Bristol Academy - Taste Of Chaos 28th November 2009

Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster are a welcome change to this bill due to the combination of their homegrown 'roots' of the Alabama sound fused with feel good rock 'n' roll.  It's a hard crowd tonight, possibly due to the fact that it's a more typical 'Metal' audience here, but with songs such as 'Dry The River' and 'Step Up' they soon have the crowd tapping their feet along to the groove.

This band is undeniably tight and with the overall sound coming across heavier than they do on cd, they're definitely meant to be consumed in the live environment; packing a punch straight to your face! Despite short set list, they whip the crowd into a frenzy, at times they sound like a cross between Avenge Sevenfold and Black Label Society but with their very own originality. I hope to see these guys on the festival circuit next summer, it will go down a treat!

Laura Kelly

 Self professed Redneck Black Metalers Blood Cult hammer out only their second album in their 15-year career, ‘We are the Cult of the Plains’. After being mainly a demo band until 2005’s limited release debut ‘We who walk through the Rows’, you can imagine the kind of sound these guys will be flogging. Sounding like an uber fuzzy Motorhead mashed up with a bit of Venom, a lot of alcohol and a book called ‘My first Solo’, all recorded in your basement with a tape recorder and you pretty much get the picture.

There is one shift between classic heavy metal and black metal, aptly shown on second track ‘Devil' s Sabbath’, which has more in common with Guns ‘N’ Roses and ZZ Top then it does with Marduk or Mayhem. And then it’s sterile 80’s rock for most of the remainder. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think it really works that well. Fair play to them for mixing two styles that they obviously like, but I think it makes the music sound disjointed and really destroys any chance of building an atmosphere. Bits of it sound like Billy Idol with blast beats for fuck’s sake (‘Ludi Ceriales’)! And that just brings back awful memories of the Murderdolls that are best kept locked forever. And another thing, I thought long over blown solos that take up most of the song were a thing of the past that were universally recognised as being shite!? They make way too much of an appearances on this album. T

he thing is that there easily could have two separate albums here, one rock and one Black Metal, but it feels like its just been jammed together and doesn’t allow you to get lost in either. I think it is always good to remember that ‘cult band’ doesn’t automatically mean good band. Blood Cult are a prime example of retro Southern Rock that should have died out a long time ago, and definitely shouldn’t have tried to incorporate Black Metal into it’s grave of mundane wank. 

Carl Sucharyna Thomas

No no no no no no. I refuse to acknowledge this shite… All right fine. I’ll review this, but I’m not happy about it.  

My first thoughts when downloading this album were, “A Capella ey? Isn’t that the type of music where people sing the parts of the instruments themselves like the douche bags wearing headphones on the train?” Right on the fucking money Mr. Civi, and cross bread with that most awful of metal sub genres, the head spinningly, vomit educingly cheesy Power Metal. All the instruments except the drums and some of the synth is performed with the voice, which, while possibly could be construed as talented in Bizzaro world (Simpsons joke), is so fucking annoying I want to shit my organs out just because I think that will put me out of my misery faster than hitting delete. 

I’m not even joking; ‘Sing a song of metal’ sounds like it came off a Disney soundtrack. And I didn’t even listen to the ‘Master of Puppets’ cover because, even though I am by no means a fan of Metalica, even I couldn’t stand to hear a song that is so important to metal in general murdered so horribly. Who the fuck gave them the rights that do that anyway?!?! They need a good slapping about. And while I’m thinking about it, it’s a bit of a wimpy cop out have a real drum kit isn’t it? Surely a true A Cappella band is fully voice or body sounds. I would happily volunteer to be their drummer just so I could make the snare sound by smashing their heads repeatedly against a table. 

I don’t think it would be so offensively bad if the music wasn’t such a painfully well trodden, average as dirt brand of power metal. A Capella Myrkskog, now there’s a more interesting proposition. All in all I think it is a gimmicky piece of crap that contributes nothing and only makes the ‘band’ look stupid. End. 

Carl Sucharyna Thomas

 Avsky sound like a band that is dedicated to their craft and has now fully spread their creative wings and soared to new heights. Scorn is an album you can keep going back to and it will still kick you in the guy with its sheer passion and ferociousness, a true gem of the underground.

Carl Sucharyna Thomas