Welcome to our Gig Review. Here U will find what we did in the past.
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This page was last updated 12th of August 2003.
'Vizulize This' invited us to play a gig on Thursday the 17th of July 2003 at Saks Underground, 23-25 Clifftown Rd, Southend-On-Sea, Essex with themselves & 'Pointdown'.
So after a really lengthy drive out to the coastal town we got to play our last gig with Marius on bass.
'Pointdown' were first up (lame I know, but I couldn't resist). & man did they tear the place apart. While things did start a little late owing to all the bands doing the same, it was an awesome & extremely energetic performance. They played everything from grindcore to jazz to death metal & anything else their instruments would put out. & the audience were given such an aural assault that no-one else could match it.
We took to the stage about an hour & a half later than we were expecting to. While our performance wasn't lacklustre it just wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as that of the opening band & the audience felt that. We were also really saddened by the fact that we weren't going to be jamming w/ Marius again after this as he returned to ZA in August of 2003.
'Vizulize This' wrapped things up perfectly on this long summer night. Their vocalist was ill that eve so they had a friend stand in for them. Being honest if they hadn't told us, I'm certain that no-one would've been the wiser, that's how good his performance & exuberance were. Only problem they had was that it was getting rather late when they went on stage so most of the audience was starting to drift off & was gone by the time they finished their set. A fuller club would definitely have appreciated their efforts more.
Arcane Promotions proudly presented Deathfest 2003 @ Camden Underworld on the 7th of June & it went down a storm. When we got there just after 2 there was already a queue to get into the place, & that could never be a bad thing.
'Caducity' played first & I couldn't believe that a band that good would've been put that early in the day, but I'm not complaining as it certainly gave us a better slot.
The power cum death metal outfit 'Demonizer' was up next in their bullet belt wearing splendour & while they were fun to watch they weren't particularly spectacular.
'Killing Mode' ended the first triplet of bands, before the backline change, in great style. They were described by some as a hardcore outfit, but I was thinking more along the lines of a thrash band w/ the occasional rapped/chanted vocal. Definitely one of the best bands of the day, & 1 certainly wouldn't have any problems playing a gig w/ sometime in the future.
After a 40-minute backline change we hit the stage to a packed out Underworld & used the entire thing to full effect. I don't think any of us were ever standing still the entire 30 minutes that we were on stage. Marco was bouncing off everything around him, Stef wasn't in the same spot for more than 30s, unless using the mic, Alex was a whirlwind of hair & fingers, Marius was hopping about & pounding the bass for all he was worth & Kerryn just sat back & beat the mother loving crap out of the drums & made everyone truly take notice of him for a change. We got mixed reviews about our sound, while some said it was a bit cluttered & muffled, others said it was the awesome & everything came thru clearly. I'm guessing that this could very well be caused by vantage point during the show, as I've yet to ever hear Dave give a band bad sound. The new songs were everyone's favourites & I'm proud to say that we, as a band, actually love them too. It was also really gratifying to have so many people come up to us after the show to tell us how much they enjoyed it, not only for the ego boost, but also because it's great to know that the effort was worthwhile. Here's the Live 4 Metal Live review of our performance.
'Liquefied Skeleton' may have lost their vocalist, but sure as fuck sounded a hell of a lot better now. While the vocals may not have been as low & guttural, they certainly were more audible & aggressive, which I think suits their music better. They also appeared to be really enjoying themselves here today.
Playing in almost total darkness, bar a couple red spotlights, 'The Enchanted' just didn't seem their usual jovial selves. Their show appeared a tad lacklustre & sadly that also rubbed off on the audience. I've no idea why this was the case.
There was meant to be an hour long break before 'Desecration' came on, but it felt much longer, & owing to the fact that they had their set cut short I may be right in that summation. They're brutal death metal, and what they sadly lack in dynamics they more than make up for in ferocity.
Poland's 'Hell-Born' were decked to the hilt in spikes & leather & while looking like rather cheesy trad-metal-philes they are just a fucking heavy powerful death metal band, & they do that rather unrelentingly.
Unfortunately I had to leave before 'Gorerotted' got to play, but I'm told they put on a killer show & were all that a headlining act are meant to be. Thus hammering in the final nail to the Deathfest 2003 coffin before sending everyone merrily on their way home.
Ruskin Arms, where Iron Maiden had their first residency, is where we played an all day festival on Monday the 26th of May 2003. It all kicked off @ 15h00.
By the time that Suicidal Smile took to the stage things were already running a little behind, and they just snowballed from there. To quote their frontman "We're not a metal band, so if you're wondering what we're doing here... don't worry so are we." and while their stuff fell more into the indie pop/rock domain they did get a couple of bobbing heads when they played a heavier number towards the end of their set that sounded a tad Nirvanaesque.
Senile are a trio over very young lads, and as I guess their stuff was a mixture of metal/punk, but that could just be cos they sounded pretty bad, feedback city to be exact, and their riffs are very basic 3 chord affairs with inaudible shouted out vocals.
Vizulize This was the first metal band of the day. They were very bass driven and sometimes went into hardcore territory, but predominantly stayed very well in the death thrash vein that they do really well. Feedback wasn't doing them any favours either and it was apparent that they were struggling to hear each other on stage, but they persevered and put on a jolly good show.
After a 2-year hiatus Stigmartyr were downright as fucking heavy as a ton of bricks. While their guitars could've both been a bit louder, as they were pretty much drowned out by the drums and feedback. But as a whole the raw power of their sound just kicks you in the balls and then again in the face when you hit the ground. They're very able to pull off slow but fucking heavy riffs in a similar way that Bolt Thrower do, but then they are also able to put their heads down and blast along with some of the best death acts out there. I must admit that I prefer the slower stuff though, just cos I don't think they could get any heavier than that if they tried.
The hardcore sounds of Crazy Sadie never made any pretences at being metal. They just got on with the job on hand and showed that a no frills approach can be just as efficient as trying to be very complicated when it comes to being heavy.
The feedback issues all but disappeared during the Carnal Rites set, but that was more owing to the fact that the amp powering the monitors blew than anything the sound guy managed to do. The vocals went from death rasps to death growls and screams accompanied by their thrashy sound this was a great combo. I'm certain that as soon as they have added another guitar to their line-up that these guys shall be a force to be reckoned with.
After another band played we got our turn to be on stage. Our sound was the best on the day, thanks to David Caracandas hot off the tour with Immolation and Malevolent Creation taking the reigns behind the desk and getting things sounding the way that they should. While there were a couple of fuck-ups here and there during the set they were all covered up effortlessly and we actually played as a finely honed unit. This was definitely our best gig in fucking ages, and I'm not saying that cos it's our second gig this year, but rather cos it's a fact. And being a 5 piece again also has its merits. The guitar solos flowed and the heaviness didn't abate in any way. It certainly is good to be playing again and I hope that the rest of our gigs are this good and energetic.
Decay is influenced by the Gothenburg style big time. I'm pretty sure I heard them mention that they'll be changing their name to "Violent Asylum" but since I wasn't too sure about that, I'll leave them as Decay , cos that's the moniker that they played under. These guys were actually as tight as a duck's arse and were certainly putting on a show that everyone there shall be hard-pressed to forget.
Pointdown were another of those bands that fused hardcore, death and thrash seamlessly. The vocals were predominantly death, with occasional screams and shouts to add some flavour. The guitars were pretty thrashy, but also did the occasional staccato stopping and starting with insane precision and getting their mosh pit flailing around madly. Granted it was nearing midnight when they played, but they were rather lucky to have more than a fair share of punters still around during their set.
At 20 minutes past 12 RuskFest 2003 came to an end, and a pretty good one at that. I hear plans for a second RuskFest are in motion. Should be interesting I'm sure. And a big thanx again to Pitbull for putting on the show & inviting us to play.
On Friday the 9th of May 2003 @ 23h00 played @ Section 8's 'Sanctum' night @ The Electrowerkz, Mahumodo went on just after 24h00.
£6 Admission included free entry to PerVersion, America’s biggest industrial fetish club also being held at The Electrowerkz on the night. There were DJ's from L.A. & London, Bad Girl Go-Go’s, Lap Dancers! Pole Dancers! Play Room, Fetish Stalls, Fetish Furniture. & all the photos are on their site, just click on "next" to see the rest from that night.
The Electrowerkz is in Torrens Street, Angel, EC1 - Behind Angel Tube Station.
Okay, enough of that, onto what U actually read this page for. After ending the soundcheck rather late, we were lucky enough to only get started after the venue was begining to get full. Nothing quite like have a decent sized audience to play for again. This was also our first gig as a 5 piece for the 1st time in a good 4 years. Alex has moved from bass onto guitar since we managed to rope Marius into playing bass for us. We also played 2 new songs, Fear No Evil & Watching, for the 1st time The latter, we were told by several people, is the best song we've ever written & I can't disagree with them about it either. This gig was the most fun we've had in a really long time, but that could be owing to the extended hiatus that we've taken for the passed few months.
Mahumodo are a very much in the "nu" style of things, reminding me a bit of both Tool & Deftones. Granted I missed half their set owing to roaming around downstairs looking @ scantly clad women, but they quite obviously have a decent following which was enjoying their set thoroughly.
We were given absolutely no notice about this gig but we still agreed to play a benefit gig called "Helter Shelter" which has been set up by the TotalRockers & took place @ the King's Head, 4 Fulham High Street, Fulham (Closest Tube: Putney Bridge) on the 20th of October. The whole thing kicked off @ 13h00, but unfortunately I only managed to arrive there just before 18h00 so I missed:
Hiding With Girls; Kostamojen; Cephas & PDHM entirely. Exhibit A were just starting their set as I walked into the venue & I missioned around to find the rest of P.I.T.T. to find out what was going on for our set, so I missed them too.
Our position on the bill had been changed so that we'd play immediately before Descent as we were using their drum kit & it made more sense if it didn't have to be taken down twice. & thanx again guys for the use of all your equipment, as usual. ;-)
Well the gig went extremely well for us, it was probably our best UK gig so far. The sound on stage was awesome, & that in the venue was just as good, we were told. We played a fast & energetic 40 minute set which was extremely well received & had the organisers coming down to thank us afterwards, along with giving us a certificate for our efforts. Thanx guys, but it was genuinely our pleasure to play there, especially since 2 days earlier Anthrax had played on the very same stage.
