Music / Previews
Metal & Prog Picks: November 2022
It’s like covid never happened as the gig schedule gets back to full strength. There’s plenty of prog, psych and metal to suit all tastes this month, as well as a large side-order of leftfield stuff that should be of interest to fans of all of the above.
Fleece, Nov 2
is needed now More than ever
A suitably gnarly death metal co-headliner. Montreal’s Despised Icon are a deathcore act with two vocalists. Regular visitors to Bristol, Poland’s Decapitated specialise in ferociously precise technical death metal. Busy guitarist Wacław Kiełtyka was also recently recruited as the replacement for Phil Demmel in Machine Head.
Fleece, Nov 3
Another great co-headlining show at the Fleece, this time uniting a pair of doom metal acts with increasingly proggy tendencies, each of whom could comfortably pack the venue under their own steam. Little wonder this show is already sold out. Last seen at the Thekla, Arkansas’ rather magnificent Pallbearer are touring their fourth album, Forgotten Days – also their debut for Nuclear Blast – which was released in 2020 to universal acclaim and has an 83/100 score on review aggregator Metacritic. Best known for their great 2017 album Reflections of a Floating World, fellow Americans Elder recently relocated to Berlin, where they continue to push at the prog/psych boundaries and unleash new album Innate Passage on November 25. We last saw them at the Fleece back in October 2018. Support on the tour comes from Latin-flavoured metallers Irist, who hail from Atlanta by way of South America.
Thekla, Nov 6
Recently re-formed US prog-thrashers Vektor recently released a well-received split EP, entitled Transmissions of Chaos, with similarly minded Dutch touring partners Cryptosis. Relentless headbanging ahoy!
Trinity, Nov 8
Hot from ArcTanGent and supporting Meshuggah at the Academy, Swiss blues/gospel/spiritual black metallers Zeal and Ardor make a swift return to Bristol for this headline show. Most of their songs flow from founder Manuel Gagneux’s proposition: what if American slaves had embraced Satan rather than Jesus? And they’re still touring their self-titled third album that peaked at number three in the UK chart back in February. Don’t bother trying to bag a ticket. This one’s been sold out for a while now.
O2 Academy, Nov 12
Professional grapplers have frequently used metal as their intro music. But like Torquay’s Kris Barras, US WWE star Chris Jericho went a step further by forming his own band. “If Metallica and Black Sabbath had a child, it would be Fozzy,” he’s said of the band he’s fronted since 1999. Their popularity has been slowly growing in the UK and this is billed as being Fozzy’s biggest ever tour after selling out all 12 dates of the last one back in December. If you like metal of the singalong variety, with big catchy choruses, this is the gig for you. New album Boombox is out now on the Mascot label.
Fleece, Nov 15
Best remembered for their 1993 Grammy winning hit Runaway Train and its accompanying triple platinum album Grave Dancers Union, Dave Pirner’s Minneapolis rockers have had a pretty low profile of late, though they did release their twelfth album, Hurry Up and Wait, during the pandemic. Pirner is now the only remaining original member of the band. This tour is a co-headliner with Portland pop-grungers Everclear, still fronted by Art Alexakis.
Bath Forum, Nov 15
NWOBHM overload! Much loved by Metallica, who’ve covered Am I Evil?, Helpless and The Prince, Stourbridge’s Diamond Head never achieved the commercial success that many felt they deserved, but carried on plugging away. Their 1980 debut album Lightning to the Nations, originally released independently, was recently reissued yet again, and there’s also a new version, re-recorded with the current line-up (still featuring co-founding guitarist Brian Tatler). The mighty Saxon were also a huge influence on Metallica, who even supported them back in 1982. After a mid-career dip, former coal miner Biff Byford and his band have successfully re-established their reputation with a string of great albums, the latest of which is Carpe Diem, and found a new younger audience among the Bloodstock generation. Expect this show to be suitably rowdy. Last time Saxon played the Forum, hall security gave up on trying to keep the audience seated and beat a hasty retreat.
