Whitechapel – Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

It’s difficult to write a live review these days without descending into overworn clichés due to the sheer number of zines, blogs and other general ‘stuff’ that appears all across the world wide interweb it becomes difficult to say anything which doesn’t seem vomit inducingly irritable. Thankfully, reviewing Whitechapel’s performance can be done without this risk. Well, not entirely but you see my point.

The opening ‘Breeding Violence’ is a perfect demonstration of just why this band seems to be constantly moving forwards despite their level of extremity. Whilst the (pretty short) set draws mostly on their most recent album (not a surprise though really) there  does exist a genuine (not neo-cliched) power in their performance. It’s important to stress that whilst this review is descending into the cliché ridden mess which I predicted, I have a genuine love for this band.

I’ve seen then play live on several occasions and have to admit that they are truly superb. I’ve fallen out of love with a large amount of heavy music (I mean, does anyone ACTUALLY like Metallica these days?!) but Whitechapel made me realise just how good a band can be. As overwrought as it sounds, I really can’t recommend these guys enough. Maybe there is some hope for the music scene.

More Photos 

Mr Bogle

Stuff you need to listen to – If These Trees Could Talk

It’s two days into 2011, my first post of the year and I’m writing about…? Post-Rock. In all honesty, I did only discover said genre properly in the year that’s just left but I feel that I start this new one fully ready to immerse myself in all it’s melancholic glory. (Ok, so I sound REALLY brown-nosed and I’ve yet hit 1,000 words… bollocks) Returning to the matter in hand, that being why post-rock is just so damn brilliant. In particular why you should give ITTCT a listen.

My first ‘post-rock’ was probably 65daysofstatic back in 2006 and in all honesty I thought it was shite. Granted I’d now happy go and punch my former self in the face before cutting off my hair, yelling ‘Iron Maiden suck balls’ before leaving to do some hardcore drive-bys. But, alas we all have a past which we’re ashamed of (otherwise we wouldn’t try so damn hard to escape it) even so, I wouldn’t be who I am now if it wasn’t for what I was in the past… You get the damned point. Anyway, in the last 12 months it would be fair to say that I’ve changed quite a bit, I’ve lost all enthusiasm for writing about music (see my last post) and I’ve remembered why I love cinema quite so much. But that’s all for another day.

Back to post-rock, now you may well know Mogwai, 65daysofstatic and God Is An Astronaut but ITTCT have a criminally low number of Last.fm listeners. True, you won’t get anything particularly unusual with this bunch. Both the album and the E.P are fairly standard, but nonetheless solid, post-rock records. The music itself moves from intricate passages to roaring crescendo’s and one track features more emotion that the entire Dream Smearater discography could ever muster. The sound quality on this track is pretty crappy, but that’s YouTube for you… just go buy the bloody thing; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yEvKHhwqw

So there you go, a fresh slice of some post-rock magic to help bring in 2011 in true musical style. If you do just one thing this year, make it realising that metalheads take themselves far too seriously and could all do with a good kicking. Plus, Trolling is more fun than you could possibly imagine.

Happy New-fucking-Year!

Mr Bogle

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

Just over 13 months ago I, along with The Iron Eagle and Eyelicker launched Reverse Current. It had come from the ‘ashes’ of Headbang.co.uk a site which, in its last days had been run almost entirely by yours truly. With endless shitty reviews, fake opinions and general bollocks it was kept going until it finally died a death. That was when RC was launched and, for the first few months at least, it was fun. Then life took over, despite what those dicks who attacked Charles and Camilla and climbed the cenotaph tell you, some students work FUCKING HARD! Myself included, not just that, I also grew increasingly weary of metal. An awful lot has changed in my life this year and non more significant that my disaffection with ‘metal’ as a genre. I knew I was bored when I found it a stretch to watch Iron Maiden for two hours at Sonisphere.

So, not only do I now listen to more hardcore than ever before I take genuine pleasure in attempting to piss off at may metalheads as I can. Sure call me a cunt, but I’m no more one than you. Music taste is insignificant now, because whatever I listen to I find I hate it from the outset. Maybe  I do only listen to a couple of tracks before classifying it as worthless shite but that’s my prerogative! I don’t get paid for this shit! Hell, I fucking pay to do it half the time! It’s because of this disaffection with the majority of what I listen too that I’m less likely to write on music than movies, why? Because I love movies and I haven’t had that enjoyment ruined by some prick telling me that I wear the wrong clothes to walk into a fucking cinema.

The main reason why I stopped writing before was because it had become such a struggle to do so, if I’m not enjoying it I see no reason to continue! It would be unfair to say that I haven’t had fun writing for these sites, course I have! At the end of the day I’ve done some awesome things as a result and I’ll always be grateful for those memories. However, I can’t ultimately bring myself to ruin any more music for myself. If you want to criticise me for making that choice. GO AHEAD.