Descent blasted their way through their set, which we missed the beginning of owing to being interviewed by Andy King of Total Rock where our show was also being recorded to be aired @ a later date. Anyway, Descent played some new stuff along with some old & the crowd lapped it up almost as much as we did.
Pain Control were the last band on the bill, & insisted on starting their set at the allocated time, which unfortunately for them was about an hour & twenty minutes after Descent finished, so plenty of people got bored during the wait & started to drift off home. During their second song, the drum monitor slid off the case it was on & pushed the guitarist's cab to the side of the stage, which in turn pushed a second cab off stage which dragged the whole lot off stage with it. Not fun at all, but once everything was sorted out they continued playing. Owing to the hour we decided it prudent to pack all our stuff now & returned to catch the end of their set before heading off home after a very hectic weekend.
On Saturday 13th July we played at Arcane Promotions' Deathfest 2002, which took place at The Kingston Peel with: 'Benediction'; 'Throne Of Nails'; '7th Child'; 'Brainchoke'; 'The Enchanted'; 'Descent'; 'Labrat'; 'Skaldic Curse'.
Admission was £8 with flyer, £9 without. Doors opened @ 13h00 & Closed @ 23h00. Map for the venue incase U want to see where it all happened.
'Skaldic Curse' were meant to play first @ 14h25, but owing to being caught in traffic on the way to the venue they arrived 5 minutes before they were meant to end their set. & because of the tight schedule of play on the day they weren't able to play.
Owing to this we went on first @ 15h10 & started our set w/ a new song 'Children of the Earth'. The first few songs were all played in successively giving the audience no respite & keeping their attention focused. The sound was really good both on stage & off & we had a great time playing. Hope we were as enjoyed by everyone there.
The cunts from 'Labrat' had been informed 24 hours earlier that they were to play a support slot @ the 'Candlemass' gig that was happening on the same day, so they moved their set an hour earlier & subjected us to their intense grind before fucking off to their next gig. Cunts! :-)
'Descent' headlined the first group of bands & man is their new stuff kick arse. These guys know how to right good chunky riff & put them together to make awesome songs. Good show guys & thanx again for the use of all your equipment for the gig. (Now to see about swiping those BC Riches.)
After a 40 minute backline change 'The Enchanted' went on, & they definitely got the most support on the day with their traditional death metal. Great showmanship is more than likely why, & they really know how to get a crowd going.
After having played 2 previous gigs with 'Brainchoke' I knew that I needed to catch a full set of theirs for the 1st time. I had to feel sorry for them because they managed to play their entire first song to 5 people... OK fine, they are also the only band that managed to play 20 songs in their 30 minute set, & it took most of the audience that long to get inside from the sun & food to get blasted by the remaining 19 songs. & man were they blasted. Fast, intense, & in your face. While I think they could make their songs a bit longer, their shortness does make them hit harder. The new song they played showed that they can slow down & play a song that's a bit longer than 2 minutes.
After another 40 minute backline change '7th Child' were up, & while very impressive musically, their songs sadly weren't very dynamic & captivating enuff to keep everyone's attention for their entire set.
While 'Throne Of Nails' were technically superb, they started to drone on a little as the length of the songs & their set seemed a bit much after spending an entire day watching great bands. I'd like to give their CD's a listen when I'm less knackered.
'Benediction' were the headlining band for the day, & what a day it had been. Their set consisted of songs from
the new album "Organized Chaos" all the way back to 1990's "Subconscious Terror", & boy did those old songs get the pit going.
It's a great feeling to have played on the same bill as all these bands.
& now that U've read our version events, go take a look @ those the Live 4 Metal Live review of our performance.
On the 29th of May 2002 we played at The Kingston Peel with 'Detrimentum' & 'Liquefied Skeleton'.
Sadly the turnout was rather poor, but it didn't stop the bands from putting on great performances.
'Liquefied Skeleton' went on first about 20 minutes after they were scheduled to, through no fault of their own. Their sound is very heavy & the only thing missing was the bass to make your innards rumble, otherwise a jolly good show.
We went on next & while not being one of our best sets ever, it did include the new song 'Ashamed', which went down rather well. The only comment made was by Doogz saying it was too short, which tells us that it was appreciated. :-)
'Detrimentum' brought the evening to a close with their hectic blast-beat filled death metal. A very technical & impressively tight set, which sadly too few ppl were there to appreciate.
On February 9th 2002 we played at The Rifleman in Hounslow for the tentatively titled "Lodnon (sic) Nights". & while the venue was pretty small & with a very low ceiling that didn't help the sound too much, the real cause for the AWFUL sound of the night lies firmly in the hands of the soundman which was an 'investment banker'... or is than 'international banker'? Aw... who cares, I think that fucking wanker sums it up pretty nicely. Not knowing the difference between the graphic selectors & the gain ought to give you a little hint of what we had to deal with. & complaining about the sound didn't help at ALL! While the venue might be an OK place to play another gig, we'll only consider it if we have it in writing that the soundman shall either be banned from the venue, or preferably shot!
The kick drum sound should've been awesome owing to Kerryn's new "Alesis DM5" module & the DDrum trigger, but try as we might, the soundman kept turning it down so that it was inaudible, & @ 1 point made a statement to the effect of "the reason you can't hear the kick drum is cos it's triggered". Clueless, incompetent motherfucker!
Doors will were meant be opened at 16h30 (or thereabouts), but @ 17h45 (when the 1st band were meant to be onstage, the place still looked pretty closed.
The flyer for the gig can be found here, if U're interested in seeing the thing. Address details for the venue, including a little map, are also on the flyer.
'Brainchoke' went on stage roughly half an hour after they were meant to start, & while I missed them when we played the gig with them & The Standard Music Venue, I must say that I really enjoyed their set this time, & while they said they had CD's on sale @ the front door, there was a distinct lack of them when I went to look. Guess they were bought pretty quickly. Well done guys.
While 'Nadir' were on stage we were being interviewed by Jo from Live4Metal, (a transcript of this interview can be found here) so unfortunately we missed their set. But I managed to pick a copy of their CD, so I'm kicking myself for missing it believe me.
'Skaldic Curse' were up next & the sound problems were clearly visible during their set. Vocals were too loud & drowned out the rest of the band. The kick drum was inaudible & the bassist might as well not having being playing for what could be heard. While they were really enjoyable & we definitely loved their stuff, they sounds really detracted from the show. A band we'd like to jam with again, but somewhere where the soundman has a clue.
'TBAC' are a punky metal band, & while I liked what they were doing they ought to have a little more respect for other bands when playing on a bill with this many bands & while a single encore is tolerable, playing 3-4 isn't, when U're eating into other bands playing time. Bad form guys.
'Acolytes Ruin' are traditional black metal, complete with corpse paint & angry screamed vocals. Sadly they could've been better.... if we could hear what they were doing! Maybe I'm labouring a point here about the crap soundman, but I don't really think that I'm being as scathing as I need to be here to show my contempt!
'Fukpig' on the other hand would've needed more than a good soundman to help them sound better, I could only put myself through their first song before I really *needed* to be somewhere were I couldn't hear them. While they appear to be nice enough chaps, I can't say the same about their musical style. But then again I've never been a fan of noise metal.
We went on 20 minutes before the venue was to close it's doors & kick us all out, so our 45 minute set was hacked nicely to pieces so that we could try play a couple songs before the PA was turned off. & while all the other bands had a problem with their vocals being overbearing, we had no such issues. Marco's mic was continually being turned down as soon as there was a hint of feedback, which was caused by the other mic on stage & whenever Stef needed to use his effects pedal, which was located @ the back of the stage (owing to a distinct lack of power points on stage) there would be howls coming through the PA because he was no longer standing between the mic & the guitar amp. Any soundman with a braincell would've known which mic was feeding back, rather than just turning off the main mic & having the feedback continue (dead giveaway to having silenced the wrong mic methinks). There were also what looked like monitors on stage, which made great footrests & took up more space than doing anything useful. The kick drum & vocals were the only things going through the PA, pity that unless you were actually standing infront of anything you couldn't actually hear it being played. We landed up playing most of our set anyway & to an ever decreasing audience as they all stayed as long as they could before having to rush off to catch the last trains home. We're going to have to rate this as the 2nd worst gig we've ever played, & sadly through no fault of our own.
With all that said, feel free to get a second & objective opinion of the gig from the Live 4 Metal Live Review team.
On the 24th of October 2001 play our first "Headline" gig @ The Kingston Peel with 'Descent'.
The venue itself, tho' kinda small, has a really intimate quality to it. The stage can be seen from everywhere & the sound was fucking awesome! Extra special thanx to John Lusty & Tim for doing a killer job on the monitors too, cos it was really nice being able to hear ourselves for a change too, very nice having soundmen that enjoy their job as much as we enjoy playing. We're definitely gonna try get more gigs @ this venue, & over a weekend too if we can scam it, cos I'm sure the place could get nicely packed & then even more serious moshing can take place.
'Descent' went on a little before 9 & really set the mood for the evening. They kicked butt & tho' they have plenty of timing changes that take place during songs, they use them well & their set had more than a few ppl on the dance floor banging their heads. We'd like to thank them again for the use of all their equipment, as it did make the show much louder. :-) Can't wait to play w/ this trio again.
@ about 10 we took to the stage & started the set w/ our slowest songs & then built up to faster stuff & never let go from there. This approached worked well, as it allowed for a nice build up & when we did explode it was more unexpected. As was mentioned the sound was superb & what was even better was the crowd getting into it too. We had a blast on stage & I'm sure that showed, cos the jeering & catcalling from the audience was very jovial. None of the mistakes & technical glitches that occurred on stage came anywhere close to spoiling the festivities. Definitely the most fun we've had playing in a really long time.
Now all we have to hope for is that we impressed the ppl at The Kingston Peel & in 'Descent' enough to have them want us play there again or share a stage w/ 'em. :-)
FINALLY!!!
Our FIRST gig *outside* of South Africa is now under our belt & the initial trepidation of not getting to play again is gone. :-)
We played @ The Standard Music Venue with 'Brainchoke', 'As She Screams' & 'Apostasy' on the 19th of July 2001.
