Music / Previews
Metal & Prog picks: November 2021
We’ve got plenty of homegrown heroes to crow about this month, although none of them get any local media action – presumably on account of musical incorrectness. There are no venues big enough for The Pineapple Thief to play in Yeovil, so Bristol qualifies as a hometown gig for them. This time they play their biggest ever local show at the O2 Academy. Elsewhere, Bristol-based former Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson’s Wayward Sons storm the Thekla and it’s a big welcome back to the fuzz-drenched riff merchants of Turbowolf, who return to the Fleece.
The Dead Daisies/The Quireboys
O2 Academy, Nov 3
is needed now More than ever
The wealthiest musician ever to play the O2 Academy returns! Businessman and aviator David Lowy is one of the richest people in Australia, but manages to slip virtually unnoticed into the UK – mainly because he removes the suit to play hook-laden heavy rock. It would be easy to dismiss the Dead Daisies as an exceedingly rich man’s hobby, but last time they played here it quickly became obvious that guitarist Lowy is very much a team player who’s not given to grandstanding. And the Daisies are unusual in that they’re a loose collective rather than a band. Right now, they’re fronted by the supergroup-hopping Voice of Rock himself, the great Glenn Hughes, with Lowy’s longstanding sidekick Doug Aldrich (formerly of Dio and Whitesnake) on lead guitar and Tommy Clufetos of Ozzy Osbourne’s band on drums. New album Holy Ground has been widely praised, with Classic Rock observing that Hughes’s influence is very much to the fore. Indeed, it could be a companion piece to his own excellent Resonate. Support comes from everybody’s favourite Geordie funsters The Quireboys, whose A Little Bit of What You Fancy 30th anniversary tour has now become a 31st anniversary tour thanks to Covid.
O2 Academy, Nov 5
It’s easy to sneer at the grotesque box-ticking exercise that is the Mercury Music Prize. So let’s do just that and imagine an alternative universe in which genuinely talented and creative British musicians are celebrated instead. Towards the top of the list are local-ish heroes The Pineapple Thief, whose magnificent brand of melancholy modern prog disqualifies them from receiving the slightest mainstream media attention. That means it’s been a long slog for Yeovil’s Bruce Soord and chums as they slowly build a loyal audience. The first time they played Bristol – which they now consider to be a hometown gig on account of there being no suitable venues in Somerset – they drew two paying punters to the Fleece. Now they’re stepping up from SWX to play their biggest ever show in the city. And we’ve got plenty to catch up on. This tour was originally intended to accompany the release of the Versions of the Truth album – the third to feature multiple award-winning King Crimson drummer Gavin Harrison. So instead, they did one of those lockdown on-demand livestreams, which has just been released as Nothing But the Truth on vinyl/CD and blu-ray, the latter featuring a drumcam option for drum nerds who only want to watch Harrison’s performance throughout.
Thekla, Nov 6
Get ready to do the Crabulon! Yes, it’s the return of the Nottingham comedy-metallers – aka “the finest heavy metal band ever to write a song about a robot”. Expect nonsense and, furthermore, tomfoolery and possibly some children’s tricycles as they unveil their new line-up. Support comes from Colorado alt-rock duo In the Whale, fronted by former undertaker Nathaniel Valdez.
Thekla, Nov 15
Bristol-based former Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson’s ‘new’ band were enjoying a steady upward trajectory until bloody Covid intervened. We last saw them supporting their chums Steel Panther at the O2 Academy in February 2020. But now they’re back on track with their musically eclectic third album, Even Up the Score, which continues and develops Toby’s troll-baiting political (but never didactic) songwriting, which has incurred the ire of Brexiteers and their ilk. New single Bloody Typical is out now.
Exchange, Nov 16
Loud and cathartic metal? These raging, Scouse self-styled ‘caveman battle doomsters’ have got it in spades. Regular visitors to Bristol before Covid, the delightful sludgers have just released their third (count ’em!) live album, Live at Freak Valley, on Napalm, and arrive in town hot from the Damnation Festival.
Fleece, Nov 17
Notoriously difficult to pin down to a single genre, Bristol’s very own Turbowolf have plenty to appeal to those who love psychedelic hard rock and fuzz-heavy stoner metal. Unless I’m very much mistaken, this is their first headline show at the Fleece since April 2014. Since then, they’re released the rather excellent Free Life album. “There are moments here that are pure Beefheart or Zappa and his Mothers,” enthused Phil Wilding in Classic Rock, acclaiming the album as Turbowolf’s best yet. “The creeping synth lines and an unerring ear for rich melodies means that for all their aural gymnastic bombast, there are real songs at the heart of everything. It’s a rewarding, wild ride.”
Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons
Thekla, Nov 18
Yay – The Bastards are back! Welsh boyos Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, are of course, the band formed by former Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell with his bastard sons, plus a vocalist who’s (presumably) neither a bastard nor one of Phil’s sons. We last saw them supporting Airbourne at the Academy in 2017. The sons aren’t actually bastards, by the way, and Mrs. Campbell was reportedly not wildly enthusiastic about the band name. Their latest album, delightfully titled We’re the Bastards, was recorded during lockdown. This one features Neil Starr on vocals, but he departed earlier in the year. Their new singer is a chap named Joel Peters.
Exchange, Nov 20
A glorious soup of prog, space rock and metal? We’re sold already. Built on the distinctive guitar playing of Paul Swarbrick, Wigan’s Boss Keloid deliver a cracking blend of big riffs and twiddly bits that’s been winning fans from multiple subcultures. Great song titles too. Their fifth album, Family the Smiling Thrush, is out now.
