ALL ABOUT THE ROCK REVIEW OF THE MANCHESTER SHOW!!!

Here is a killer review of the Orange Goblin show at Manchester’s Sound Control.

“Future Noise Presents: Bastard Of The Skies, Jucifer, GRIFTER and Orange Goblin @ Soundcontrol

Wednesday 11th April 2012 at Sound Control, Manchester.

Live Review by Chris Key

A truly impressive set of bands was due to lineup at Sound Control, Manchester and us guys at AATR were positively salivating at the prospect of a serious sludge metal and classic metal fest! Craig our resident interviewer was on his way down to the venue in anticipation of meeting the some of the nights mighty metal heroes to be, the videos of which can be seen here!!

Dave of Future-Sound let Craig and Andy in for the first round of interviews, Andy soon set up shop in the basement (a cold one may i add!) and we welcomed Bastard Of The Skies shortly followed by Gazelle Amber Valentine from Jucifer. Once the equipment and lighting was in place Craig went straight to business. A short time later Ant then interviewed Grifter & three members of Orange Goblin as the domineering front man was negotiating with some of the establishments toilet facilities. Photos and a handful of questions with each band were soon over and then it was back to HQ for refreshments prior to doors opening.

The night started out like all good nights, a quick trip to the place that is fast becoming the AATR office, The Salisbury rock pub, Manchester.

After we sunk a few pints of the golden nectar!! After the usual “what time is it?” “crap!! Down the lager” scenario, we hot footed it to Sound Control to get in prime position for what was due to be a night of musical treats, with varying degrees of influences and styles thrown into the metal melting pot!!

So for the curious of you out there, a little bit of background on the bands on the setlist.

Bastard Of The Skies: “Hailing from Blackburn, Lancashire, Bastard Of The Skies formed at the beginning of 2006 to play heavy, loud sludge rock.

Since then the band have bludgeoned audiences across the UK along with bands such as Baroness, Kylesa, Today Is The Day, Jucifer, Black Sun, Truckfighters, The Freezing Fog, Volition, Bersekowitz, Apes Fight Back, Nightmare Visions, They Are Cowards, White Fang, Sonic Lord, The Gods Of Hellfire, Larkin, The Sontanan Experiment, Grimpen Mire, Alunah and many more.”

Jucifer: “is a two piece sludge metal band signed to Relapse Records. The band’s members include Gazelle Amber Valentine on lead guitar and vocals, and her husband Edgar Livengood on drums. They travel in an RV and are “nomadic in nature”, preferring to tour constantly, living in their tour vehicle, rather than following the normal practice of album release/tour/time at home. Jucifer is notable for the extreme volume at which they perform, and the gigantic wall of amplification used for Valentine’s guitar, as well as the dichotomy that has existed between much of the recorded material and their live shows.”

Grifter: “Formed in 2003 Grifter have been tearing up the asphalt round Britain and playing kick ass gig all over this sceptered isle.” Simple as that really!!

and… Orange Goblin: “Inspired by the gods of hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock and underground extremity, from Sabbath, Motörhead and Thin Lizzy through to Celtic Frost, Danzig and Black Flag, Orange Goblin were initially seen as major contenders amid the mid-90s stoner rock explosion, but it soon became apparent that this band had much more up their collective wizard’s sleeve than red-eyed boogie and flapping flares.”

Now we’ve done the public service bit, let’s get back to reminiscing about the gig! The crowd was filling up, in this intimate, clean and super cool venue, filling up a lot quicker than gigs of this size would ordinarily, there was a buzz!! First on would be Blackburn lads (& lady) Bastard Of The Skies. Describing their music as like “A soundtrack to drowning in your own s**te” the guys went hell for leather delivering some uncompromising hard-hitting sludge-metal. The band made an instant connection with the crowd and belied their position as fourth on the lineup. A set that was full of aggression and constant energy and attack on the guitar, when the band loped off the stage I was left wanting to explore all of their material.

Next up was Jucifer. Jucifer have very much defined the sludge-metal genre. With a very unique selling point and dynamic within the band, they are a fearsome husband and wife metal combo of epic proportions! With a frontwoman with one of the best names in metal Gazelle Amber Valentine the scene was set for an intriguing set. Gazelle has a kind of devilish good looks and drummer Edgar Livengood is a hairy animal thrashing away manically on the drums. The set was quite progressive in its nature with one sludge-metal dirge melting into the next. The fantastic rock poses struck by Gazelle drew constant attention making for a fantastic spectacle. They also received good support from the crowd who seemed more than happy to join them as they embarked on some lengthy sludge-metal tracks.

After hearing great things about Plymouth based rockers Grifter and having a massive laugh with the guys backstage, we were right behind the guys with their high energy classic, balls out rock and roll sounds. Bouncing onto the stage, Grifter were greeted like kings and immediately set the crowd alight with gorgeous guitar licks and riffs with a stomping bluesy rocky feel!! The special thing about Grifter is they have the talent and sound to make everyone in the room feel instantly amazing and WISH they could be that rock star!! Thoroughly looking forward to getting our hands on some full length kick ass album material really soon.

After Grifter had positively ripped up the stage it was up to Orange Goblin to literally dismantle the place with their patented Stoner Metal.

Having toured around the world and support absolutely massive names on the metal scene such as Down and Queens Of The Stone Age these guys were bound to be pros. They took to the stage, instantly owning the crowd. Lead singer and man mountain Ben Ward was an absolute party animal and made sure he connected with the crowd in one way or another. Whether it was his bear-like arms reaching out to embrace the now frenzied crowd, or taking a swig of much needed water and spraying it around, he interacted! The riffs were absolutely insanely brilliantly. Guitarist Joe Hoare was as Ben described “A riff machine.” He started with a killer riff that hooked you, then proceeded to show you he had about 10 different variations of this riff, all awesome, all memorable, meaty and metal as f**k.

The night was a showcase of all things good about independant gig nights, a truly amazing and interesting collection of rockers who were all as cool as you like and all executed with the minimal of fuss, it was just all about the music. The metal was king and that is after all, what really matters!!

8 out of 10″

http://www.allabouttherock.co.uk/index.php/reviews/gigs/234-orange-goblin-soundcontrol

Posted by Ollie on April 17th, 2012