[I've added some additional comments here on the 8th of August 2001, they shall be in parenthesis, if U want the reasons why this was done mail .] Before I even tell U all about the gig I'd just like to inform U of the way that all underground bands get shafted by venues here in the UK, & from what I've gathered it's the norm so there's nothing that we're going to be able to do to change this... [I have been told that this isn't actually the case, & we'll still play gigs here even if it is, cos we're more interesting in making music than money in the long run, but making money would be nice.] OK in ZA when a band plays a gig they either get an agreed sum from the venue or they take the door takings (the latter being shared out amongst the bands in whatever way they see fit @ the end of the night). Here on the other hand bands hand out flyers for gigs (which is a great way to advertise the gig & get ppl to hear about bands) & each band does their own flyers. The reason behind that is the venue collects all the flyers handed in @ the door for a discount on the entry fee & said band is given a flat fee per flyer, & the venue gets the rest of the money & all the money from ppl that either forgot their flyer @ home or found out about the gig via the web or mail or word of mouth. There are pro's & con's to this method, the pro's being the bands that work harder @ handing out & printing 1000's of flyers might get to cover their printing costs & the con's are that the venues make a killing of the bands no matter what. :-( (Which are both pretty crappy if U actually want my opinion.) [In retrospect the flyer idea is a reasonably good one, cos the bands that do the most work are the ones that gain the most. As long as it's done fairly @ the end of the day.] So from now on we're going to put a copy of any future gig flyers up on our web site & U'll get the link in the gig mail or U can find it from our gig page, so that U can print your own to save money @ the door & get the venue to pay us our due. Sure we might make a little more money this way, but from the looks of things we made more money in ZA, esp. if U take into account the exchange rate (sad as that may be).
Anyway onto the stuff U actually want to read about. :-)
We hit the stage 1st, which in some ways was good, cos there were actually more than a few ppl already @ the venue owing to us running about half an hour behind schedule, & the audience hadn't had time to dull their senses w/ the alcohol that was in full supply @ the bar [this is a funny comment, you're meant to laugh here]. The sound on stage was completely awful & no-one could hear anything, which is kinda surprising if U consider that there were 6 monitors up there. & after speaking to a couple of ppl after the gig we were @ least reassured that the sound for the audience wasn't much better w/ descriptions ranging from "fucking awful" to "plain terrible" for the 1st couple of songs & then it seemed to improve for them about halfway thru our set, lucky them... sound on stage just got worse & worse. [This could also have to do w/ everyone turning things up to hear themselves & thereby drowning out everyone else, which doesn't work.]
We must complement Alex (our current bassist) for pulling thru for us & playing a truly amazing set & getting into the full swing of things, even tho' he could probably hear about as little as the rest of us. Welcome aboard dude!
Still we blasted our way thru our set & managed to cover up our more than ample mistakes. (Sure it's easy for me to blame the sound engineer for all this, but all the other bands concurred so @ least it's not me just trying to find a scapegoat.) [Another thing is that after 5 years of playing live & having our own PA we got used to setting everything up for ourselves & we knew what kind of sound we wanted on & off stage. Next time, hopefully we shan't be under such huge time constraints & we'll be able to relay what we're actually after to the sound engineer & things shall be better for all of us.]
The venue & stage were really great to play in & on, but unfortunately for us 'Brainchoke' drummer, Simon, plays w/ a really weird set up & wanted to use his own kit. Since they were up after us we had a 2nd drumkit on stage which reduced the amount of space we had up there to almost nothing. [I'm not saying anything nasty about Simon here @ all, actually he was very accommodating to us & loaned us his entire kit, even the pieces that most drummers refuse to share on pain of death. I'll even state that I like the guy, cos we got to actually chat while waiting for everyone else to arrive for soundcheck.] Marco was completely caged in, being stuck in front of Kerryn & the kit w/ Stef to one side & Alex to the other & whenever I tried to move away from there I was plagued by huge amounts of feedback so his movements were limited to bouncing in the same place & headbanging there.
All in all I think we went down pretty well & were approached by a few fanzines to do interviews & CD reviews, which means that we must've been liked by some ppl. & a couple of the other bands @ the gig have also shown an interest in playing gigs w/ us too, so we'll see how things progress from here.
& on the note of being liked by some ppl... I'm glad to say that we've managed (heh, heh, heh, bad pun there I know) to coerce Steve "Jesus" Green (of Live 4 Metal fame) to manage & promote us for the next few months. We hope that we don't let him down & he gets us tons of shows. (His P.I.T.T. page & address were sort it out from my side & the link is above.)
'Brainchoke' were the 2nd band of the evening & even tho' they described themselves to be a grindcore band (& threw a couple band names @ me that I really don't like) I found them to be anything but. I enjoyed what I saw & heard & it was very well put together & too musical to be grindcore in my opinion. I'm afraid I didn't get to watch as much of them as I would've liked owing to the fact that I was running around & speaking to people after our set. We'd all like to thank Simon tho' for the use of his drumkit, snare & cymbals, fanx dude!
'As She Screams' went on third. I'll be the first to admit that I really like these guys & their brand of music, but sadly it doesn't always go down so well live owning to the length of their songs which is usually between 10-20 minutes. They are definitely worth listening to & have mp3's up on their site, go get them!
'Apostasy' have ex-'Retribution Denied' frontman Stephen Dixon on vocal duties, & went down a storm. Their set was really enjoyable, it was well paced & damn heavy, always a good combination. Sadly owing to the remoteness of the venue a lot of the audience started leaving as they took to the stage, so they could catch the last trains that tend to leave central London around midnight, they missed a good set. :-( We're looking forward to playing w/ them again in future.
On the 16th of December 2000 we played our final gig... in South Africa with 'Groinchurn' & 'Crossing Point' (from Durban) @ 'The Nile Crocodile' in Pretoria.
It was also the CD launch of our debut full length CD "Forced Disillusion".
The Straight Edge Punks 'Crossing Point' took to the stage 1st, & I must admit handled the haggling from the crowd extremely well. But like us they also had their movement on stage severely limited by the extremely low ceiling. I enjoyed their set, & thought they rocked.
We started the show w/ the intro 'Forced Disillusion', followed by another new song 'Cage In Hell' which went down really well with the crowd. We also played the third part of the Flames trilogy 'Darkness Soothing' straight after the first two parts making it into a nice 12 minute epic.
We all had a blast on stage, though the low ceiling forced Marco to smack his head against it a couple of times & then find a new way to bounce around. Mistakes did abound, but those were hardly noticed by band members let alone the audience.
It was also to be our final gig w/ Tamlyn after two and a half years of complete & utter dedication, but owing to some pretty extreme medical reasons she isn't able to play bass for more than a short while @ a time. She'll be sadly missed, especially since we were really hoping to take her to the UK with us next year.
'Groinchurn' summed up the show w/ all the energy that they are (in)famous for, & they had the crowd screaming for more. It was a pleasure to play w/ these guys one final time. (Until we jam together in Europe that is.)
So all in all, everyone had a good time, & it's a show that shall be remembered fondly by us owing to its significance.
On the 24th of May 2000 we celebrated the fourth anniversary of our first gig that took place @ 'The Cave' on Wits campus with 'Slug' & 'Sprog'. This shall took place @ Hunters courtesy of Simon Foulds' "Rock Revolution".
'Slugs of War' (The Artistes Formerly Known As 'Slug') played this gig w/ us, making this a completely nostalgic occasion. & they kicked major butt & even played a few old numbers just for us P.I.T.T. boys! U Guys Rule!
The boys from 'Sprog' didn't come to the gig, & only Roger is forgiven as he's in a far-away land!
Our attempt at making noise was thwarted by the fact that we couldn't hear a thing on stage & from what we could tell, neither could anyone else in the club, but I was assured otherwise by fans that tend to be rather obsequious... ;-)
We were sadly forced to play w/o Tamlyn again, as her shoulder was acting up again. :-( But we were able to convince Nick to jam a couple of our old songs w/ us, albeit slightly slower that we normally do, but it was awesome to have him back on stage & to hear those killer leads again.
We also played a new song, 'Flames of Power', for the 1st time, but I doubt that anyone noticed it too much as it was played in combination w/ 'Infernal Flames' as it's meant to be & they flowed seamlessly into each other.
On the 7th of April 2000 we played @ Hunters in Johannesburg as a three piece, with 'Gutted Remains'.
'Gutted Remains' played first, & I must admit that I prefer Johan (X-'Funeral God'/'Mjöllnir') on Vocals (he's playing bass too) cos he's so much more intense than Pete was, & that, for me, makes the whole band more intense & much better to listen to.
The sad news about Friday's gig tho' was that Tamlyn couldn't play owing to a severe chest infection that rendered her bedridden for the weekend, & possibly most of this coming week. I'm going to assume that this was caused by the post-midnight stops in the Karoo on our way back to JHB from CT on Monday night/Tuesday morning... Well let's hope that she recovers quickly.... Cos playing w/o her isn't fun. :-(
& the good news is that Kerryn's fine... He was diagnosed as a diabetic-epileptic owing to a lymph gland/node infection, which if we'd allowed him to rest woulda gone away all on it's own, but since we'd just started a tour he was straining himself. The better news tho' is that he's on a week's course of medication which shall render this illness null & void. Whoo! Whoo!
On the 1st of April 2000 we played @ The Purple Turtle in Cape Town with Grämlich' & 'Sacraphyx'.
We'd like to extend our thanx to FIAT South Africa for sponsoring our tour to the Cape by allowing us to use a FIAT Ulysse [to view info about the car, all U need to do is click on the Virtual Showroom button on the FIAT page & then find the car U're looking for... It looks like a space age van] for transport. Now if we could only afford to buy this as a tour vehicle, we'd definitely do it without a second thought. :-) Thank you FIAT once again!
The venue is really cool & well laid out so that the stage can be seen by everyone in the place, pity that the stage was tiny & there was almost no room to move there... & the smoke machine also made it rather slippery so it was dangerous all around.
Grämlich' sounded even tighter than the night before, & even tho' the audience never left their shadows, typical Goth crowd if U asked me.]
Sadly the banter didn't flow as well here as it did @ The Big Tree, but hey we still did what we could, not our fault the PT patrons are a relatively anal bunch that don't want to have fun... ;-). Regardless we had fun on stage, but that's where the festivities ended for us....
