get a drink.
Radio Moscow back at the Ballroom. As always they were good
with the guitar player in full Hendrix/Marino mode but I kinda got the
feeling that the (really fantastic) solos were thought up first and then the
songs fitted around them.
Get a drink/refuse ..... not quite sure!
Next up were Elder. Lots of pounding riffs and hooks, great song
writing and real driving attitude.
Left after a bit to check out the Underworld. Eurostar had fucked up the
arrival of Graves At Sea & Sourvein and everything was about a hour late.
I think we saw 10 minutes of Graves At Sea but still am not sure!
Get a drink.
Back to the Ballroom for Church Of Misery.
Never seen these guys before and was plenty hyped for this.
They looked cool - they looked serious - they performed old
and new material with an intense manic energy ......... and they sucked.
They sucked because some cunt of a soundman totally lost the
guitar in the mix, resulting in a very bass heavy sound which made the
guitar player looking like he was miming, such was the lack of power
coming through the P.A.
A real shame - let's hope they return to these shores with a new engineer!
Boris more than made up for my disappointment by playing a set of
such gigantic and epic sound that people left at the end looking
stunned and dazed.
 |
| Picture copyright Giant Robot. I was too pissed to work my phone! |
controlled feedback rumbled deep in my stomach and made an insane
grin that stayed on for the whole set. Drawing from the Heavy Rocks album
was always going to be a winner but the last 2 new songs just blew me
away. 15-17? minutes long was an epic that started off with delicate
picked notes that rang into silence and, oh so slowly, built up into
something that could only be described as a cross of Floyd, Sabbath,
The Melvins, Electric Wizard and Sgt Pepper era Beatles.
I went happily home then, trying not to fall asleep on the train
and miss my stop. Roll on Desertfest 2015 who have already
confirmed the mighty Sleep!
Pretty sure you had more drinks than that :) sweet review though. It's worth noting COM seemed to be playing all their songs at a lower tempo than on record too which didn't necessarily help their sound.
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