Incubate 2016 Part II: Tilburg, The Netherlands


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An Ocean Of Storms, Susanne A. Maathuis Photography

Part II:

Not many bands can say they played every single day of a four-day festival. Well, Slow Down, Molasses can! The Canadian shoegazers took to the stage at various venues over the weekend. They mostly played songs from their brand new record 100% Sunshine, which you could buy on PINK vinyl (needless to say, we did). Continue reading


Incubate Festival 2016 Part 1: Tilburg, Netherlands


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We’re back at Incubate Festival in the Dutch town of Tilburg to see all of the weird and wonderful this alternative music festival has to offer. Tilburg is in the midst of its last warm summer days and on our way to pick up a ticket we already see a lot of familiar faces. Incubate, we’ve missed you! Instead of having a week-long festival, this year Incubate has split up into three different editions (May/September/December), of which the four-day long September weekend is the biggest. Continue reading


Incubate 2016 Line Up Set, Thurston Moore, Deerhoof, YOB, Nothing, Mutilation Rites And More


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Incubate Festival, one of the essential yearly gatherings of music, art, film and other cutting edge in Europe is back in 2016. Continue reading


With The Dead – With The Dead


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Dorrian. Bagshaw. Greening. One band. Shall we just stop now?…

Given the press surrounding the marriage of ex-Electric Wizard (and please can we not forget Ramesses?!) members to Rise Above founder Lee Dorrian, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re about to experience our own version of the mid-90s East-West Rap war. So let’s forget all that nonsense and focus on Doom supergroup With The Dead’s eponymous debut album.

With The Dead (Rise Above) ploughs a similar furrow to their West Country rivals yet delivers a filthy edge to whirling vocals and Tim Bagshaw’s riffs which energises the sound somewhat, and lifts it above that over-trodden path. The crushing riff of opener ‘Crown of Burning Stars’ is lightened ever so slightly by a slow groove, slightly fuzzed production and a Psych effect to Dorrian’s bellow which doesn’t dilute its lascivious, malevolent sneer. The ensuing ‘The Cross’ possesses a lively yet portentous structure, sonorous rhythms performing a lazy American smooth with the mind, the groove almost catching but never testing the gravitas.

Whilst the occasionally bloated ‘Nephthys’ falls into the same stodgy moss as Witchsorrow, a Sludge mentality gives the titanic, crawling ‘Living With The Dead’ an early fire: first flattening with oscillating guitars and roars, then dropping to a gentle, sparing rhythm. The explosion is coming however, and in true Hammer Horror-drenched fashion: the hypnotic yet mournful crush swaddling the listener in a diseased cocoon. The head-nodding, slow rut of ‘I Am The Virus’ is decorated with cosmic effects and more cavernous roars, those brief flashes of lead and hulking drums enlivening some rather clunky lyrics. In an unbearably tense finale the crushing weight of closer ‘Screams From My Own Grave’ gradually imbues the sense of claustrophobic, crawling terror that is so obviously the intention.

With The Dead is yet another 2015 Doom album that won’t win prizes for originality, and one wonders how much further this particular twig of the branch has left to grow. It’s an album that does, however, possess enough variance, power, identity and nefarious intent to be a worthy addition to the annals.

7.0/10.0

PAUL QUINN


Ramesses – Misanthropic Alchemy


Ramesses-Misanthropic-Alchemy-Reissue-ArtworkRamesses is a British doom/sludge trio consisting of guitarist Tim Bagshaw (ex-Electric Wizard), drummer Mark Greening (Electric Wizard) and vocalist/bassist Adam Richardson (ex-Lord of Putrefaction). Unfortunately Ramesses has been put on hold. Bagshaw moved to the US to form Serpentine Path with the guys from Unearthly Trance, and Greening rejoined Electric Wizard, leaving Richardson out in the cold. Thankfully Ritual Productions decided to reissue debut full length Misanthropic Alchemy for those who just can’t get enough. This exhausting 2-disc set spans over two dominating hours and includes MA on the first disc. The second is made up of the We Will Lead You To Glorious Times EP, the Tomb EP and Glorious Dead’ from the split with Unearthly Trance.Continue reading