We didn't get to watch 'Sacraphyx', even tho' we really wanted to, cos Kerryn collapsed on us right after our set, & cos we're concerned & panicky when it comes to friends, we rushed him off to the hos-P.I.T.T.-al [man did the P.I.T.T. jokes fly this weekend, & I'll admit that most were P.I.T.T.-icularly P.I.T.T.-iful!], where after 2 hours of tests we were told he was OK & that we could take him home w/ us or leave him overnight, we chose the former.
Luckily we still had Sunday in CT to allow us to rest & party down w/ all the bands that we'd spent the weekend with. That was a blast & even more of a reason to come to CT again. Cheers Dudes!
On the 31st of March 2000 we played @ The Big Tree in the Strand (Cape Town) with Grämlich' & 'Pothole'.
We'd like to extend our thanx to FIAT South Africa for sponsoring our tour to the Cape by allowing us to use a FIAT Ulysse [to view info about the car, all U need to do is click on the Virtual Showroom button on the FIAT page & then find the car U're looking for... It looks like a space age van] for transport. Now if we could only afford to buy this as a tour vehicle, we'd definitely do it without a second thought. :-) Thank you FIAT once again!
The venue itself was wonderful, the stage was spacious, the balcony made for some great photos of the bands on stage & allowed a lot more ppl into the room to watch us play too. Granted the crowd was a lot more subdued for this visit to Cape Town, but hey we came down to party, & that we did, even tho' it was only w/ the other bands rather than the audiences.
Grämlich' just blow me away... everytime I've seen them, this time being the 3rd, they just appear to be getting heavier & heavier, & the new songs (& old for that matter) were 'WOW!!!' These guys are fucking beautiful, & the make up is what does that huh??? (Heh, heh, heh. 'U fruit picking faggots' - Kerryn). & thanx again for putting us up & putting up w/ us for the weekend. We love U guys...
Our set was fast & hectic, & we had great fun playing to the rowdy audience that hurled abuse at us in true Capetonian fashion... POES!
'Pothole' were damned good, not necessarily very tight, but technically they were very impressive, pity that they appear to no longer be too interested in playing gigs anymore... I guess despondence does eventually take it's toll on all ZA Metal musicians... we've played @ or been to our fair share of final gigs... :(
On the 23rd of March 2000 we played @ The Big Easy in Kensington with 'Gorelock' & even tho' it was a mid-week gig there was an okay cool turnout, but it was nowhere near what we were hoping it would be.
We played a fun set w/ the usual amount of banter & cos the atmosphere was rather intimate, we fooled around a lot & hand loads of fun while making plenty of mistakes, it would be really nice to play @ this venue on a weekend sometime & see what kind of crowd response we'd get then.
'Gorelock' kicked butt & were as tight as a duck's arse, they are finding their style well & have a really cool sense of humour to boot, which goes down really well w/ the audience.
We kicked off our mini-tour to promote our Debut EP, Three And A Half Years In The P.I.T.T. ...a collection, in Durban (by the sea) on the 18th of March 2000.
We played w/ 'Hollow Point' @ The Winston, & even tho the gig was very poorly attended & not a single CD was sold, the ppl that were there were treated to some of the best metal in ZA.
This was Dave's (Guitar & Vox for 'Hollow Point') first gig as vocalist, & he pulled it off really well. & the band play really well together & are technically shit hot muso's & really friendly chaps to boot, can't wait to jam w/ them again.
We had a couple of technical difficulties however, like not being allowed to move on stage cos everytime we did we'd be bombarded by feedback, so once we'd settled ourselves into our little niches we played hard & wondered how the salamanders (Durbanites) breathe underwater! We can safely admit to this being the wettest gig we've ever played, & we've even played in the rain, but it was nowhere as hot & humid as it was in that city! Hopefully the next time we play there it shan't be as hot & there shall be twice as many ppl there to support us.
As U're all aware ... WAR Records was pilfered & they have lost everything, so we (the metal bands, who are effected by this in the long run) put together a little benefit gig on the 3rd of March 2000 to see if we could try & assist them & have them retain their sanity. :-)There was a charge of R20 @ the door & all proceeds went to WAR Records.
The line-up was: 'Never'; 'Gorelock'; 'Agro'; P.I.T.T.; 'Groinchurn' & 'Sacrifist'.
We'll tried to start the gig a little earlier than usual owing to the fact that there are 6 bands playing, but as usual things didn't go as planned & we started @ about 21h30 & 'Sacrifist' finished up @ about 02h00 to the few die hards that hung around 'til the end. All the bands put on jolly good shows & WAR were extremely grateful for all the effort that went into the gig.
If U were there thanx for coming & helping out, if U weren't... well U missed out on the best gig since 'Metalennium'.
We also debuted a new song this eve & we think that 'Infernal Flames' sounded pretty good too.
On the 29th of January 2000 we had a gig @ Hunters w/ 'Systems Legacy' [one of SA's premier Gothic-Metal Acts]. There was a Black Label give-away, & even a CD or 2.
The turn-out was pretty decent & I really enjoyed what I heard from 'SL', which sadly wasn't much as I had to man the door during their set, I hope to catch them next time they have a gig.
Our set was fun, we all enjoyed ourselves on stage & w/ only a few minor tweaks to the overall sound we had the crowd behind us all the way. We even had a few ppl bouncing around again, & that's always a nice change @ a Hunters gig. The gig was video taped, so we'll actually be able to decide afterwards how good it really was, but 'til then I'm gonna stick to this assessment.
On the 11th of January 2000 we played @ Roxy's w/ 'Never Machine Forever'.
For a change the bands started on time (22h00) & we hit the stage first.
The sound off stage was really good, but the sound on stage wasn't. Kerryn couldn't always hear Stef's guitar & it made a couple of songs messy, but all in all it went really well. Marco managed to give himself a blood-nose by banging his nose against his knee whilst in mid air, he was the only one amused by this, everyone else was rather indifferent. :(
The 100 ppl strong crowd appeared to enjoy our set & watched from avidly from the sidelines.
'Never Machine Forever' did what they did best & kicked butt while doing so. The audience being predominantly their fans @ least 'got down' to them a lot easier than they did to us, as did we. :)
On the 7th of January 2000 we played @ The Big Easy in Kensington with 'Gorelock'. It was our first gig of the new year & the 70 odd ppl that were there appeared to enjoy our set.
The sound on stage was a it of an issue (owing to the lack of monitors) so we weren't as tight as we could've been if we could've heard each other.
'Gorelock' delivered a tremendous performance, these guys are getting better all the time, & I'm starting to like their stuff more & more too.
On the 13th of November 1999 played with 'Groinchurn'; 'Misericord' & 'Apocalypse' @ Cobblers Bar & Grill in Lambton.
This was meant to be our first venture @ a gig with 'Dark Light Promotions', & to take place @ Hunters, but owing to more than a few issues that arose w/ them we decided to do this somewhere else where we wouldn't be screwed over for trying to play a gig. :(
Well I could rant & rave about this gig, but I shan't 'cos it was done as a favour & birthday present, so I'll just say that all the bands played well & the sound was pretty good, & there was a pretty decent amount of band camaraderie throughout the evening & all the bands had a nice chilled evening getting to know each other quite well & I'll say that that was the highlight of the evening.
The Metalennium.... THIS was going to be the mother of all gigs! 12 bands, plus DJs and metal videos on BIG SCREEN!! It started @ 2pm, and it did go on 'til the small hours (well we played @ 1am). This was meant to show that metal is alive, and VERY much kicking in rusty old SA...
Well the 350 or so ppl that showed up had a pretty good time, there were a couple of minor skirmishes but that's just cos there's always way too much testosterone at these things & not enuff wimmin. & I don't remember hearing any DJ's or seeing any videos, but hey I was there all day, what would I know. ;)
This gig took place at Carfax, 39 Pim Street, Newtown; on the 23rd of October 1999. The bands that played were (in order):
'Shabach' went on first (& on time no less) & were a melodic 'Viking Metal' sounding band.
'Dark Millennium' are a middle of the road Death metal band from Durban, sadly nothing very exciting.
'Decay Into Light' played their first gig ever @ Metalennium. Their sound is cross black & death, but they need to practice more & trying to play sober might be an idea too.
'Hollow Point' are a very cool metal band from Durban, guitar & vocally orientated stuff, & very technical (ala 'Life of Agony') but could do with a bit more stage presence.
'Misericord' played for far too long & made everything start to fall behind schedule... :) They were damn good even tho' a little longwinded.
'Demacretia' played their electronic death metal, & well.
'Sacraphyx' were as heavy as FUCK, & Adrian (drummer of 2 weeks) did a great job keeping them pumping. These guys rocked, & being biased may have a little to do with it. :)
'Crystal Dawn' need to get some kind of stage act going. Musically they are really good, but they are damn borning to watch as they do nothing on stage.
'Mjöllnir' are looking for trouble with all kinda of ppl. Their panda paint & spikes really looked good, the inverted crosses were fine, but the bloody pig's head was a bit much, & the fact that they were using other ppl's equipment on stage didn't appear to deter them from getting blood on everything. Musically, they are a good black metal band, probably SA's best, but what are they trying to prove?? That they need gimicks to sell their music? Why ppl? Let the music sell itself!
'Sacrifist' proved why they have accquired such a good reputation, they were tight & well rehearsed & sporting a complete line-up overhaul, & it's taken us nearly 4 years before we got to share a stage w/ them, this was long overdue.
'Groinchurn' were intense but they appeared to be a little tired & not really into what they were doing.
& then we played last. Almost everyone had left by the time we hit the stage, Stef wasn't feeling well @ all, so we kept it short & too the point. We played only fast stuff & a new song called 'Shrouds of Darkness' which I think went down really well. Not much else to say about this.
For an outsider's POV on the gig go to the SA Metal Gig Review & see what was said there.
On the 9th of October 1999 we recorded & mixed 'Morosity' at B# Studios for a Goth/Black Metal compilation. The final product is amazing & well worth listening to.
On the 8th of October 1999 we shall played w/ 'Rapture' @ Vaughn's in Edenvale.
The venue is definitely not conducive to having live bands play there, & the attitude of the owner also left a lot to be desired, especially since we weren't being paid anything for the gig.
We played 1st & tried to keep the sound down, cos there were complaints of us being too loud [I thought metal was meant to be LOUD, wanker!], & playing to a listless audience never does well for morale or for desire to put on a good show, so the set coulda been better, but all things considered it actually went rather well.
