Monday 16 April 2012

Lady Starlight announced for Born This Way Ball with Lady Gaga plus Judas Priest shows

Lady Gaga has announced that long time collaborator and friend Lady Starlight will join her on the Born This Way Ball this year.

Opening the Ball, Starlight will DJ and perform to her favourite rock and metal tunes – awakening new people to her music taste and downright ballsy attitude.

Since the Monster Ball in 2010, Lady Starlight has been busy supporting bands (including Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Rival Sons, Black Label Society); as well as playing rock clubs, awards and festivals with her Rock DJing and performance art. She is currently on tour with Judas Priest in Eastern Europe, before she joins Lady Gaga on tour later this year.

Starlight says: “The Born This Way Ball is proof that dreams come true, the dream has never been to get famous and make money. My dream has been to have the ability to express myself in any way I want. Gaga has achieved this and wouldn't rest until she gave me the same opportunity. She is a true best friend. I was lucky enough to do the Monster Ball in 2010, and that was such a blast playing Slayer and Pantera to all the Little Monsters that now I¹m coming back!

I¹ve shifted focus to include my passion for progressive rock. Notably Peter Hammill and Van Der Graaf Generator - both forms of music that don't typically bring to mind theatrical performance! Developing a new kind of performance that combines many different artistic mediums music, theater, dance, fashion and video. Challenging expectations of the performers role as I’ve done with DJing. I hope to open minds and inspire people to follow their creative vision no matter how unusual or impossible it may seem. The Born This Way ball is the best place to deliver this message. It's all about inspiration, acceptance and freedom - and rocking out.”


Tour dates:

JUDAS PRIEST:

16th April Sportpalace, Kiev, Ukraine

18th April The Stadium, Moscow, Russia

20th April Jubileny, St Petersburg, Russia

BORN THIS WAY BALL

EURO DATES:
August 14: Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia
August 16: Arena Nationala Stadium, Bucharest
August 18: Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna
August 21: Vingls Parks, Vilnius
August 23: Riga Mezaparks, Riga
August 25: Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, Tallinn
August 27: Hartwall Arena, Helsinki
August 30: Ericsson Globe, Stockholm
September 2: Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
September 4: Lanxess Arena, Köln
September 8: Twickenham Stadium, London
September 9: Twickenham Stadium, London
September 11: Manchester Arena, Manchester
September 15: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
September 17: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam
September 22: Stade de France, Paris
September 24: TUI Arena, Hanover
September 26: Hallenstadion, Zurich
September 29: Sportpalels, Antwerp
October 2: Mediolanum Forum, Milan
October 4: Stade Charles-Ehrmann, Nice
October 6: Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona

Censura- The Island Review

Heavy metal meets Electronica. That is probably the best way to describe Censura’s latest EP release The Island. Normally I don’t like this particular type of mix, but somehow Censura have made it work. Featuring the bodywork of music from the djent and the hardcore scenes and having the subtle overtones of the Industrial and Dubstep scenes, this is one melding pot of genres.

Featuring Jay Berast from tech metal up and comers Aliases on their track the Island, this band is not against trying new things. In this case, the final result was definitely a good one with the songs still retaining the neck-crushing brutality of the metal scene and the liveliness of the Electronic scene. This means that whilst your headbanging along to these tracks you’ll unconsciously want to start dancing as well. It is an utter wall of sound being presented here.

Clocking in at just under 20 minutes, it is chock full of brilliant moments, from the piercing clean vocal sections off final track We Have to Hurry to the previously mentioned guest appearance of Jay in the track The Island. This is 20 minutes of blasting metal and electronic excellence.

Overall this is a really good EP, and I would definitely recommend it anyone who likes either metal or Electronic music. Can’t recommend it enough.

10/10

Belligerence- Now Here's Your Secret Review

Portsmouth groove metallers have just released their new EP Now Here’s Your Secret, and I’m left wondering what exactly there secret is as this music is insanely good. Featuring a mix off standard groove metal, with a hint of the stoner and the heavy rock thrown in for good measure, this EP just wets my appetite for more of their music.

This EP is straight ahead fast n heavy which is exactly the way I like my rock n metal, so it invariably appealed to me. The guitar work is frantic but not so much to seem out of control, and with only one guitarist to hold the groove along with the bassist and drummer he does his work exceptionally well, as it never feels like something is missing, like I feel with a lot of other 1 guitar bands when the guitarist goes off into the highs of a solo.

With the gritty vocals which remind me of Godsmack over fast groovy riffs that remind me slightly of Black stone cherry’s harder songs, this is music not to be taken lightly. They even do ballad material style well, with the start of the final track on the EP “Now Here’ Your Secret” sounding beautifully moving and at such a contrast to their heavier stuff.

The only thing that put me off slightly was that during some of the songs, were the gang chants which after a while I grew bored off, but apart from that this is a brilliant slab off groove metal which should quench the thirst for new music for the time being.

