Tag Archives: Canada

‘Of Ghosts and Gods Tour, 2016’: Kataklysm, Septic Flesh, Aborted. Manchester Soundcontrol 18-02-2016

Posted by Fraggle on

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When a tour like this rolls round, you’d be foolish not to grab a ticket and get along to it. Two of Death Metal’s most titanic bands in the past decade or so along with another Symphonic Mediterranean based Death Metal band in a small venue which has great acoustics and is easily accessible is a night you do not want to miss out on and the fact that Aborted were on the bill sealed the deal for me.

My first encounter with Aborted and Kataklysm was back in 2007 when they played Damnation Festival 2007 up in Leeds and needless to say, it was fantastic! Since then, I have always tried to catch Aborted whenever I can and it seems like when they are in town, Kataklysm aren’t usually far behind or they play the following year.

Getting to the venue for doors at 6:30, the first stop was the merch table manned by Sven, the charismatic and commanding frontman for Aborted and after forking over some of my cash for a new shirt and then hitting the bar for Red Stripe, I was all set. I was still amazed with the fact that they were the opening act (personally, I saw them as a headliner but ah well!) but when the opening music from the film “Hellraiser” was used for their walk out, a quick look around the venue, seeing it fairly packed out for the opening act, all that went out the window – only brutality mattered.

And brutal it was. The grindcore tainted death metal slammed into you like a jackhammer and didn’t stop. Pummeling with harsh vocals, blasting drums and intense guitar and bass, everything was spot on as you would expect from the long standing five piece. Recent works such as Necrotic Manifesto and Termination Redux went down a storm with the crowd, as did the relentless onslaught of brutal riffery and sublime lead work but the most well received part was the talk of a new album either coming in April, or work beginning on it in April. Either way, I am eagerly anticipating this.

Up next after a brief changeover were Greece’s Septic Flesh. Greece has a rich history for extreme metal bands, the most notable riding the wave of interest being Rotting Christ and a lot of people were eagerly anticipating this act.

Opening up their set, you could tell the symphonic element was a key component to their sound as it really augmented the death metal beneath it. With a grand feel about them and a decent tone too, they delivered the goods. I don’t know much about them so I cannot really say which tracks went down a storm and so on, but the crowd loved it. Interacting well with the crowd, the frontman had a good stage presence and the music was filled with blasts and solid death metal grooves under the dramatic and sinister symphonic overtures, the latter of which I found enjoyable and found myself wondering if a venue with better suited acoustics to this kind of music would make them sound phenomenal. Their final song, “Prometheus” really sparked the crowd after the dedication to the bands and those in attendance and it did have a real epic feel to it and maybe it may be worth investigating this group more, but to me, as good as they were in the live setting, they didn’t sit right on the bill for me and personally, I feel they should have opened.

With those down and more booze in me, it was time for the headliners. Kataklysm, hailing from the United States of Canada (according to Septic Flesh’s frontman) are a band who really need no introduction.

From the off, the solid groove driven brutal death metal hit hard and didn’t relent in the slightest. Tight and precise, it was excellently delivered and the band the majority of those in attendance were there to see were received as expected. Breaching the Asylum opened the proceedings and from there, it just rolled through. With tracks spanning their discography for the most part, there wasn’t a song which wasn’t happily lapped up. Rarely played Open Scar’s went down a storm whilst crowd favorite Crippled and Broken tore the place a new one setting up an encore of Iron Will and Elevate to round off a storming live performance.

By the end of the night I was a bit bruised but not as crippled and broken as I would have expected to be, but one can only put that down to Aborted opening the show and not closing it!

The ‘Of Ghosts And Gods Tour’ is one of those special tours which comes by every now and then and it is well worth trying to catch it, after all, where else can you find three of the most in form Death Metal bands of the moment on the same bill? Symphonic, Groove, pounding, brutal… It was an enjoyable night for all who went!

(Fraggle)

Seer – “Volume 1 & 2” (Art Of Propaganda)

Posted by Fraggle on

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Seer are a doom band with some serious sludge and psychedelic influences. Hailing from the Pacific coast of Canada, the sound the guys come out with is just as massive as the expanse they hail from. A two-part release, Volume 1 & 2 promises a surreal journey through the vast expanse with some serious sonic landscapes to traverse and many challenges to whether ranging from intense to heavy to ominous and discomforting. Perhaps named in tribute to the guys who started it all, Black Sabbath, Seer are certainly ready to unleash something special and with a raft of guest musicians to make this possible, we can only hope the two parter makes one complete piece.