Sure, I’ll write about music when I want too but right now? I don’t want too. Sorry if that spoils the illusion but this just ain’t as fun as it used to be.

Mr Bogle

The World Is Quite Different Now

This isn’t a new post, but rather something I posted on an old blog nearly a year ago. It may just seem to be sheer laziness that has driven me to ‘republish it’ but I felt it expressed what I was saying yesterday in a less aggressive way. I also still feel it’s a valid argument. No, this won’t be happening a lot.

 

With the advent of social networking the idea of your personal life staying personal quickly became an oxymoron. These days with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Friends Reunited its become increasing easy to find out things about people and to feel like you ‘know them’ despite having met them only once or sometimes not at all. There’s something weirdly esoteric about updating your ‘status’ or telling everyone ‘Whats on your mind?’ I’m not trying to deny that I use both Facebook and Twitter or that I’m somehow ‘holy than thou’ because of what I think (as is often how blogs can seem to be) but rather that in the last 5 years the idea and thrill of waiting to see someone to find out what they’ve been upto for the last [insert amount of time] and ‘catch up’. True we don’t share anything and everything with the wider world but at times it feels like we do.

At the end of every year there’s always a mass of ‘Best of’ lists that appear which attempt to summarise the last year in less than 300 words and try to make us wonder ‘what it would have been like had it not happened’ well…at least that’s how it can make me feel, with the end of last year and the ‘end of the decade’ there were lists cropping up everywhere telling us ‘what we didn’t have in ’99 but we do in ’09’ and some make for vaguely interesting reading. True we didn’t have social networking, Wikipedia or bluetooth ten years ago but what we do have is a world that is constantly shrinking and is being reduced steadily to a series of ones and zeros. Everything is becoming about ‘numbers’ and numbers can ultimately be described in binary and therefore become just a matrix of two different numbers.

What fascinates me most though is the seeming obsession with letting people know what you’re doing at this moment. right now. here. Me? I’m writing a blog entry. Ok so I’m not doing it as you’re there reading it but right now I’m talking to ‘you’ in the future, this post isn’t even finished yet but I’m still acting like you’re reading it as I type. Facebook has changed the way we act, now photos are all about embarrassing pictures of you dancing/drunk/singing and dancing whilst drunk/throwing up in the gutter when drunk/passed about when drunk (delete as appropriate).

I’m sure I was going somewhere when I started this……goodness knows where I’ve ended up though. Ah well I’ve probably said all that needs to be said, I’m feeling quite existentialist right now. It’s a good feeling has to be said, certainly feel better than I did twenty minutes ago. I’m just clutching at straws now.

Mr Bogle

Technology is out to get us…

Skynet is real and we’re all gonna die.

…and we’re all fucked. How you say? Well for a start #IAmSpartacus just thought we’d get that out the way. If you’re one of those twats who claim that they deliberately ignore social networking because ‘it’s gonna kill us all’ piss off and get a job. I just wanted to make it clear that I am the dude who actually threatened to blow up Robin Hood Airport. The other guy was just covering. He owned me a favour after I brought him a pint… shame it all got so out of hand.

I picked up my Uni’s local ‘Rag’ (I prefer toilet roll myself) but names aside. It contained various idiots sprouting bullshit from every orifice imaginable. This is included some choice pickings; including a review of Todd Phillips’ latest shit film (he’s the guy who made ‘The Hangover’) and before you say anything, I HATED that movie, just terrible, misogynistic bollocks.  But if you want to hear anyone on just why it’s really not worth the time of day I suggest Dr Kermode’s diagnosis. ‘Due Date’ (that’s the new one by the way) just from the trailer looks awful.  Honestly, first time I saw it I turned to my other half and said ‘well that looks shit’ trust me, I really did. ‘Bromance’ isn’t funny.

The second was the words ‘awesome 3D’ used in connection to the cinema really made me realise just how worried I am about ‘3D’ I mean when you’re getting is either bodily fluids, stupid bits of body parts, boobs or whatever else gets thrown out at us. I mean face it Avatar was really bad, just really really bad. Boring, unoriginal and vacuous. I’d much rather go see ‘Papa Smurf’s Sex Tape’ than sit through another screening of ‘Dances with Wolves in Space’.

The question now is what’s next? Am I going to go to see ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean 4’ where Johnny Depp is going to donn his gloves from ‘Edward Scissorhands’ reach out and slice my head off for real? I’m very scared and would warn anyone against it. It’ll be a fucking massacre.

Final thing, the ‘rag’ also listed ‘DVD we’re most looking forward to’ as… no not Toy Story 3 or Inception… but Sex and (the fucking) City 2! I mean COME ON! I LET YOU HAVE THE REST BUT REALLY!!!!!!

Phew, rant over.