8/10

Wednesday 4 April 2012

UK tech metallers ALIASES release duel guitar playthrough video // Announce UK tour





Tech metallers, ALIASES have released a finger-breaking, dual guitar playthrough video featuring the talent of guitarists, Graham 'Pin' Pinney and Leah Woodward. The track, Sirens, is the finale on their 2011 EP release 'Safer Than Reality' which is available from pioneering European label, Basick Records.

View the video on Metal Hammer here: http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/video-aliases-post-sirens-playthrough/

The guitarists recorded the video ahead of their custom builds from UK based guitar company, Invictus Guitars. Leah plays a custom Invictus Alder carvetop SSH model with thru-neck design whilst Pin plays his Blackmachine B2 fitted with Bareknuckle pickups.

The band are currently in the studio writing their debut full length album, due for release later this year. Comments guitarist Pin:

"The new material is coming along really well and we believe this stuff is going to be a lot stronger and harder than the EP. This time around we've been writing a lot more as a full band in the practice room rather than writing everything on computers and sending it to each other. This has really helped to tighten up and evolve our sound and the results are pretty exciting. The rest of the year is going to be spent on the album and looking towards taking our sound over to America."

Never a band to stand still for a moment, the band have recently played several festivals in the UK and Europe, writing on the road when they can and have just announced a short UK tour throughout England in May. Dates as follows:

25th May – The Hat Factory, Luton
26th May – Moho, Manchester
27th May – Sound, Leicester
28th May – Corporation, Sheffield
29th May – The Duchess, York
30th May – O2 Islington Academy, London








Safer Than Reality is out now - available digitally via Bandcamp and iTunes or physical CD format from Basick and all good retailers. 

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ALIASES 

About Aliases:
April 2010 saw ALIASES rise from the melting pot minds of ex SikTh guitarist Pin, guitarist Leah Woodward, drummer Darren Pugh, bassist Joe Heaton and vocalist Jay Berast. Following in the spirit of Pin’s legendary legacy, ALIASES are redefining the genre’s boundaries, with a hunger for experimentation and no fear of extremes. Pin explains: “We are interested only in taking Metal on a new and limitless path, allowing the music and vocals to grow organically and exist outside the common constraints of a single genre.” Wasting no time, the band set to work on their debut six track EP, 'Safer Than Reality', which was released in August 2011 to critical acclaim worldwide as a fearless example of technical metal at its most creative. A video for 'What's Left for Us?' was released, charting on the Scuzz TV channel and kick starting a series of tours, festival dates and support slots across Europe for the band. 2012 will see the band focus on producing their first full length release, with a series of tutorial videos and several tours as the band ready themselves to break into America, taking their tech frenzy on the road.

Black Stone Cherry and Rival sons Live Review

Black Stone Cherry and Rival Sons played the HMV forum on the 28th of March at the end of their long tour around the UK and outside the venue, the excitement couldn’t have been greater.

Whilst queing up to get inside the venue, I was speaking to some fans of both bands, and one mentioned that “I’m, not sure what band I’m more stoked to see, I love them both” which just goes to prove how big Rival Sons have gotten recently.

Once inside the venue, I was expecting the standard opening band warm up act that generally comes, but no, Rival Sons (8) came straight on and played a pretty amazing set. I’ve seen Rival sons before when they played the earache records xmas party (review found here) and this was a totally different experience to then. This time, which was an added plus, Jay didn’t have broken ribs so he could actually talk to the audience for once, and the audience was a lot more receptive I found as this was a rock crowd, not a metal crowd.

Jay and Scott (guitar) had a lot of energy on stage although I would have liked to have seen more energy from Robin (Bass). For Rival Sons I only have one complaint really and that is that every time Jay was trying to speak to the crowd, Scott kept on playing licks over him. I cannot tell you how much this irritates me as I like listening to what bands have to say. This for me brought the entire show down a little as it showed a lack of professionalism there.

Now onto the main attraction and my god Black Stone Cherry (10) was absolutely amazing. They had energy, they had charisma, they could work the crowd into a fury and then bring them back down, they were everything I expect a band to be able to do and they did it amazingly well and with style.

When not ripping through their furious classics such as Blind Man or Blame it on the Boom Boom, they brought out armchairs and a stool and played some of their softer songs such as Stay and Things my Father Said. That was actually one of the highlights of the show for me, getting the entire crowd to sing all the lyrics to Things my Father Said, gave the song that much more emotion and made it so much better.

They missed out entire covers, like Rolling in the Deep by Adele that they did at Downlaod last year, but they through in a couple of choruses in there from other songs, such as Rehab by Amy Winehouse, which gave the show that little extra flair.

Chris has some amazing charisma for a frontman as well, making jokes and interacting with the crowd. This is definitely a band I want to see live again and will be buying my tickets well in advance as this tour sold out months in advance.