Black Breath and Victims: Live in London, UK

Black Breath in the process of staving in my skull. I’m clearly no photographer but hey, it’s an original pic so cut me some slack bitch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He stumbled from the shadows, blinking, rubbing his eyes. They were red-rimmed with black hammocks slung beneath them like scars of lost time.

Shambling into the light, the hunched figure muttered and twitched as he repeatedly jamming his fingers in his ears. This involuntary rummaging dislodged flakes of dried blood that fell like rusty snowflakes only to catch in his stubble.

The freshly-showered and laundered commuter crowd parted easily around him as if subconsciously aware of the foreign body in its midst, slipping him through with nothing but a few sideways glances to hinder him. 

Those close enough to hear the murmuring from his cracked lips could make out the simple mantra, “Black Breath, fucking hell”, repeated again and again.

Live in London: Kylesa and KEN Mode

All my pics were rubbish, so I "borrowed" this one from an earlier show on the tour.

Confession time: it had been 20 years since I last went to a metal show.

Metallica 1992 to Kylesa 2012. That’s one helluva wait between drinks. In fact there were no drinks in ’92 as I was barely a teenager and my laughable attempts to buy cider were in vain.

So I was a little apprehensive as the sun set on the day of the gig at the Academy in Islington, London.

Was I too old? Too normal-looking? Could I handle it? Would it be depressing going to a gig on my own? (Answers at the bottom of the post).

Kylesa, Black Breath and Victims Live in London

Laura Pleasants, that is all gentlemen, that is all...

Wooooh yeah, motherfuckeys! I’ve just bought tickets to Kylesa for later this month and Black Breath and Victims in April. I think my head might just explode at the sheer awesomeness I am in for.

Kylesa are playing with KEN Mode, who should be pretty decent if last year’s Venerable is any indication, at theO2 Academy Islington on February 23rd. There are still tickets left if you want them. Only 11 squid plus a ridiculous booking fee of almost four English pounds.

Black Breath and Victims are set to obliterate Camden’s Underworld on April 2 for a cheeky £12. I keep pinching myself that the two bands are on the same bill. As Shakespeare once said, FUCK YEAH!

Here is some classic Kylesa to remind you how fantastic they are:

More D-beat Sir? Victims

Come on, give us a cuddle. Please?

It may be old news that I remain obsessed with Trap Them’s Darker Handcraft as the latest manifestation of my deep and visceral appreciation of the chunkier permutations of hardcore, crust and metal.

But I don’t want to completely suck the marrow from that record just yet so I’m prowling the streets for a similar fix of fierce metallic hardcore.

Top 10 Emerging Classic Albums

This is a bit of a suspense killer but hey, I needed a pic

Over on Sawtooth Wave, hhbrady poses the following excellent question: what albums are you still listening to at least once month from the past few years?

Nothing from 2011 is allowed onto the list. Essentially, it’s a challenge to name your top 10 emerging classic albums. Which recent records will be hailed in the same breath as Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets or Number of the Beast in another decade?