Exchange, Nov 22
The Swedish doomsters with the most covetable T-shirts in metal are back! Monolord were last in town supporting Conan at the Thekla back in 2018. Since then, they’ve signed to Relapse Records and released two new albums: No Comfort and Your Time to Shine. Having purchased both of those, you’ll just need to make up your mind which T-shirt to go for: evil cat or burning church. Support comes from Portland’s Blackwater Holylight, who we last saw at The Lanes back in 2019.
Fleece, Nov 22
There seems to have been some kind of massive falling out between The Darkness and Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris’s side-project British Lion, the result being that the latter are off the December Darkness tour and are heading out to the clubs instead. Still, Harris always intended the project as a return to the venues in which he started out, away from the pressures of those arena and enormodome shows. Nobody is going to rank British Lion as their all-time favourite band, but there’s plenty to enjoy here if you love old-school British hard rock and metal of the UFO variety – and who doesn’t? Since British Lion’s last Bristol gig, at the Bierkeller back in 2015, they’ve released a second album, The Burning, which is a definite improvement on its predecessor.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Marble Factory, Nov 24
The Geordie porcine marauders just about managed to sneak out their third album, Viscerals, around the time of Lockdown 2020. It subsequently made The Guardian‘s Albums of the Year list alongside all that bland mainstream stuff. “With Matt Baty’s vocals echoing like a benediction from an altar built from burning tyres, the Newcastle band channel the righteous heavy metal thunder of Black Sabbath, with even deeper notes of sludge and doom underneath,” read their review.” The riffs will have you closing your eyes in sheer bliss.”
The Forum, Bath, Nov 24
Covid is a big enough nightmare for smaller bands. But it’s even worse for the nation’s largest and most successful genuinely independent act. Pioneering Marillion have clocked up plenty of firsts in their long career and now they’ve come up with another one. If just one member of the band tests positive on this 10-date, optimistically named Light at the End of the Tunnel tour, they’ll all have to go into isolation (as happened with Caravan last month). But all the lighting, trucking, PA and crew costs will still have to be paid. They calculated that this would land them with a £150,000 bill – and there’s no insurance available anywhere. So they asked their large fanbase to become their insurance company, with individual pledges from £25 to £250 in return for goodies.
Assuming all goes well, we’ll see them back at the rather lovely Bath Forum, where they played on their ‘with friends of the orchestra’ tour back in 2019. They’ve been beavering away on their 20th studio album, An Hour Before It’s Dark, which follows 2016’s brilliant, massively successful (number four in the UK chart) Fuck Everyone and Run, so hopefully there will be some new stuff to unveil.
Fleece, Nov 25
Last time portly yodeller Thijs Van Leer and chums played the Fleece back in June 2019, they drew a large, loud and boisterous audience. There were even ladies present. This might have been because the gig was better promoted than their previous regular appearances at the Tunnels. Or maybe Edgar Wright’s imaginative use of Hocus Pocus to drive a chase sequence in Baby Driver had something to do with it. Anyway, the excellent current line-up of Thijs, Pierre, Menno and Udo are back for a Covid-delayed 50th anniversary tour. Enterprisingly, they’ll even sell you a facemask bearing Roger Dean’s new Focus 50 design.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Black Spiders, Thekla, Dec 1
Hayseed Dixie, Fleece, Dec 1
Myles Kennedy, O2 Academy, Dec 3
The Darkness/Massive Wagons, O2 Academy, Dec 7
Alestorm/Gloryhammer, O2 Academy, Dec 10
Bowling for Soup Acoustic Singalong, Thekla, Dec 14
The Raven Age, Exchange, Dec 15
Earache Christmas Party: Dub War, Lost Horizon, Dec 16
Svalbard, Exchange, Dec 18
Avatar, Marble Factory, Jan 13
Tremonti, O2 Academy, Jan 15
Daniel Tompkins, Exchange, Jan 26
The Black Dahlia Murder, Fleece, Jan 30
Cheap Trick, O2 Academy, Feb 6
Decapitated, Fleece, Feb 8
Tony MacAlpine, Exchange, Feb 11
Katatonia/Solstafir, Marble Factory, Feb 13
Paradise Lost, Marble Factory, Feb 17
Evile, Exchange, Feb 19
Kvelertak, Marble Factory, Feb 20
The Zombies, Fleece, Feb 24
Van Der Graaf Generator, The Forum, Bath, March 1
The Sheepdogs, Thekla, March 6
Septicflesh, Fleece, March 9
Epica/Apocalyptica, O2 Academy, March 12
Kris Barras Band, Marble Factory, March 14
Tangerine Dream, Trinity, March 16
Status Quo, The Forum, Bath, March 18
Big Big Train, The Forum, Bath, March 19
Therapy?, Fleece, March 22
Gong, Thekla, March 23
Eric Gales/Danny Bryant, Fleece, March 27
Bloodywood, Fleece, March 29
WASP, O2 Academy, April 7
Skunk Anansie, O2 Academy, April 12
Deicide, Fleece, April 16
Frost*, Komedia, Bath, April 19
The Picturebooks, Exchange, April 24
Stoner, Thekla, May 4
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, The Forum, Bath, May 7
Karnivool, O2 Academy, May 19
OM, Fleece, May 26
Meshuggah/Zeal & Ardor, O2 Academy, May 29
The Quireboys, Thekla, June 17
High On Fire, Fleece, June 26
Mushroomhead, Thekla, June 27
Rammstein, Principality Stadium, Cardiff, June 22
Evergrey, Thekla, Sept 19
Anthrax/Municipal Waste, O2 Academy, Oct 6
Pallbearer/Elder, Fleece, Nov 3
Pitchshifter, Thekla, Nov 30
Lamb of God/Kreator, O2 Academy, Dec 16
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