Goes Cube - 'Another Day Has Passed' (The End Records)

The thing that struck me first about Goes Cube’s debut is how many influences and sounds hit you all at the same time. I was completely blindsided from the get go. ‘Bluest Sky’, the opening track, is backed by thunderous feedback that evolves into a super heavy beast backed by a rapid fire snare drum and desperately raspy vocals. You then get the rug pulled out from under your feet as you’re slammed into a melodic, radio friendly number ‘Grinding The Knife Blade’. The twists and turns don’t end there kids, so buckle up!

At times opting for numbers rather that actual song names, Goes Cube have turned out some monotonous tunes with ‘57’ and ‘30’ in comparison to blood pumping songs like ‘The Only Daughter’ and ‘I Hold Grudges’. Its jams like these that really reel the record back in and provides much needed focus in areas where it’s in danger of fading into mediocrity.

There are some absolutely filthy bass grooves on this album too, which are great fun to decipher along with the huge, hulking, riffs courtesy of Kenny Appell and David Obuchowski respectively. ‘Clenching Jaws’ is a great example of how Goes Cube can “turn it on” and produce a track that would incite a circle pit anywhere it was played.

From track to track ‘Another Day Has Passed’ misleads you and double bluffs you. One minuet the Brooklyn trio are twanging out jams that resemble that of Fugazi and the next, conquering epic riffs that would make a diehard Isis fan moist. However, nothing quite fits together. The New Yorkers seem to be forcing the pieces of the puzzle into place at times rather than letting their sound evolve naturally. On the other side of the coin, their forced sound is very compelling and hard to ignore.

Is this record confusing and at points, intentionally so? Without a doubt. Is it directionless? Possibly, but one thing that remains apparent throughout this debut recording is that, above all, it’s intriguing. If they hone their very skilled sound into something more defined, we could see some very special things from Goes Cube in the future.

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band - Live @ Hyde Park 28th June 2009

For a 3 day long festival that calls itself ‘Hard Rock Calling’ the promoters seem to have got completely the wrong end of the stick. I can’t even remotely see what’s ‘hard rock’ about either, Starsailor or The Dave Mathews Band. Safe to see I avoided all the support acts like the fucking plague and opted for “cunt-free” day.

All of this nonsense was forgotten when The Boss wondered out on stage backed by the infamous E-Street Band. Opening with an inspired version of The Clash’s ‘London Calling’, Bruce and the gang arte off to a flying start before diving head first into ‘Badlands’ and then ‘She’s The One’.

The E-Street Band back a juggernaut set from Springsteen who tears through ‘Out In The Street’ and ‘Bobby Jean’ to name a few. Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem joins the party on stage to wail through the spirited ‘No Surrender’ but for some inexplicable reason; ‘Thunder Road’ and ‘The River’ remain noticeably absent from tonight’s set list.

After the people rallying anthem ‘The Rising’, Bruce then delivers a goose-bump inducing rendition of ‘Jungleland’. Yet more proof (if you needed it) as to why they call him ‘The Boss’. Unfortunately he goes from glory to annoyance in one fail swoop following up with ‘American Land’. Some jiggery-pockery shite that is more at home in a Pogues B-sides collection. None the less, we are sent home happy with the classics, ‘Glory Days’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’.

I’ve been lucky enough to see The Boss before but this time I felt way out of my depth. Tonight, at times, I did feel like I was the unwanted guest of an older generation, and that in the eyes of hardened Springsteen fans that I didn’t “get it”. That may be true but it just goes to show that regardless of age, the music of Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street band have enough quality and enough depth to transcend generations. Tonight proved that.

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 21st June 09

Sunday:

Having partied with these guys all weekend it was now time to see if all the booze had taken it’s toll.
Orange Goblin storm the Terrorizer tent looking no worse for wear, launching straight into their blistering stoner metal groove. It’s hard to take your eyes off of front man Ben ‘Built like a brick shit house’ Ward who has the rabid crowd in the palm of his hand throughout the set. ‘Aquatic Fanatic’ and ‘Scorpionica’ both see an outing. Crowd pleaser ‘Some You Win, Some You Lose’ had the entire tent bellowing the chorus and raising their plastic beakers of warm beer to the sky.

With a massive drunken grin on my face after a great Orange Goblin set it was time to head over to the Rock Hard tent to catch midland, grind legends Napalm Death. Bodies were flying and demented metal heads were leaping from the support beams in the tent into the whirling mass of bodies below. Lee Dorian makes a special appearance on stage to grunt his way through a track from ‘Scum’. Napalm Death finishes their set with the Dead Kennedy’s classic ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’. Unfortunately Napalm Death left me a little cold. There was too much talking about the ills of society and not enough singing about it. However, seeing Lee Dorian sing with them again was a nice touch.