Mr Bogle

Revolution Renaissance – Trinity

And the award for most unoriginal record goes too… well you get the idea of what I’m going to say about this album. Or do you? Yes you do, except that whilst I found it mostly unbearable, there was a small part of me (that still has long hair at heart) actually enjoyed this latest ‘melodic power metal’ release. It’s got more cliches than Avatar, and if you’ve heard anything by Iced Earth then you’ll be able to predict exactly what’s going to happen next… but it’s still not that bad.

In fact, it’s perfectly fine. It’s an album which genuinely is ‘middle of the road’ in every way. There’s very little to say about it if I’m honest. Trashing it would be unfair and ultimately pointless. But praising it is something that I won’t do because  don’t really like it that much. I’m sure you can understand the problem here.

At the end of the day, if you like your metal flashy, predicable and often tedious then this is for you.

Mr Bogle

War From A Harlots Mouth – MMX

If you haven’t already realised my take on most music tends to rely upon my initial mood when first hearing said sounds. However there are a few cases where I just fucking love anything that particular band/artist/ ProTools geek spews forth and as such, my opinion counts for pretty much nothing.

That’s not the case with WFAHM however I do think that these guys are hugely underrated, and even more underplayed. Musically they present a  schizophrenic mix of bass, drums and noise. Which is absolutely mesmerising whilst being utterly bewildering. With a bass sound hugely reminiscent of Math-core legends Meshuggah I’m sold from the first bar.

The fundamental difference between this and so much of the stuff that I really struggle with. Is that there is a genuine signature to these guy’s sound. This is not an album for faint of heart, it’s a brutal assault on the ears which stays with you for sometime afterwards. Before you listen to it all over again.

Mr Bogle

The Absence – Enemy Unbound

The internet has given us lot’s of things; endless pornography, instant access to the intimate details of the spotty git you hated in high school, the ability to look at other people’s lives and feel smug about our own and endless identikit bands who think that having a Myspace makes them AwEsOMe. It also allows a significant amount of fat kids with no friends and too much bandwidth to download said identikit band’s music and then prompt them to get a record deal…

I’m not saying that The Absence fall into this catagory… but they are certainly a victim of it’s effects. Despite being Yanks this band sound suspiciously Scandinavian. Right upto the point where I would be tempted to describe them as a poorer version of Children Of Bodom.

The fact of the matter is that this bands particular brand of melodic death metal is perfectly fine. But doesn’t go beyond that.

Mr Bogle

Dawn Of Ashes – Genocide Chapters

I tend to find that most band’s who feel the need to compare themselves to the likes of Cradle Of Filth and Immortal produce the kind of pretentious wankery that fuels my dislike of most ‘Black Metal’. But don’t let that give you the wrong impression. Believe it or not, I do always approach albums with an open mind, I have to, because otherwise I’d be predisposed to hate nearly everything I hear and never have anything to say about it. Granted, that’s often the result anyway, but that’s not the point.

Back when Reverse Current was still in it’s infancy I became fond of publishing excerpts from press releases which either spewed so much shit that it bore absolutely no relation to the record itself, or because it’s really fucking funny. I feel that the following extract does both;

‘In the darkest form of incubated evil, a symbol has been born to strike immense fear into the hearts of mortal weakness. Kristof Bathory, Volkar Kael, Bahemoth and Othuum, four vile forms that control a new era where nightmares become reality and where the sounds of the macabre shall emerge from a catastrophic symphony, have resurrected the sounds and visions of horror, hatred, and suffering that is spewed forth in the form of extreme horror metal that is DAWN OF ASHES; a name that was created to reflect upon the birth of death and failure. Now the plague has come to corrupt the flesh of man.’

The truth of the matter is, the album ain’t half bad. It does become irritating at times, especially when the vocalist does that really grating ‘growl’. But anyway, I got over my hatred of symphonic keyboards and managed to escape into the blastbeats and brutality of the music. It should appeal to it’s intended demographic, and if the spotty fat kid with greasy hair likes it, that’s good enough for me.

Mr Bogle

Gristle – Cold Blue Sky

It’s not often that I struggle to genuinely have an opinion about, well, anything. Although I can doubtless be quoted as saying that I couldn’t find anything interesting or original about any one record, there’s a difference between not being bothered because it’s so awful and my issue with Cold Blue Sky.

The only real observation I can make is that its… well ok. Not great, not terrible. It’s a massive collection of over worked clichés but ultimately that’s the way most albums are made these days. The lyrics are unashameably shallow, with song titles like ‘Myself’ and (I kid you not) ‘Only Love Can Save Us Now’;

“With no compromise, when the storms arise, on the raging sea, between you and me, only love can save us nowwwww” – (Yes, that’s the actual lyrics)

So you’ve pretty much got the picture, now I can stop.

Mr Bogle