This was the 1st time we've played w/ 'Rapture' in quite some time, & they are also sporting a new line up which appeared to be working rather well for them. They are definitely playing their brand of 'old school' metal very well & enjoy themselves while doing it.
On Thursday the 23rd of September 1999 we played with Groinchurn @ Hunters.
The Friday was a public holiday, so there were no excuses for not coming through to the gig. It had been quite some time since we played & even longer since we played with Groinchurn.
The covert charge @ the door was R12 as there was a 2nd dance floor open which played Gothic, Black Metal & Punk all night.
The turnout was pretty good for the gig, but more ppl sat & watched the bands than got involved in the pit, & that's always a sad thing @ Hunters, but we were happy to have a big audience so what did we care.
There were a few sound issues that plagued us for the 1st few songs, but those were all eventually sorted out. The fact that we hadn't practiced in a month was clearly felt by us, but no-one else seemed to notice, so we'll take that as a good thing. By the end of our set we had loosened up quite a bit & the crowd started getting more involved, pity it was a little too late.
When Groinchurn hit the stage things were very different, the sound probs during our set weren't repeated & they appeared to be having a good time on stage, & that feeling is always infectious, so the crowd got going & even a mosh or 2 ensued, which is always hell on the slippery, especially when it's covered in beer.
Let's just hope that the gig on the 13th on November will be better for all with even more people attending.
For an outsider's POV on the gig go to the SA Metal Gig Review & see what was said there.
On the 24th & 26th of August 1999 we went into the studio [B# Studios to B precise] to record 'The Hand That Feeds' for New Breed Vol.2.
All that we can say is that JP De Stefani is 'god', there was only so much he could do, & it was all miracles.
This is the best we've ever sounded, & Kerryn's drum intro sounds fucking tribal as all hell.
While we were there we also had JP master our soon to be released CD, & U shall all soon hear what a stunning job he did of that.
On Sunday the 18th of June 1999 we played 'The Tuliphant Benefit Concert'.
First, thank you to every one who volunteered to help with things such as collecting donations at the gate, etc. A huge thank you to the sponsors - Howey Sound, The inZone and Russel for supplying the stage, lighting etc.
The bands played in the following order 'Abreaction'; 'Never Machine Forever'; 'P.I.T.T.'; 'ten Athlone'; 'Leery'; 'Almost Tomorrow'; 'Midnight Sun'; & 'Granny Smith'. 'Amersham' didn't play as things were getting too cold & the crowd were more keen on going home than having to wait for them to set-up & play.
There was a R5 donation asked at the gate, and also collecting elephant toys, as have been requested by the Johannesburg Zoo. All proceeds will be donated to the Standard Bank Tuli Elephant fund.
If you wish to find out how things went, please phone or mail on 083 706 9239. But from what I've been told near R10 000 was made during the course of the day. :)
The concert started at 11h00 on Sunday 18th July and the venue was The inZone.
We only watched the first 4 bands play (us being the third ones). 'Abreaction' & 'ten Athlone' were acoustic rock bands & went down well for the mellow crowd that had gathered on the early afternoon.
There was alos a brief talk hosted by a representative of P.E.T.A., which was really well done.
'Never Machine Forever' sounds cool, but were plagued by sound problems on stage (as were we) so they weren't as tight as usual, & the definite lack of support, from the sadly sore early turnout, didn't do wonders for their moral. But I enjoyed them & got myself nicely worked up for our set.
Plagued by similar sound problems on stage, our set had plenty of mistakes & cos of the enormous amount of feedback we were also trapped on a small part of the otherwise huge stage where we could play without blowing eardrums.
We still had a lot of fun & the coolest part, for us at least, about the show was that we were screened on SABC News that evening, possibly cos we were such a shock to the system, compared to the tamer bands that played. But since all our hearts were in the right place it's a P.I.T.T.y there wasn't more about our concert on TV.
The JHB launch of the NB CD was held at the Edenvale Community Centre on the 9th of July 1999.
The venue itself was amazing. It was large, the acoustics were wonderful, the stage was HUGE & the facilities great. The sound was clear & the bands kicked butt. The lights were 'wow' & we know whom to call if we ever need such a large rig in future.
Special thanx to for compering the gig & giving out the nifty prizes that were to be had. Extra special thanx to "Rudy's Tattoos" in Pretoria, for over a thousand Rand's worth of vouchers they gave away to our audience.
Pity about the major lack of an audience. I'm not complaining to the 80 or so people that came to the gig, cos they were great & had a party. It was just the fact that the gig felt like a total loss owing to the fact that we organised so much to make it successful, only to have the apathy of the masses make it fall very short of expectations. I guess we won't bother trying to expect so much in future, I guess when U expect the worst you're never disappointed, so we'll have to live like that.
The bands that played were 'Morthor'; 'Gorelock'; 'P.I.T.T.'; & 'Grämlich'. All of whom I'd like to thank for putting on a killer show & never complaining about our lot in the scheme of things.
'Morthor' played hard & fast & really got the crowd going w/ their aggressive musical onslaught.
'Gorelock' were their usual funny selves & the crowd loved their 'treffer' "Jack the Necrophiliac" singing along to the chorus.
We did what we could & had fun while we were doing it, we also managed to incite a couple of moshes which is always a good thing, man how nice it would've been to have had a mosh pit a few hundred people strong...
Then Grämlich' took the stage to make the evening complete. They truly blew me away this time. In CT I was kinda listening to them half heartedly (we I was getting ready to go on stage) but this time... WOW I loved their stuff. The sombre 'Morosity' [heh, heh, heh] of their music saddened & exhilarated me. I was also saddened that very few others appeared to have enjoyed their stuff as much as I did. But hey, I guess there's no accounting for taste, even my own. Don't ever change guys, please!
We went down to Cape Town on the 2nd of July to play on the 3rd of July 1999 @ The Jam, & if U needed directions U could've used this map, & we drove back to JHB on the 4th of July... A grand total of 3000km's in 3 days.
The venue was wonderful, it had a backstage area for the bands & the stage was a decent height & large enough for to accommodate all the bands comfortably & even had enough room for us to go berserk & behave like hooligans. & I've now put up some pics of our New Breed Cape Town Launch, hope U enjoy them.
The bands that played were, in order, 'Grämlich'; 'V'; 'P.I.T.T.' & 'Sacraphyx'. The gig was well attended & all the bands had a good evening.
Grämlich' have an awesome stage show, they covered the stage w/ red candles & turn the lights down & then blast you with their doomy melodies.
'V' were their usual intense selves, but appeared to be having more fun than normal.
We had as much fun as we possible could & the energy that we spent onstage belied the fact that we were all still rather tired from out long journey to the Cape.
'Sacraphyx' were loud & heavy, they went down really well too. They even managed to get the crowd stage diving & moshing, with a little help from the 'P.I.T.T.' boys of course.
Cape Town was great fun & if all goes according to plan we'll be able to play there again rather soon.
The PTA launch of the NB CD was on the 25th of June 1999 at 'Mermaids' (Ex-Dockyard Tavern) in Centurion. Which turned out to be a killer venue & definitely a place we'd like to perform at again.
The bands that played were 'P.I.T.T.'; 'Nocturnal Dominion'; 'Morthor'; and 'Gorelock'. & all delivered a powerful performance which included killer sound which was appreciated by the audience from their response. The turnout was great & if we were to play like this everytime we did in PTA then we would definitely make a habit of doing so.
We also played a new song What a Beautiful World & it went down a storm.
On the 2nd of June 1999, South African Election Day, we played, what turned out to be a free gig, @ The Big Easy with 'Gorelock'. This was our first gig w/ them & @ a venue. It's a nice venue with a cool stage, dance floor & a PA of their own.
I'm assuming that cos the 2nd was a public holiday, that everyone went out on the 1st & were getting a good night's rest instead of coming out to watch us play.
The last time we saw 'Gorelock' they sounded very different (3 years ago at the Wings Battle of the Bands). Their sound is pretty cool, kinda thrash metal is, but that's about as much as I can classify, cos any more wouldn't be true, it's too unique to describe in terms of other bands or anything.
We played OK, considering we hadn't practiced in 2 weeks. It's definitely something we shan't do again too soon. I shall admit though that no-one but us noticed it, but it's our opinion about our music that counts, & we want to be the best & we can't achieve that by being sloppy.
The sound was pretty cool for both bands & Stefan would like to thank Glen (Gorelock) for the use of his wireless set-up, he was about as happy as a pig in shit to us it. :) Best Dave finish Stefan's one before he gets whiney about it.
On the 1st of June 1999 between 23h00 & 24h00 (GMT+2:00) we were on the PowerZone PowerChat to answer any questions & to chat in general.
We were told that the most people that they'd ever had chatting at one time was 12.... Well we shattered that record by having on average 24 people connect for the most of the session, and we chatted to about 40 or so people in total.
We were having so much fun that even though we were meant to only chat for an hour we remained connected for 2 & a half hours, & we still had to drag Kerryn away kicking & screaming.
Thanx to UUNET Internet Africa for the use of PC's & your 2Meg Line for making sure that the chat went smoothly for us without any delay/lag or any nasty TCP/IP disconnections that the dial users appeared to be plagues with.
We made loads of new friends & hope that they all stay in contact too.
We all had so much fun. We'd love to do this again some time. Maybe even at a decent hour so we can chat for longer & have more people hanging onto our every word.
On the 22nd of May 1999 played at Hunters with 'Sacraphyx' (From Cape Town) & 'Never Machine Forever'. There were more people there than we thought there would be & vibe was great. We weren't plagued by as many sound problems as on the 21st, so the bands were happier on stage.
'NMF' seemed to have the most support, but with a sound like 'Soulfly' & 'Korn' it is to be expected. :) They kicked major butt & we'll definitely play with them again.
Sad though is the fact that we were too heavy for 80% of the audience, cos they let halfway through our set, which meant there was only 20 or so people that remained to watch 'Sacraphyx', whom played last. But they were having fun, so it concerned them very little. & owing to this fact they shall definitely be returning to JHB in the future to jam with us again, & they want us to go to CT to play sometime soon too.
On the 21st of May 1999 played at Spriggans, a new Club (opened 7th May 1999), it's situated at 187 DF Malan Drive in Northcliff Johannesburg, with 'Sacraphyx' (from Cape Town). We were the first band to play there... :) That's cos we put 'Sacraphyx' on after us....
