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| Seditius |
ECP Promotions presented
Seditius
Durge
The Fighting Keegans
At the Yorkshire House, Lancaster
Thursday 6 September 2012
£3
Reviewed by Reza Mills
It’s a miserable wet and cold Thursday evening in Lancaster. What the hell else was I going to do? Sit inside watching a bunch of idiots sitting inside a house sprouting B.S.? Simultaneously hating myself and my wretched existence for giving this rubbish the time of day?
Nope, down I go to The Yorkshire House, in the rain and wind and you know what? I don’t mind, because it’s ECP Promotions first ever Metal show and I’m not talking about your average bog-standard Judas Priest / Iron Maiden type affair. You know what I’m talking about; mullets and solos that last for an eternity, the kind of stuff that makes you ashamed to admit you like metal; depressingly clichéd and predictable. No siree bob! Instead we have what promises to be a night of awe-inspiring heaviness. I for one cannot b****y wait!
First up we have a duo named The Fighting Keegans, which is the sort of name that conjures up images of tough, Irish-American Oi! / Punk ala The Dropkick Murphys. Luckily nothing could be further from the truth, what we got instead was groove laden Grunge / Stoner rock that brought to mind The Melvins and Desert rock heroes Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. Make no mistake about it, this is heavy, but there were also some nice melodic touches which helped prevent the music from becoming too repetitive. The band are local and quite new, having only formed in January this year, and consist of Rory Violence on guitar / vocals and Max Density on Drums / vocals. Ones to watch I would say.
After a short interval was the band I’d been waiting to see. Durge are a trio from Kendal and feature Jeff Bond on Guitar / Vocals, Oli Greenband on Guitar and Dave Callaghan on drums. Having heard their killer demo on bandcamp (http://durge.bandcamp.com/) I knew I was in for something special. The band combines black metal in the vein of Burzum with some ultra-heavy doom in the fine tradition of early Cathedral and Electric Wizard.
It’s rare that I move any limb or part of me during a gig, but I was head banging along at the front as the glorious cacophony of noise emanating from these 3 guys enveloped me. Jeff has a very harsh, shrieking vocal style which wouldn’t be out of place on any early 90s Norwegian black metal album. This ensures that the band aren’t going to be poster boys in the NME anytime soon and – you know what – it doesn’t matter. Because when the music is this good, fresh and exciting, it gives you faith that music can still be vital.
Talking to drummer Dave afterwards it’s clear that they will have some recorded product out at some point. I for one will be there with debit card in hand when that day comes about.
And so finally onto headline act Seditius, of whom I don’t know what to expect. The band is from Italy and features Mat on guitar, Apu on drums, Nerchia on bass and, last but not least, Noodles on vocals. Seditius have more of a hard-core punk sound in comparison to the other bands who have played tonight. This is certainly evident in some of the bands they have played with, which include punk legends such The Adolescents, D.O.A. and The UK Subs. Frontman Noodles was a whirlwind of energy, leaping about the stage like Keith Morris in his Black Flag / Circle Jerks heyday whilst the band hammered out some sick punk-metal behind him. With no small amount of speed, the band made a nice contrast to the music that preceded it. The last song had a very nice Rage against the Machine (‘Evil Empire’ period) groove going on. The only minor quibble that I could find was their set was so darn short! I wanted to hear more guys!
Nevertheless I had a fantastic evening. It made a real change to have something a bit heavier in Lancaster and it’s all credit to Marc and Al from ECP Promotions for putting this together.
For further information about ECP Promotions you can visit the obligatory Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ecppromotions), or the website which is http://ecppromotions.webs.com/.
To hear Marc’s dulcet tones, you can have a listen to the radio show on http://www.mixcloud.com/ecppromotions/.
Reza Mills
Image courtesy of ECP