Thekla, Nov 18
Technically neither prog nor metal, singer-songwriter AA Williams manages to appeal to both audiences with her intense and powerful music. A trained pianist and cellist, she discovered metal via The Deftones. Her lockdown YouTube project, Songs From Isolation, saw her perform striking covers of songs by everyone from Nick Cave to Nine Inch Nails. And her recent second album, As the Moon Rests, was hailed by Metal Hammer as “emotionally devastating and gloriously triumphant”.
Trinity, Nov 20
The Trinity takes a rare trip into psych/prog territory with this superlative double bill. The current incarnation of Gong were on magnificent form when they played the Thekla back in March. Tonight, they’re co-headlining with the Ozrics on the latter’s first full band tour in eight years. Their splendid new album Space for the Earth is out on Kscope.
The Cube, Nov 21
Last seen here with Stöner at the Thekla back in May, the frequently naked former Queens of the Stone Age bassist make a swift return to Bristol on his Death Acoustic tour. Oliveri’s latest odds’n’sods compilation album, N.O. Hits At All Vol. 7 is out now on Heavy Psych Sounds.
Komedia, Bath, Nov 30
Someone has to actually write those number one pop hits for the likes of Atomic Kitten and X-Factor winners. That person is Jem Godfrey, who has also worked extensively with Gary Barlow. But like many toiling in the pop factory, Jem’s real love is prog. In 2004, he formed the ‘supergroup’ Frost*, with members of Arena, Kino and IQ. They made an immediate impression with their debut album Milliontown – notably its 26 minute title track – then split up and got back together again a couple of times as other commitments intervened. Now they’re back again with their fourth studio album, Day and Age, and a rare five-date tour. Joining Jem are long-term collaborator John Mitchell on guitar (we last saw them together when Michell’s Lonely Robot played the Thekla in 2017), Level 42’s Nathan King on bass and the great Craig Blundell (last seen in Bath only last month with Steve Hackett) on what will probably be another bloody enormous drumkit. They’re promising to play highlights from the catalogue (including Milliontown, Black Light Machine and Hyperventilate), plus a fair chunk of the new album. Incidentally, Frost* have announced that they’ll be using a multi-camera set-up to film the whole Komedia show for future release. Support comes from Quantum Pig, who assert, with appropriate quantum uncertainty, that they are both a prog band and not a prog band simultaneously.
Main pic: Manuel Gagneux of Zeal and Ardor. Credit: Matthias Willi.
COMING SOON
Here’s our essential diary of upcoming gigs that should be of interest to anyone of a rockin’ disposition.
Rick Wakeman, Bath Forum, Dec 3
Conan, Thekla, Dec 3
Magnum, Fleece, Dec 5
Moonspell, Thekla, Dec 8
Clutch, O2 Academy, Dec 13
The Dead Daisies/FM/Graham Bonnet Band, SWX, Dec 15
Lamb of God/Kreator, O2 Academy, Dec 16
Fury, Exchange, Dec 21
Sleep Token, O2 Academy, Jan 21
Epica/Apocalyptica, O2 Academy, Jan 30
Karnivool, O2 Academy, Feb 3
Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary, Bristol Hippodrome, Feb 8
Leprous, SWX, Feb 11
Katatonia/Solstafir, Marble Factory, Feb 12
Revocation, Fleece, Feb 16
Back Star Riders/Michael Monroe/Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, O2 Academy, Feb 22
Beast In Black, Fleece, Feb 22
Avatar, SWX, Feb 23
Napalm Death, O2 Academy, March 7
Ville Valo, O2 Academy, March 10
The Answer, Thekla, March 19
WASP, O2 Academy, March 23
Haken, SWX, March 23
Devin Townsend, O2 Academy, March 29
Bloodywood, Fleece, March 29
Steve Hillage, O2 Academy, March 30
Tubular Bells 50th Anniversary, Bath Forum, March 31
The Zombies, Fleece, April 13
Cannibal Corpse, O2 Academy, April 18
The Aristocrats, Fleece, June 15
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