Anyway it was great gig @ a new venue, so lets keep the place rocking & let it know how things are meant to happen.
We had a couple of sound problems at the beginning of the gig, but those were quickly sorted out & we proceeded to show the crowd how heavy SA bands can be.
The venue, though small, is very intimate & the interaction between bands & crowd flowed effortlessly. 'Sacraphyx' are definitely the heaviest band we've ever played with. They are damn good @ what they do & tight as hell. & as an added bonus they are damn nice guys too & we very quickly became good friends, & this is something we always enjoy making regardless of whether they happen to be in bands of not. See you guys soon.
On the 14th of May 1999 we appeared Live on M-Net's 'Live@5'. They conducted a brief (4mins) interview & played 'Little White Room' in the background while chatting to us. It went rather well, & as usual we spoke our mind & seemed to have brought up a couple of subjects that made the presenters want to cut us off, but hey we're controversial & that's what we enjoy doing.
Witchdoctor Records' first release, New Breed Vol. 1 Compilation has 15 of the Heaviest SA Bands on it.
The First gig for the Compilation took place on 7th of May 1999 @ Y2K in Durban. The line-up for the gig was 'Demacretia'; 'P.I.T.T.'; 'Groinchurn'; 'V'; & 'Nocturnal Dominion'. The venue itself was amazing. It was nice & spacious with a decent stage & a killer rig. From the way the sound-check went Durbs was going to be blown away. But sadly whatever the soundman was doing during the sound-check he didn't repeat for the gig itself. Every band sounded horrible. The vocals kept coming & going (& for 'Groinchurn' so did the sound every time Mark landed back on stage from a leap into the air). We won't even go into the sound on stage... yes, it was THAT bad.
'Demacretia' are really good, I don't like their drum sound, but that's just a matter of what they like and are going for. They are really nice guys & easy to get along with, & we'll definitely make plans to jam w/ them in JHB sometime soon.
Straight after we played the soundman came up to us & crapped all over for swapping mics around & generally blamed us for the crap sound he gave us. & then to add insult to injury & told us (infront of all the bands) that Marco shouldn't sing & that Stefan should take care of all the vocal duties. Granted that he as a good voice, but we just took his opinion in the same way he did sound.
'Groinchurn' sounded good other than the problems described above.
'V' sounded really good, even tho they were using a drum machine instead of a drummer.
'Nocturnal Dominion' were a cross Gothenburg Death Metal/Black Metal band. They were damn good, but sadly their sound was lacking which deterred from any listening enjoyment.
On a side note that has nothing do w/ the gig, well kind of, but not really. P.I.T.T. would like to thank the traffic cop that pulled us over on the way to Durban for FUCKING lying to us & saying that the fine would come to R500 & then asking for a bribe instead... especially when we got stopped again on the way back doing the same speed & the fine only came to R175.... But I guess a saving of R75 was made regardless, so we didn't really loose out too much. & now we too have joined the legions of people that have bribed out wonderful Police Force.
On Saturday 8th May 1999 we played @ the Buzz Bar in Pietermaritzburg with 'Demacretia'; 'Groinchurn' & 'V'. ['Nocturnal Dominion' had their car broken into in Durban & lost their bass guitar & effects pedal, so they decided to return home to Bloemfontein rather than play their second gig.]
This could've been a tremendous gig, but sadly there had been little to no advertising for it, so we had almost an empty club. But we (all the bands) agreed that the vibe there was much better than in Durban, & it may have had a little to do w/ the fact that we could actually hear ourselves on stage & that can do wonders for a bands morale. Thanks again to Reinhart for doing a killer job of the sound, with a little help from Stefan. All the bands had more fun & lots more energy on stage this evening than they did the night before, & that also made for a much better gig. This is definitely a place worth playing again.
On 24 April 1999 - world day for laboratory animals, we played @ the following gig with 'Angelic Fraud', 'Plum', 'Tidal Wave', 'Watershed', 'Ethel My Love', & 'Danny De Wet and the Lowveld Garage Band', and an extra band that turned up but wasn't on the bill, Mavis.
It was a benefit concert put on by South Africans for the Abolition of Vivisection (SAAV) to raise some funds for their cause & to inform the general public of the issue @ hand.
The concert was held at the "Bohemian Club", 5 Park Road, Richmond, Johannesburg. It was meant to be an open-air concert in which Park Road would be closed especially for the event, but owing to the fact that it rained for the 2 days prior to the gig, it was held indoors.
ETV were to be there to record the occasion, I wonder if they came, cos I didn't see a single camera @ the event.
As for the gig: the sound was superb, the sound-guy knew his stuff, he may not have been into all the styles of music that were played but he gave everyone really good sound, & 'AF' & ourselves sounded fucking brilliant.
A couple of gripes were the fact that some bands didn't appear to be there for anything other than publicity reasons & said nothing about what SAAV stood for or anything about the subject @ all. Others just had a blatant disregard for the fact that we were on a schedule, & with us being the last band to play we were not amused when they played a set double the length stipulated by the organisers of the event.
We went on 02h30 & had a blast, the few remaining people seems to enjoy our stuff, for were too tired to last as long as we did, so we had a captive, seated, audience.
We also played a new son Sweetest Child for the first time. All in all I think it was a success, but have no idea whether any funds were actually raised @ the gig for SAAV. Oh well we did our bit.
While chatting to the friendly people from BOP-TV we were asked to come & play live for an hour on their show. & even though we were only given 2 days notice to do so, we jumped @ the chance.
So on Friday the 5th of March 1999 played live all over Africa (Digital Satellite TV rules). The show was broadcast from 14h00 to 15h00 (+2:00 GMT).
They've asked us to try get 100 fans to this gig (we can only pray that we get that kind of turn out). & we obviously didn't pray hard enough cos we only got 1 person to the show. This was to cover costs for the studio & engineer & stuff, which we got for free now, cos they couldn't bill us for something we had no control over.
The show went really well, even though we all had more fun & energy during the 90min sound check. But as we've had no feedback on this gig we really have no idea what ppl thought or anything else for that matter.
On the 27th of February 1999 we played with 'Angelic Fraud' at Crush! (8 Ameshof St, Braamfontein, X-Wings venue).
The gig was reasonably well attended. & 'AF' sounded really tight, & a comment I got from someone when asked an opinion about them said: "They're too heavy to be a Goth band w/ the guitar sound they have & the heavy drums, & they're too melodic to be a Metal band, so I guess they're kinda stuck in-between." & I kinda realised that's exactly why I like them so much.
Marco played w/ his new toy for the first time, & the looks of shock when vocals were heard when everyone knew he was on the other side of the room will definitely make having a cordless mic worth the effort.
We also played a new song Nightmare Skies for the first time, & it sounded really good for something that was written & performed in 2 weeks.
On the 12th of Jan '99 we played live on Marco ran around like a lunatic to collect & put back in Kerryn's reach) & the fact that Marco had trouble speaking between songs, everything went very smoothly.
Eugene (engineer @ the M3 Studio) gave us a great sound. Thanx to Simon Foulds for making this possible, & sorry for swearing on radio even though you told us not to... :)
While we were there we were asked by if we were prepared to be interviewed live during their Metal show between 2 & 4 am. We, of course, accepted & were live on TV which was broadcast throughout Africa from Cape Town to Cairo. & yes we were loud & rude & swore there too. But they invited us back & asked if they could create a music video for us, like we'd ever say no to that. So all in all it was a very hectic night.
We had also secured a residency @ Hunters (The Jungle) for every Friday night from 'October '98 'til Jan '99 & we started on 16th October.
We played w/ a different band each week, that way they got some exposure & use of our PA & we got to play to their fans. Hopefully this venture will go down well [sadly it didn't go down as well as we'd hoped, but that was through no fault of ours or the clubs... exams suck]. As of the 6th of November we decided to play @ most biweekly for the rest of the residency there. & that occurred & we haven't played there @ all in '99 at the time of this update. [14/1/99]
We played on the 26th of December 1998 (@ Hunters) on our own cos no-one else was interested in playing w/ us. But this suited us just fine, cos we set-up nice & quickly, & packed up even faster, & we only played to a nice close group of friends & some foreigners [Stephen (ex-Retribution Denied) & his Kiwi girlfriend, which came to watch us from the UK. (They were married on the 10th of April 1999 in the UK.)] & we had a really nice gig, it wasn't too loud, but it was nice & clear & we had a blast. Not much else we could ask for for our last gig of the year.
On the 19th of December 1998 we played @ Toad's Club on DF Malan with 'Metal Orizon' from Botswana. This was the venue's last gig in its current location & we both rocked the place.
The gig was called 'A Nightmare Before Christmas'. & that's pretty much what it was. The turn-out was probably the worst we've had at any gig this year even though the sound was probably the best.
'Metal Orizon' rocked, but sadly they didn't have much of an audience & their songs are too longwinded for the average metalhead, so they lost alot of attention that way. Once Toads re-establishes itself we're definitely playing there again.
On the 4th of December 1998 we played with a new band from Pre-fucking-toria called 'Not My Dog'. & they were 'Korn' all the way, but this style of music is done so much better by other local bands like 'Seed' that I thought they were wasted.
They weren't tight & their soundman is an arrogant prick who 'know everything'. The band on the other hand appeared cool, but since they never bothered to actually speak to us, we'll never really know.
Our sound was great for a change, we actually did a sound check & it was necessary cos we had to reset-up the entire stage & drum kit anyway, so what was an extra few minutes.... & then we played to an empty club.
We have one more gig at Hunters for this year, & the we're not going to play there anywhere near as regularly as this, cos it's killing us playing to our girlfriends, cos the other bands leave the room when U're on.
The Morgan's Cat/Radiopark Studios Battle of the Unsigned Bands we played on the 11th of October '98 was won by us & we played in the semi-final on the 29th of November 1998.
What should have been fun, certainly wasn't. The stage was too small & crapped with too many speakers packed all over the place.
We played against 'Lady Zero' which were OK, but I'm sure their sound will mature as soon as they do.
'Shove' were a bunch of arrogant wankers, but that may have been a charade & were as commercial as all hell.
