Cambridge Zombiegeddon

Photoset from Orange Goblin @ Junction

Last month rockers in Cambridge were spoilt rotten by the appearance of Black Label Society at the Corn Exchange. To be fair, this city does get its fair share of hard rock, but it isn’t often you get bands who aren’t Saxon or Motorhead. Three months ago Orange Goblin were celebrating their 15th anniversary at their annual shindig in London, and here we are in March with what could be the the remnants of last years celebrations or a sneak peek at the rumoured new material.

Cambridge’s Unit Nine (2.5/5) were on too early for me to really catch their whole set of uptempo Down influenced hard rock. The 5-piece concentrate too much on making sure they hit all the rights notes that there is little interaction between them and the audience, which inevitably make the small crowd thin out and start chatting amongst themselves. “Just because you are here for the other bands, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourselves” shouts singer Matt Redgrave at the end of track “I Fall”, challenging the crowd for a bit of feedback. In their favour, Unit Nine have much more in common with the headliners than the band that would come onstage next.

Imicus (1/5) take the stage to a crowd that is still pretty small for such a large room. The band, who were one of OneMetal’s “6 upcoming metal bands to watch in 2010”, aren’t one of the ones to watch in 2011 if you judge them by this performance. Although they have played at the Bulldog Bash, I am struggling to find a reason why they should be alongside the beer and biker rock that this evening is about. Surrounded by strong contrasting spot lights and moments of near darkness, during the first couple of songs of “An Isolation Dawn” and “Inevigle” the crowd were finding it hard to actually hear singer Miller’s vocals — something that hampered Unit Nine’s set before. The drums were also too high in the mix, with incredible levels for the drums smashing the rest of the band into the shadows. Imicus, who have been on the road with INME, did win over a handful of people with their nu(ish)-metal and atmospherics, with an emotional lyrical content all envisaged by a near glossy persona. But sadly, by the last couple of songs which included “Butterfly” and “Veiled Ogdema” it felt more filler than killer.

Black Sabbath loving, trucker cap donning Viking Skull (4/5) sure know how to give the crowd what they want. The band power their way through “Born In Hell” and “Wizards Sleeve” with their thick Gibson powered over-driven tone from the guitar duo of Dom Wallace and Frank Regan. They even manage to whip in a few bars of Sabbath’s “Iron Man” at the end of “Wizards Sleeve”. Their set mostly consists of tracks from the recent Heavy Metal Thunder album, which in itself is a sort of “best-of” compilation of tracks from their first couple of releases. It doesn’t matter though, as this is the sort of band brimming with self-confidence and bravado honed from small sweaty shows over the years. Viking Skull live up their alcohol fuelled doom-rock with beer being thrown from the crowd andOrange Goblin’s Ben Ward bringing on stage a massive tray of Jägermeister for the band to enjoy. Big guitars and big amps propel the band to near deafening levels throughout “Red Hot Woman” and “In Hell” — but nowhere as near as loud as when Airbourne graced the same stage a couple of years ago. Viking Skull are a very good band to a enjoy a few beers to.

The self-proclaimed “beer-core” four-piece bring in both more of a balanced look and sound for the crowd at the venue, with gigantic vocalist Ben Ward spending time egging on the crowd and launching himself towards them whenever possible. Orange Goblin’s (4/5) 16-year history has on the one hand always been about heavy blues rock, but within their six studio albums they have explored different areas of heaviness, from the straight forward stoner/doom ofFrequencies From Planet Ten, the more psychedelic Time Travelling Blues, the more mature and dazy sounding Coup De Grace to Thieving From The House Of God — the latter which Ward has described it as a combination of all the band’s previous work. Essentially this reflects the kind of set presented tonight. Despite bassist Martyn Millard looking subdued, he gets lost in his bass work, swaying along and playing in a stance reminiscent of Kyuss’ Scott Reeder and Shrinebuilder’s Al Cinerous. It’s strong playing and complements guitarist Joe Hoare’s sweet sounding blues guitar. The songs that stand out in their performance seem to be more from Thieving From The House of God and the well loved The Big Black. Maybe it’s because “Alcofuel”, “Cozmo Bozo”, “Hard Luck”, “Quincy the Pigboy“, and the emphatic “Some You Win, Some You Lose” all seem to work better live and the crowd can full appreciate some of the finer moments in the bands songwriting over the years.

[Review first appeared on OneMetal]

The 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment just had a homecoming march through Cambridge, and seeing that the start of the march was just down the road from me, I decided to take a few snaps…

As far as I can remember, the last time 65daysofstatic were in town they were at the smaller (read “intimate”) venue of The Shed (read Junction 2) along with The Mirimar Disaster – the latter having now sadly called it a day. With constant touring and a few decent albums that critics have lapped up, the same people have branded 65daysofstatic’s latest album polemic, dividing the fan base which they have worked so hard to gather.

Having unfortunately missed the first support band, one-piece Loops Haunt had the job of warming my ears up before the headliners. And he did. With a desk full of midi tech, he proceeded to blast the PA of the Junction with a host of broken beats and experimental sounds. My ears were burning. However, it was a mixed bag of electronica which sadly wasn’t nailed down tight enough. It was neither one thing or another and seemed to confuse most of the crowd in front of me. Were they tracks or just phases in a mix – who knows.

(He has also done a mix for the excellent Electronic Explorations. Check it here.)

65daysofstatic quite frankly consist of a band of mini Matt Bellamy’s. They are exceedingly good programmers and musicians, and on the stage they don’t miss a beat. They change guitars mid-song, play keys, cue beats in AbletonLive, and dance around like loonies whilst somehow managing not to forget where each piece of the puzzle went. On top of this they seem to enjoy performing under seizure-inducing stage lights. Drenched in a cacophony of strobes and neon, the band blasted their way through the first three songs of Mountainhead, Piano Fights and Await Rescue – and that was my lot. 

My photos first appeared for TLOBF.

65daysofstatic setlist @ Cambridge Junction (09/05/10)