Back to the main stage and Atlanta prog-metal-maestros Mastodon dive head first through a mixture of both ‘astonishing’ new and ‘classic’ old material. Watching Mastodon achieve the neigh-on-impossible riffs while hammered in the sun is a great way to spend the afternoon. The amount of excited people sporting ‘ST’ merchandise was something to be seen because when Suicidal Tendencies finally bounced on stage to ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ Hellfest exploded! Cyco Mike and co shred through the classics jams ‘Possessed To Skate’, ‘War Inside My Head’ before inviting everybody watching to rush the stage. One of the best stage invasions I have ever seen and if you were a part of it, my hat’s off to you.

A change in tone for the evening followed as we made our way back to the Terrorizer tent for a lethal dose of doom. Electric Wizard have been one bands that I have respected for years. Their occult influences and pure evil, doom mantras hypnotize all fanatics lucky enough to witness them. The Wizard churn out ‘Witchcult Today’, ‘Return Trip’ and a jaw dropping rendition of ‘We Hate You’. Personally, I think they were even better than they were at the Rise Above records show last year.

Then, at long last, a voice over the Main Stage PA tells all “False metal needs to vacate the area as Manowar will be on in less than two minutes” much to the delight of myself and the growing crowds of Vikings. It was a tough choice to watch these guys ahead of Brutal Truth but the chance to see Manowar doesn’t come everyday.

Strutting about the stage in front of “The biggest amps in the world” Manowar seem to think they are playing a show in Valhalla! They could be easily confused. The amount of Viking helmets, goblets and Scandinavian war flags that were scattered about the ‘Manowarriors’ was insane. The leather clad heroes thunder though ‘Warriors Of The World Unite’ and ‘Kings Of Metal’ before Joey Di’maio presents the festival organizers with a ‘Balls Of Steel’ award (and rightly so!).

You should have seen the massive grin that I had knowing that throughout all Joey Dimaio’s posturing about Manowar being louder than all, you could still hear Brutal Truth all way over in the Terrorizer tent. Manowar culminate their set with ‘The Crown And The Ring’ followed by setting the sky on fire with a mass of pyrotechnics. A nice visual display to all and a great send off to an amazing festival.

The journey back home the morning after was horrific but everybody was still buzzed at witnessing the best heavy metal festival Europe has to offer, Fact. Until next year, Hellfest…..IMORTAL!!!

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 20th June 09

Saturday:

In a haze of yesterday’s booze, I managed to dig myself out of my sleeping bag and drag myself out to the arena. I’m glad I did as I managed to catch half a set from Earache favorites Gama Bomb. The lads must have been stoked because they pulled a huge crowd who were all going absolutely mental for the Dublin thrashers. In the blistering hot sunshine and after some nice French people dosed us up with co-codamol and Ricard we migrated along with everybody else to Outlaw Order. Another side project made up from member of Soilent Green and Eyehategod. It’s all the thrash fury of the former mixed with all the nihilistic venom of the latter culminating in a vicious wall of sound. Outlaw Order, again, lead by Mike IX, tear through visceral tracks ‘Double Barrel Solves Everything’ and ‘Mercy Shot’.

After a few hours spent at the bar with Outlaw Order after their set, it was then time for everybody and their bloody mother to huddle around Main Stage 2 to witness Clutch. Man, how fucking good are Clutch live? On CD they are awesome but the energy they have on a festival stage is immense. Jim Fallon’s voice was absolute quality. The dude has got a steel pair of lungs on him. Thanks to the kind people at Jack Daniels who plied us full of cocktails before hand, which only heightened the experience of seeing ‘The Mob goes Wild’ live. Wino from Saint Vitus also came on, guitar in hand, to help lay down some serious riffs to close the set. Clutch well and truly owned the Saturday at Hellfest.

The Misfits were always going to be fun. I know it’s not the same and never will be as good as they were with Danzig but it’s not going to happen….ever, so we just made do with what there was….and what we got was damn good. Not even being given time to breath by Jerry Only’s “ONE-TWO!!” before each song, The Misfits blitz their way from classic to classic. ‘Teenagers From Mars’, ‘Hatebreeders’, ‘We Are 138’ to name a few. Dez Candina and Rob, on guitar and drums respectively, also have history in Black Flag so it’s a nice surprise to see them pull that one out of the bag. ‘Rise Above’ being played makes everybody who has a plus go fucking metal and we all did. As a little bonus, Dave Chandler from Saint Vitus took care of backing vocals much to his delight.

