Music / Previews
Metal & Prog Picks: April 2024
Holy fuck! Cannibal Corpse and Municipal Waste are playing the Bristol Beacon in September. D’ya think those Beacon folks have the faintest idea what they’re letting themselves in for? And will the Corpse celebrate becoming the first death metal band to perform at this august venue by playing Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt? In the meantime, the Beacon Hall plays host to the rather more mellifluous Jethro Tull this month. Other April highlights include the increasingly impressive DVNE and Oli Brown’s latest project, The Dead Collective.
Fleece, April 4
is needed now More than ever
Reading-based metallers, who take influences from sources as diverse as thrash and prog without being pinned down to a single genre. Their sixth album, A Sign of Things to Come, is out now on Nuclear Blast.
Exchange, April 7
If you like your doom metal slow-building and funereal, this Nietzsche-inspired Seattle duo are the band for you. Their fourth album on Profound Lore, The Clandestine Gate, is billed as the first part of an epic trilogy.
Bristol Beacon, April 17
There’s always an anniversary. Just six years ago, Jethro Tull’s 50th anniversary tour reached the Hall Formerly Known as Colston. This one’s dubbed the Seven Decades Tour and the Beacon show is the first date. Although he has well-documented problems with his voice these days, Ian Anderson remains unipedally at the helm. But there’s no one else left from the classic seventies line-up, guitarist Martin Barre being long gone for reasons that remain unclear. That said, Anderson is wise enough to surround himself with some very talented musicians, several of whom are from around these parts, including Bristol-born drummer Scott Hammond and keyboard player John O’Hara, who holds teaching positions at Bristol and Bath Universities. Anderson is promising music from each of the seven decades of Tull albums, going all the way from the blues rock of 1968’s This Was to last year’s splendid, Norse mythology-inspired RökFlöte – the follow-up to The Zealot Gene, which saw Tull back in the UK top ten for the first time in 50 years.
Fleece, April 18
Veteran Swedish black metallers named after the Ancient Babylonian deity, Marduk formed way back in 1990 and achieved instant notoriety with their debut single Fuck Me Jesus, thanks to its lyrics and explicit cover art. Their music has evolved since then and the band’s 15th album Memento Mori was released in 2023. But their habit of playing around with fascist imagery came back to bite them in the bottom when bassist Joel Lindholm had to be booted out for “intolerable stage antics” after he performed a Nazi salute at last year’s Incineration Festival in London.
Exchange, April 27
Last seen at Crofters Rights, Edinburgh prog-metallers DVNE are really on a roll. Their third album, Voidkind, is out now and was previewed with the terrific new song Plerõma.
Thekla, April 28
Brit blues-rockers who are heavy enough to ensure crossover appeal, husband and wife duo Aaron and Grace Bond have won shitloads of blues awards and released four studio albums since they started in 2016. The latest one, Aces Are High, hit number nine in the UK albums chart last year.
Oli Brown & the Dead Collective
Louisiana, April 28
Following the dissolution of the promising RavenEye, award-winning British blues guitarist and vocalist Oli Brown licked his mental health wounds for a while, but has now re-emerged with the hard-edged proggy sounds of his new Dead Collective. He described their debut EPs, Prelude and Prologue, as Pink Floyd-meets-Soundgarden, which gives some idea of where his head’s at right now. The third one, inevitably titled Epilogue, is out now. Oli’s Collective includes talented Wayward Sons guitarist Sam Wood.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Bossk/Maybeshewill, Fleece, May 15
Sirenia/Temperance/Symphonity, Thekla, May 16
Riverside/Klone, SWX, May 20
Ufomammut, Fleece, May 22
Wolves in the Throne Room, Fleece, May 30
Caligula’s Horse, Thekla, May 30
Yes, Bristol Beacon, May 31
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Bristol Beacon, June 17
High On Fire, Thekla, June 18
Bristol Sounds: Skindred, Reef, Kris Barras Band, Canons March Amphitheatre, June 22
Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Bristol Beacon, June 23
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, SWX, July 3
Preacher Stone, Louisiana, July 13
Love with Johnny Echols, Fleece, Aug 1
ArcTanGent Festival: Meshuggah, Animals As Leaders, Baroness, Ihsahn, etc., Fernhill Farm, Aug 14-17
Hawkwind, Bath Forum, Aug 16
Cannibal Corpse/Municipal Waste/Immolation/Schizophrenia, Bristol Beacon, Sept 25
Battle Beast, Marble Factory, Oct 3
Steve Hackett, Bristol Beacon, Oct 5
Visions of Atlantis, Exchange, Oct 7
Eivør, Thekla, Oct 12
Blues Pills, Thekla, Oct 15
Lacuna Coil, O2 Academy, Oct 26
Focus, Fleece, Nov 13
Therapy?, O2 Academy, Nov 15
Delain, SWX, Nov 22
The Rick Wakeman Yuletide Christmas Show, Bath Forum, Dec 18
Fish, Bristol Beacon, Feb 26
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