Monday, September 20, 2010

Is Alive & Kicking in 2010...

Posted by Ewenique B at 7:32 AM

Monday, October 23, 2006

Review

Review of MALEFICE / SANZEN / XMAs LIGHTS / GEHENNA @ The Bullingdon, taken from Nightshift Magazine

A popular excuse for the current stale state of the metal scene is its perpetuation of rampantly codified behaviour, from fans and artist alike. Well you can check your pretensions at the door, as tonight is resolutely about taking metal back to its fundamentals. The opening salvo is fired by Bicester's Gehenna, who eschew traditional edifice in favour of Will Haven's do-not-pass-go spaz outs. They do come down firmly in the hardcore camp, but while we sit here splitting hairs, these guys split skulls. Trying even harder to break the mould are locals Xmas Lights, who suffer immensely through a terrible mix and lack of bass player to emerge triumphant. Initially these "Mars Voltas of metal" are lost in a quagmire of progression, where moments of sublime musicianship are squandered by vocal histrionics. But they pull the proverbial cat out of the bag with lyrical gems like "Let's go shopping in Baghdad, I've heard it's good this time of year", to emerge as Oxford's answer to the Locust.
If the Bully crowd are not quite ready for Xmas Lights, they certainly react well to being completely poleaxed by Sanzen. Their blend of hardcore metal and rock and roll excess goes down a treat, much like chugging a pint of Refused while some evil agent of darkness forces another of Fear Factory down your throat at the same time. Jon Eley's vocals are the most powerful so far tonight and he zooms around the venue, seemingly having read Nailbomb's "How To Be A Lead Singer" very, very recently. The military style assault reaches its logical conclusion with headliners Malefice, undoubtedly the most metal band of the evening and accordingly not short on precision. They take Sepultura's bottom heavy riffage to monolithic proportions and then make a gallant effort on Dillinger Escape Plan's dynamics, all the while retaining a devoutly traditional edge. So much so that it looks like the only thing preventing Malefice's ascent to metal superstardom may be the inability to pronounce their name.

Matt Bayliss

Posted by Dazzler at 3:51 AM