Sacred Reich were fucking awesome to finally see live. After fueling up all kinds of booze on the biggest party day of the whole festival, (now fat) Phil Rind and co were really enjoyable to see and completely ruled the RockHard stage. ‘Independent’ had me running around, spilling beer and falling on my face but it was far too much fun not to thrash about like a fucking lunatic! Before dragging some people from Terrorizer magazine back to my tent and telling them the worst joke ever then trying to translate it for the French in attendance.

Hellfest 2009 - Live - Clisson, France 19th June 09

At the beginning of this year I couldn’t wait for the festival line ups to start rolling in. When they did I was beyond disappointed. Limp cunting Bizkit at (the ever depressing) Download? Linkin fucking Park at....what the fuck is a Sonisphere anyway? And the ‘Rock & Alternative’ day at Reading being monopolized by moody student favourites, Radiohead and Lost-give it a fucking rest-Prophets. Not even with the addition of Faith No More to the line up enough to entice me.
So, after being bitch slapped by every UK festival promoter I had to look further afield....just across the channel actually. Hellfest was the only festival that I have seen this year with a credible line up. Absolute fucking quality head to fucking toe. So myself and a few good men packed sleeping bags, beer and whiskey and began out journey.

Friday:

It was only fitting to kick off the whole weekend by having some mid morning whiskey and taking the final walk to see a band I have idolized for years but never seen. Eyehategod. A band that seldom travels as far as Europe, venture to France for this year’s Hellfest. Mike IX Williams and company deliver some of the most down tuned, abrasive, heroin riddled jams I have ever heard. Carving out classics like ‘Jackass and the Will of God’ is just amazing to witness live. They are even joined by Phil Anselmo for a jam session. Eyehategod do not disappoint and go far beyond my expectations. This band really set the bar for the weekend.


It was then a sprint to the Terrorizer tent the much loved Soilent Green churn out some southern grind glory and again another sprint to the bar. We had just enough time to fuel up on Jager and march to the RockHard tent to see a band on the recommendation from my new friend Sergio. Taake are the epitome Norwegian black metal. Everybody was going ape-shit for these guys. Even in the harsh light of day they still manage shred through music blacker than their own corpse paint. Then fan favorites, Torche ruled the Terrorizer tent with a sound so damn loud it could have filled an arena. They were gob smackingly good.

Due to Bobby Libeling forgetting his false teeth, fighting an airline attendant and getting busted with a bag of crack in his sock, Pentagram failed to play. No matter. The back to back combo of seeing Voivod and W.A.S.P was absolutely killer and provided enough drunken fun for the next band….

Then with the sun setting, excitement in the air NOLA’s finest Down march on to the main stage one to a heroes reception. I have seen Down many a time before but never had I seen the band so damn energetic. It’s almost as if they were as excited to be there as we were. Phil Anselmo was commanding the stage like he did in his Pantera days. Down chug out huge riff laden anthems ‘Lifer’ ‘NOD’ and completely blow Hellfest away with the mighty set closer ‘Bury Me In Smoke’. Another triumphant Down performance. Unfortunately Anthrax were buried tonight. They turned in a solid performance, dished out the classics and even threw in a cover of Refused’s ‘New Noise’ but following an earth shattering performance by Down combined with the build up to Black Sabbath they seemed a bit lost even though new vocalist Dan Nelson was impressive.

Up next, in the now black of night, arise the mighty Black Sabbath (I’m not calling the Heaven & Hell….NO!)! Everybody was transfixed by Tony Iommi’s solos. Geezer Butler pounding home the rhythm section and the absolute gentleman that is Ronni James Dio’s voice defining amazing songs like ‘Time Machine’, ‘Die Young’ and ‘Mob Rules’. The sheer occasion of seeing these men on stage doing what they do best is an absolute privilege.


The anticipation for long awaited return of doom gods Saint Vitus was unparalleled. From the moment Dave Chandler staggered out on to stage with Wino in toe until the moment they left was simply astonishing. This is doom at its finest peppered with Chandler's acid induced solos and Wino's haunting howls and guttural wails. . ‘Saint Vitus’, ‘Living Backwards’ and ‘Mystic Lady’ are fuzzed out in trademark unpredictable Vitus way to a background of psychedelic imagery that hypnotizes the doom fanatics in attendance. Tonight Vitus close their set with the cornerstone of doom anthems, finishing on the amazing 'Born Too Late'. It truly is the stuff of legends.

Motley Crue are not even worth writing about. Their gelatinous, flaccid, feeble performance styled on past glories and nostalgia is a slap in the face to people who had paid hard earned cash to come to this festival. Somebody do the right thing, take them behind the wood shed and put them down. However, this foul display couldn’t tarnish what an awesome first day this had been. A day that belonged to the mighty Saint Vitus.