'Liquid Sky', who won, & not a single one of us actually saw them play, or saw them for that matter so I can pass no judgement... But if they were even slightly better than the other bands justice was served, cos we were horrible but it was more a situation thing than a band thing, cos the drums kept moving & we could hear nothing... but alas we were too tired to care by then so... 'til the next time.
'Slugs of War' played their first Post Battle of the Bands Victory gig with us on the 27th of November 1998 at Hunters.
The turn-out was pretty good, but sadly the crowd was their usual sedate seated selves & 'Slugs' didn't get the response they were accustomed to & they struggles to keep up their good humour & viby banter. They did rock though & played their metal anthem 'Slugs' & that went down real well.
Our set was rather loose owing to 3 weeks of not practising, but crowd response was favourable & mosh & headbanging was unsurpassable & better than any other gig we've played there in the past month.
We won the semi-final for the T.O.M.S. BoB @ Roxy's & played in the final at the MegaMusic Warehouse on the 7th of November 1998.
Doors opened & 19h00 & the first band was meant to start @ 20h00 (we only ran 30mins late which was astounding) & we played with 'Slugs of War'; 'Tryst'; 'Sublemon'; 'Study David'; 'Lickerish'; 'Deep Kick' & 'Wasabi'.
This was a really great gig. It was recorded live to be broadcast on Sunday the 8th on 5fm, but owing to technical difficulties was only be broadcast on the 15th [which was a sham if U asked me, we were promised 15mins of airtime & got 7 (which was twice as much as other bands, so they were really robbed) & the sound was horrible]. The show was also being videotaped to be broadcast on 'Live@5'.
& now onto the antics for the night:'Slugs! Slugs! Slugs! Slugs! Slugs! Slugs!' The chant rang out as they were announced as victors in the T.O.M.S. Battle of the bands, which runners up 'Wasabi' & 'Sublemon'.
'Slugs of War' stole the show with their antics & comedy driven music & had P.I.T.T. taking to the air & stage-diving all the way. They deserved their victory.... but I can't say I agree with the other choices at all... but then I'm fucking biased.
'Tryst' were fucking awesome & sounded the best we've ever heard them, not that anyone in the PITT was actually listening to 'em... we were way to busy having the mosh of their career. I haven't seen that many stage-divers since the Napalm Death gig back in '93. They deserved to be in the final & I'm pretty sure everyone in the mosh agrees that they should've been in the last three with us included. But sadly we're Metal bands & even though the gig was well attended, Metal was definitely not the key attraction for the night, or for the judges, with the mellowest music taking top prizes.
'Groinchurn' played with us on the 6th of November 1998 at the Jungle (Which is now changing its name back to Hunters). The gig was very poorly attended & we've decided to play @ most biweekly for the rest of the residency there.
We played with 'Funeral God' [this was their last gig as 'Funeral God', they have since changed their name to Mjöllnir] & 'Gutted Remains' on Hallowe'en '98 @ Strange Daze in PTA.
We had a pretty decent turn out, even tho' we had more than 70 'locals' turn up that were militant in the fact that they were not going to pay to see the bands. Sadly this appears to be the policy of the club so we went home several hundred Rand lighter than we ought've.
Other than that we had a pretty decent gig, we all had our faces nicely painted in Maori war masks & 'Funeral God' wore traditional Black Metal casket paint.
'Bedlam' played with us on the 30th of November 1998 @ the Jungle. Sadly the turn out was dismal & the bands kinda played to themselves, there were plenty of reasons for this, but we shan't go into them, I couldn't be bothered.
We played at the Jungle with 'Funeral God' on the 23rd of October 1998, & even tho' the turnout was dismal the crowd was the most raucous that we've had in the last few at the venue. I guess exams are rearing their ugly heads & people would rather stay home & study than come watch killer bands.
'Funeral God' kicked major butt & the keyboards added another dimension to their sound that I thought was nice & moody.
We played with 'Angelic Fraud' [Ex-'Rabbi Adolf'] on the 16th of October 1998 at the Jungle & even tho' the gig wasn't as well attended as we would've hoped, we still had a decent turnout. The crowd was about as responsive as a Goth crowd would every be, but fun was had by all, I hope, & the bands sounded killer w/ amazing clarity on the vocals for a change.
On Sunday the 11th of October 1998 we played two gigs:
The first was @ Morgan's Cat for their Battle of the Bands. Where we played against 'Crystal Dawn' & 'Placid Fun'. We won & are now going to playing in the semi-final.
The second was for the semi-final for the T.O.M.S. BoB @ Roxy's later that night.
We played against 'Leery', 'Thirteen', 'Sublemon', 'Ten Athlone' & 'Pestroy'. 'Sublemon' & ourselves went thru to the final.
The crowd was pretty responsive & even tho the other bands had an 'air of superiority' about them, we put them all in their places. Let's see what the final brings....
On Saturday the 10th of October 1998 we played at the Doors Night-club in Marshall St, JHB. with 'Cryogenic', 'Groinchurn' & 'M.P.D.' (JHB). 'Pothole' (CT) never arrived to play... not good form @ all chaps.
This was also Doorstock '98 & there were around 800-1000 people there. This was definitely the best gig we've ever played & with Tony [Cryogenic's sound eng.] behind the desk we expected nothing less...
As for the rest of the bands... MPD were too 'stoned' to play well & I thought that that was as bad form as not arriving, & GC kicked butt as usual & 'Cryo' said that it was the best gig on their tour. Way to go Doors.
On Friday 9th October 1998 'Cryogenic', 'Groinchurn' & P.I.T.T. played at The Olympians Hall, Vanderbijlpark. A good 250 ppl came to the show, which was in a huge gymnasium. The only problem was there was a fair amount of seating in the form of stands, & 90% of the crowd kept their rumps firmly planted there. Other than that it was damn cool.
We played with 'Cryogenic' & 'Groinchurn' & 'Funeral God' on Wednesday 07 October 1998 at Strange Daze in Pretoria.
The venue itself was huge, but the room the bands played in was rather small & Hot as Hell in Summer (I guess... [we were all sweating & the crowd hadn't even arrived yet]).
The crowd were really enthusiastic & gave all the bands 100% support & we haven't seen that much moshing in a bloody long time. It was cool!
On Tuesday the 22nd of September 1998 we played at T.O.M.S. Battle of the Bands at Roxy'sagainst 'Obscene Filth', 'Rapture', 'Pet Flys' & 'V'.
Maximum support was appreciated on this venture, so all those who came along were well rewarded. & just for the record 'Obscene Filth' & ourselves went through to the next round.
On Friday the 18th of September 1998 we played at 'The Jungle'. & Since we didn't get the turnout we got on the 4th, the party was definitely not as festive, but the people that were there were treated to the debut of a new song & the atmosphere was very relaxed with people lounging in chairs at the foot of the stage (those also happened to be the people that were headbanging, so they were allowed to). Plus there was DJ JP (of Fuzzy Gish fame), whom made lots of noise while we weren't & did a great job on the lights too.
Tamlyn even postponed a weekend away to play this gig, I hope she found it worthwhile.
On Friday the 4th of September 1998 we returned to the gigging scene.
We played our first gig in 4 (yes that's four & not three as I originally stated) months.
We played with the new sensations from Bloem 'Tryst', who went through to the next round at the Roxy's Battle of the Bands on the 6th. This was their first gig in Jhb, once they finally managed to arrive in the city @ 01h00 on the 5th owing to car trouble.
A unique thing about this gig was that we debuted our bass guitarist, Tamlyn, & 'Tryst' too have a babe on the bass. So .... the hottest metal bands in SA united to prove that babes & metal can mix.
This all took place at 'The Jungle' formerly Hunters on the corner of Hillcrest & Conrad Drive, Blairgowrie, Randburg. Beer & Cider was sold at R3.50 all night, for all U cheapskates that only arrived once U knew that U could get trashed for nearly nothing.
Sadly there was a Covert Charge of R7.00 at the door. This is cos we (the bands) have expenses... & Tryst needed petrol & car maintenance money after all. ;)
On Tuesday the 23rd of June 1998 we were s'posed to play @ the Doors Nightclub, but since the newly started 'Metal Nights' which is on Tuesdays (formerly Student Night) rather than the Thursdays of old has already been cancelled owing to a lack of interest, the gig in now scheduled to take place on one of the last Saturday's in July. As soon as a date & second band are confirmed the info shall appear on this page.
& As U can well figure out this never happened. :(
We played with 'Gutted Remains' @ their 'CD launch', which was infact just a celebration of the fact that they had completed the recording of their CD, on the 9th of May 1998.
This gig did not go smoothly, during our second song Filippo broke an 'E' string on the bass (which was quickly replaced by Pete of 'GR', & then during the 'GR' set Bronze broke his 'E' string on his guit & Taylor made the biggest hole I've ever seen in a bass drum velum. But other than that we all had fun & a great sense of camaraderie came about during all our setbacks.
On Friday the 24th April 1998 we played with 'Angelic Fraud'(X-'Rabbi Adolf'), 'Flying Circus', 'Lowvelt Garage Band', 'Seed' & 'Plum' @ Wings Beat Bar for the "Animal Liberation Day" gig orginised by SAAV.
The last 2 bands were organised on the day of the gig cos 'No Friends of Harry', 'Karoo', & 'Godzoo' couldn't play. 'NFOH's bassist dad passed away, so he went to CT, a member from 'Karoo's wife went into labour that afternoon, & a member of 'Godzoo' was in an automobile accident.
The bands went on in order of heaviness, so we played last, & went down a storm, we played 2 encores & it was a most enjoyable gig for all concerned, & a worthy cause to boot.
We also played a rather cool gig at the Horwood's Farm Craft Market on the 5th of April 1998. It wasn't too well organised by/with us, but we all had fun & the little kids seen bopping around seemed to too. Not much more to say about this one that's for sure....
On the 4th of April 1998 we played a gig @ Icon (Marshal St. JHB) with "Rabbi Adolf" (Who are now called 'Angelic Fraud'), "Abstract Evil Barbee", "Damn The Icebergs" & "Under Sided".
This was the first "Culture Clash" gig with each band bringing in something unique & different to add to the ambience of the gig.
Since we were all so completely different musically everybody was catered for, but U can never make everyone happy sadly & during the sadder more morose bands people were getting bored. & the audience was also extremely noncommittal when it came to supporting the bands... there was a good turn out but there was never any feedback from the crowd while we all played, & that's always disheartening.
