No Time Like The Present opens with upbeat foot-tapper ‘The Hat’; a story of gigging here, there and everywhere told in a cheeky Ian Drury-esque vein; smiling through not simply the trials of life but more so the death sentence of using Ryanair and then laughing riotously about it all with new best friends for life who’ll only be so for the night of a show. Not only lyrically, the vibe is caught in the music too; a feel of looking out of a car window at a never before seen fields, tired and thinking of the previous night while heading down a new stretch of motorway equally energized about the potentially likewise one to come.
Music
Lost in Memories, Lost in Grief: Welcome to Zen Metal
If bands were alcoholic beverages My Silent Wake’s latest outing Lost in Memories, Lost in Grief would be a fine vintage of red: subtle, yet full bodied with a woody/smoky aftertaste, the grapes having been specifically picked from a glorious vineyard somewhere in the Tuscany region.
Lost in Memories, Lost in Grief doesn’t need to Continue reading
Zpangled Henz: A Punk As F**k Tour De Force
Zpangled Henz self-titled four-track EP rips an even bigger hole than the massive one left by the cell-phone-recorded-demo of last year.
Exploding with a vibe similar Continue reading
T.A.T. (There’s Always Time)
T.A.T. (There’s Always Time)’s debut EP Breathe prowls into life with the track of the same name; darkly moody and Bauhaus-esque in tone it stalks like a cold shadow carrying a jagged-edged knife. Sharon Watts—who vocally touches on Polystyrene-levels of pitch and passion—sings of escaping a coercive relationship with a conviction leaving no doubt the lyrics come from experience; a feeling of personality erosion and suffocation captured perfectly in the focus and obsessive mantra of Breathe that’s sung in the name of believing in the self to ride out the storm of anxiety the manipulative obsessive can force to run rampant in the innocent. Continue reading
Paying Homage to Hendrix via HazeHound’s Macrodose
Info on HazeHound is thin on the ground. Other than a bandcamp account no online presence can be found; but don’t let that stop Macrodose being an album of monumental proportions.
Beyond short opener ‘Hell is real’—a track feeling very much lifted from a 60’s sci-fi movie—title track ‘Macrodose’ shifts the album into its overall groove: an utterly mind blowing amalgamation of Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Clutch and Radio Moscow. Continue reading
Chilling with the Rampaging Bahboon’s Thunder Ape
Bahboon’s Thunder Ape is a release of outstanding proportions; marking the Japanese band’s ten year anniversary there’s an instant relationship to be found with the album due to the deep rooted cohesion in its flow; while simultaneously every turn along the way expands the river’s banks, rises from the waters with religious purpose to push the spire on the Church of stoner ever higher and wider. Continue reading
Just For the Hell of It! Punk Times Bristol Nov 2023
One thing that doesn’t go unmissed by me when writing about Bristol’s punk scene is that in claiming so many bands are so good there’s risk of it sounding like Continue reading
Reviewing Warrior Pope’s Papal Bull-Shit: Live at the Louisiana
Warrior Pope’s performance at the Chelsea Inn was something to behold. Vocalist / trombonist David Burke bringing a charisma to the stage the like of which rarely witnessed and is perhaps most reminiscent of Continue reading
Down with Split Dogs at Dean Lane
When first heading to punk gigs in Bristol and following the relevant social media, I fast became aware of a buzz around local band Split Dogs.
Such was that buzz my first attempt to see them live ended in failure when arriving at The Plough only to find a long line-up outside of people waiting for others to leave—which was unlikely—so they could get in.
It wasn’t until some time later that I managed to catch them at the Chelsea Inn. There they delivered a set of slick frenetic punk exploding with an energy knowing no bounds, producing so much joyous sweat the flood warning for Bristol seen earlier in the day online and making no sense at the time—the weather was fine—suddenly did in bounds. Continue reading
SLOTH
Into ‘Lucifer’s Doorway’ suggests Hell has frozen over in awe of the complexities that follow:
‘Evil Hand’ has a doom sound rooted in the 70s that equally sounds fresh as a daisy and sometimes surprisingly light as a feather to boot, elevated not only by the vocals sitting eerily perfect at the top of the music, but also the intricate solos that hedonistically wind through the epic and expansive melodies to create a compelling and contemplative swirl. Continue reading
N. P. Ryan 