Opening up with “Glimmervoid”, a wall of colossal sounding riffs backed up with some booming bass kicks things off and the slightly hazy, spaced out vocal delivery gives it a real ominous and surreal edge. Shifting into a fantastic groove laden section, the vocals get harsher, taking a real sludge-like edge to them before it quickly slips into the powerfully delivered chorus. The ‘bouncy’ feeling riff with a great tone and clean vocals once again come in, changing the pace slightly, and this approach continues throughout the track, slipping from slow paced to thick and heavy groove, clean and trippy singing to real harsh roars. It’s a simple exploit of dynamics, but it works fantastically. As the track continues, it gets heavier and there are some wonderful sounding riff sections and some real heavy pounding moments, all leading up to a dramatic and intensely heavy ending which eases off into some howling feedback to draw the track to a close.

“Hive Mind” is a steady paced, dissonant feeling and huge sounding track. With a melodic lead over a pulsing drone-like rhythm, it has a hypnotic quality to it. The clean hazy vocals return and as they float across the riffs, the rich and booming bass really shines, acting almost as a counter melody to the vocal progression. Guitar-wise, it sounds similar to Sleep’s ‘Dopesmoker’ with the harsh and powerful droning tone and it certainly hits like it in parts – a huge wall of distorted noise and roared vocals near the mid-section is both captivating and intimidating, very similar to Conan in some ways. Some real filthy riffs round the 4:30 mark lead into a slick solo which brings in a frantic feel which in turn leads to more feedback which acts as the curtain call for part 1 of the release.

The second part, “Volume 2” opens up with “Cosmic Ghost”. With some samples of wind blowing over a vast empty expanse backing up a clean acoustic guitar which has some droning to it, it has a real atmospheric feel to it. The vocals are cleanly delivered with that spaced out edge once again. The added string sections add an extra edge and the spaced out chanting like vocals of the slightly droning acoustic guitar really creates a relaxing feel, even as the distortion subtly begins to creep in halfway through. As the distortion grows, the slow and steady pace with acoustic layering remains, keeping it more restrained than the previous tracks.

“Haunter” opens up with a Sleep styled riff before really kicking in. Massive sounding and almost crushing in the delivery, the thunderous pounding just hammers away at a mesmerizing pace. The hazy vocals are layered just behind the pounding musical onslaught, almost lost in the noise and this mixing trick works to good effect, making you fully immerse yourself in the sonic landscape the track has created just to hear it. Luring you in and taking hold, it puts you under its spell, smothering you with the distortion and the wild almost atonal guitar solo before going into a harmonized riff section which acts as a slight reprieve before it goes more atonal and even heavier, pummeling you with harshness which persists until the end.

“Antibody” is the penultimate track and it has a more Black Sabbath feel to its intro riff. With more of a kick to it but still retaining the heavier edge of Haunter, it powers along with a great headbanging pace, bringing some up-tempo doom styled riffery with some great vocal harsh moments in the right places to really kick it in. With more precise and dissonant sounding leads over thundering rhythms, it embodies chaos whilst still having a solid groove and it sets up for the closing track quite well. “Aeons” brings a dramatic sounding close to the album. Howling wind samples with some atonal sounding chords and bass bring the track slowly in, almost mimicking a bell tolling. Slowly progressing, it has a very unsettling feel to it and this persists throughout. Some small melodic melody lines and heavily effects-laden vocals fade in an out, toying with the listener and keeping them on edge, anticipating the explosion of noise. Except this explosion doesn’t come. Instead it stays like this before slowly trailing off into silence, giving a strange and uneasy end to a strange album.

Overall, “Volume 1 & 2” is a fascinating release. The intensely heavy opening double of Volume 1 brings the intensity and despite some slight dips into this sound in “Volume 2”, the later quadruplet of tracks are more atmospheric and bring a different kind of intensity. One favours noise whilst two favours toying with the senses. Starting off with a harsh and heavy variant of sludge-laden doom, it evolves into a full on psychedelic sludge-doom hybrid which keeps you under its spell for the whole duration of the album. Head on into the Glimmervoid and follow the Seer.

(7/10 Fraggle)

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