But we had fun & I guess that's all that counts. We also played as a 5 piece for the first time in nearly a year, with Filippo on lead & Bernard on bass, & we're sounding real good now with the full sound we've been lacking for the last 9 months.
On the 7th of March 1998, Purple Turtle Records, had a release/launching party @ Wings for Victory Records, which they have distribution rights for.
We played with 'Deviate' & 'Leek' (a band from Pretoria) & this was a party to remember.
Entrance was R10 & U will have received a free Victory records compilation, if U arrived nice & early. The Comp is way cool.
'Leek' were a real fun band to bounce around to.
'PTR' on the otherhand never even came & said a word to us, so I can't really say anything about them... but I heard they were a bit upset with us cos we played for an hour... but without comunication how were we s'posed to know they wanted shorter sets?
We played @ Wings on the 14th of February 1998 for the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" with 'Seed'. Sadly 'Chocolate Mousse Brigade' never arrived to take the stage, & since no-one really knew who they are we have no way of finding out why.
The idea that Wings now plans to implement for all gigs with more than one band is: if U bring a flyer that the band you came to see gave U, U pay half price @ the door & the club pays the band a bit extra, nice deal no?
We played with 'Groinchurn' & 'Infectious Outbreak' in Vanderbijlpark as support bands for 'Krabathor' who toured SA from Europe, on the 7th of February 1998.
The gig was killer, the sound ruled, & I'm not just saying that cos the PA was ours, but cos the sound was really well done.
'Krabathor' are extremely tight, but sadly in my opinion very dull live, whereas 'Groinchurn' are the spunkiest, most lively bad in SA music, & this rubs off on the people going insane infront of them. A thoughly good time was had by all.
On Thursday nights The Doors Night-club used to have a Metal night, where decent music was played for a change. They've decided to do this again, but on a biweekly schedule this time. But.... there's an added bonus this time! They also plan on having a metal band play there each night too. & being the trend-setters that we are, we were the first band to play there on the 29th of January 1998. & it was a FUCKING blast, & we had the best sound we've ever had @ a gig... & we were "tighter than a duck's ass" to quote a fan who's been @ more than a few gigs.
On Friday the 5th of December 1997, well it was actually a midnight gig we played on the 6th, but I digress, we played @ Wings for the 'Skunk Anansie' afterparty.
It was a free gig and there was the possibility that the band should be making an appearance there too, which I actually assume failed as this was not the case.
We'd like to thank Andrew for his undying support & actually playing more gigs for us this year than any of our permanent bassists, BTW he played with us on this gig after Marco finished playing the songs that we were going to play. & Kerryn got himself a new set of pedals on that afternoon, which he promptly broke whilst playing 'Prison'.
We played a free gig @ Morgan's Cat @ the Randburg Waterfront on Sunday the 23rd of November 1997 in the afternoon/evening, "Knave" went on @ around 17h00 or so & we played @ 17h50 (& 'The Usual' played a gig upstairs from about 21h00 onwards, & we'd like to thank them for the use of a power cable for our gig, even tho' they didn't know about it).
It was one of those promotional type gigs that's s'posed to get us some air play on Radio5, & if we give 'em a CD I guess we shall get some.
We had a nice varied audience and because of the locale we may even been able to perform to some of our younger fans that are unable to watch us play @ 'Nightclub' type venues, but since I was inside during the performance (d'uh) I can't really say whether this occured or not.
Regardless, Filippo (ex-Brutal Awakening, same band Ritchie & Tulsa came from) played bass for us & ripped, & we all had a fucking killer gig. We haven't had that much fun onstage since playing battle of the bands @ 'Wings'.
& thanks to "Knave" for coping with the fact that we all arrived late & then still putting on a killer show.
Well the recording went real well & all that's left to do is the mixing which will be done on the 26th of October 1997. & if this had occured we'd have our stuff on CD... but it hasn't so we're still waiting to get into the studio to finish up & mix. But until then we'll be sitting around patiently.
Yeehah (or some exclamation of some sort) we got to go on the 16th of November, & U should hear the leads that JP (of B# Studios) played on our songs. & then the fat sound that we got kicks major butt. I think this should get us going. I guess we'll submit 'The Dreamer' for radio play as soon as we have a CD cut that we can send to 5fm. We're all so chuffed with the recording it's unbelievable.
Thanks once more JP.
YEAH! We played a Hallowe'en '97 gig with 'Brothering' @ Wings Beatbar on the 31st of October & it was a killer gig.
We played first & for a little over an hour. This was our longest gig this year & we loved it & thanks to Andrew (ex-P.I.T.T.) & Filippo (ex-Brutal Awakening & Flesh Temple) for jamming with us.
The crowd was enthusiastic tho' limited. & we debuted 3 new songs that have been waiting in the wings for a long while & haven't had the opportunity to play live until this night. & we played 2 long forgotten classix of ours 'Blood on my Hands' & '7:13' too, & most of our newer fans thought we played 5 new songs & not three.
'Brothering' rocked as usual, & they get better every time I hear them... these guys should go far.
Damn it sux so much not being able to gig. The thrill of being on stage is like a drug U crave for, but sadly we are being denied & are having withdrawl symptoms. We may not be gigging soon but we will be in the studio next Sunday (12/10/97) & we're gonna put down 3 tracks for an up & coming compilation CD. I'll let U know how it went next week.
& then there's the pleasure of living in SA where cars get stolen every 30 seconds.
One of those cars was Kerryn's & with it went his double bass pedal, hi-hat, snare & a crash symbol. Thieves should be dealt with according to the customs of the middle east as far as I'm concerned, no other way will suffice, cos they'll just keep on doing it 'til they understand that they can't get away with it.
Now to replace this equipment won't be fun... ah well we'll have to now won't we? Esp since we're using his kit to record next week...
We played @ Wings Beatbar in the semi-final of the battle of the bands on the 15th of August 1997 & we played against: 'Brothering', 'Deviate', & 'Dumpsterjuice'.
I thought this was going to be a much tougher semi than the other one as all four bands are shit hot. & boy was I right. The point spread was really close, with the 'Brothering' (the eventual winners) & 'Dumpsterjuice' going through to the final.
We also played a killer gig, and are proud to say that we are still the only band to have had a mosh @ Wings during the competition.
I'd like to thank all our fans & friends for their awesome support & catching all the insane stage-divers (Stefan & Marco amongst them).
We played @ Wings Beatbar in the battle of the bands on the 6th of August 1997. We played against 'Obscene Filth' (who came second), Kane & Archangel (a really cool Gothic band that I enjoyed immensely.
We also won all the prizes that T.O.M.S. were giving away for the 'Best Vocalist, Guitarist, Bassist & Drummer'. No other band has done this yet, the closest being 'Brothering' which walked away with 3 of the 4 prizes.
We had a blast & the crowd support was amazing. Thanx for that.
Our next scheduled gig was s'posed to be on 26th July 1997, this is a lie someone told us, it would seem, 'cos we were never told anything further & never played anywhere. But I do know that I'll be @ Icon (The comic expo) on that day, & boy did I have a blast... I watched anime videos all day & all of the next day. I won two killer videos & bought lots of comics.
On Saturday the 28th of June 1997 we played @ Hunters in Blairgowrie with Urban Assault, it was a really loud gig as we used a 3 & a half kW rig to blow your eardrums.
Entrance was free & you could've played pool all night - once the bands were done too.
This was our first gig with Kerryn (drums) & we were all very impressed with him as was the crowd, of which there were many & it was nice to play infront of a large one again for a change.
We also guest spotted Andrew for 3 song & we all had a blast doing them.
Sadly tho' we had to say 'goodbye' to both Nick & Steven @ this gig.
'Urban' played a killer set & you can see that Adam is meshing in real well with their sound & they are bound to do great things in the near future.
P.I.T.T. & 'Deviate' played @ Wings Beatbar on the 5th of June '97.
Entrance was free, so you had no excuse not to get your booty over there to party down with us (other than the INXS concert it would seem).
It was a Thurdsay night so you would've probably found that you actually had nothing else to do, so ... what ever your excuses were....
Another reason to be there was we were supposed to be debuting our new drummer Lloyd, who infact will no longer be playing with us due to time constraints on his part. Steven has also left the P.I.T.T. camp for similar reasons.
Other than these set backs, our gig went really well, for something we organised ourselves. 'Deviate' kicked butt, as usual, but we were better, but then I'm just biased.. ;)
We played a gig with 'Rabbi Adolf' (Who are now called 'Angelic Fraud'), @ Zepplin's on the 10th of May '97, with Tulsa from 'Brothering' on drums.
The gig went down damn well & the sound was awesome. Many thanks to Andrew from 'RA' for setting up the gig & keeping us in mind.
Our latest big gig was the Agro CD launch. & this took place @ Icon (207 Marshall St, JHB) on the 11th of April '97.
It went really well for us with a few technical hiccups towards the end of our set. Unfortunately for Agro those hiccups lasted their whole set so they decided to cut it short to their & their fans' dismay.
Unfortunately pretty much all gig info prior to the 11th of April '97 has been lost. Sad as that may be, if U've read to this point trust me ... you haven't missed much.
Some of the venues we played in this time frame were 'Pumpernickel', 'Wings Beatbar', 'The Doors' & 'The Wits Orientation Week Beerfest' (Feb '97) & all were OK, & if they weren't they were blotted from our memories.
We played more than our fair share of gigs @ Kebab Junction between June & December 1996, which during December was twice a week for the whole month.
We also played in the 'Metal Section' of the 'Wings Beatbar' Battle of the Bands sometime between August & October 1996. This competition was won by 'Groinchurn' & runners up were 'Gutted Remains'.
Our second gig ever was the worst one we ever played. (Begining of June '96, or so.)
It was for a fundraiser. The goal to get enuff money to build a 12' indoor skate ramp. We went on last & were told not to bring anything for the gig, boy was that a bad idea.
The sound was horrible (we were all going thru one speaker on stage) & the drums kept moving & falling apart. This was the first time that Kerryn ever saw us play, & refused to watch us again for almost a year. That was the only reason I remember that gig.
We played our first live gig on the 24th May 1996, at The Cave, one of the pubs on Wits Campus.
We played this gig 'Sprog' & 'Slug' (Which later changed their name to 'Slugs of War') & had a blast that night & haven't looked back since.
