GAMA BOMB, BONDED BY BLOOD, SWORN AMONGST, DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT AND ASMODIA
18/10/08 – THE PARISH, HUDDERSFIELD
With both bands gaining plenty of exposure in recent months (including a Bonded By Blood article in this weeks Kerrang, so I have been informed), it comes as no surprise when I walk into the venue, that I’ve to fight my way down the front through the sizable crowd that had amassed for Asmodia. This lot ‘Bring The Pain’ for sure with their unyielding attack of fist pumping, neck-snapping thrash metal that brutalises all who are in the firing line. Here we’ve got what could be described as something of a Yorkshire metal all-stars, as while my first time watching the band with this line-up, there are no new faces to my eyes. While being fronted by what I can only describe as a thrashed up Lemmy (minus the warts), a familiar Rob from Let ‘Em Burn unleashes hell upon his drum kit, offering up a militant rhythm as the bass provided by Mark (ex Silent Massacre) collides with the textbook thrash riffs bashed out by Gaz as he plays up his punked up stage demeanour that I’ve grown accustomed to from watching him play with Chewin Druids. Their solution to a shortened set is to play twice as fast, as they take a frenetic charge to the ‘Threshold’. A good start to the evening.
After a trip to the bar I return to the band room where I’m swallowed up by the surrounding darkness as the lights have been eschewed in favour of a candlestick that dimly illuminates the four figures on the stage. These silhouettes are, in fact, Dragged Into Sunlight, and there’s a certain grimness to all of this that has me thinking I’ve wandered into the basement where a Satanic ritual is about to take place, and I must wonder if this lot were actually dragged into sunlight, what exactly would happen to them. Raucous screams cut discordantly through the layer of blackened guitars and intense noise that crashes into doomy passages, and there is an intensity to their delivery that manages to draw me in. While they give a good performance, I can’t help but feel that these guys were totally out of place on tonight’s bill. Managing to resist the urge to tap one of the musicians on the shoulder and let them know the crowd was in the other direction, I headed outside in search of sunlight.
After such a spell of darkness it was time to get the expanding crowd warmed up and ready for some full on moshpit action, and Sworn Amongst do a great job of motivating the eager thrash maniacs down the front to swing into action. Their sound teeters on the brink of being a little too modern for those with ears more acclimatised to the Bay Area sounds, although that is where their roots are clearly planted. Tonight they manage to serve up an exuberant set and they prove to be a worthy addition to the Thrashing Like A Maniac tour.
No sooner had I pulled out some change to purchase a beer, was I informed that Bonded By Blood were hitting the stage, thus causing me to make a dash back into the band room. It doesn’t take long to realise there is no shortage of ‘Evil Within’ the room, as they unfurl a deadly dose of fast and furious thrash in it’s purest form. While the guitarist whizzes his fingers across the fretboard of his neon yellow axe letting rip some wicked solos, Aladdin yelps fervently down the mic without a hint of post-tour fatigue on display. The Californian thrashers set a fine example for the crowd as they launch into some relentless headbanging which rubs off on the crowd as the pit breaks out proper, but with one guy (clearly having had one too many drinks) falling about like an idiot as his mates struggle to restrain him, a mass pile up clutters the floor.
Aladdin sure knows how to rile a northern crowd as he reveals “We were in London and they said Huddersfield doesn’t know how to thrash” which, naturally, earned them a cold hard “BOO!” and the seemingly ubiquitous “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” chant reaffirms the Yanks of just where they’re at. ‘Necropsy’, ‘Immortal Life’ and the belligerent ‘Another Disease’ are played with a raw energy that almost brings the mayhem of the skate park into the building, and as they drag 2/5ths of the G-Bomb massive up on the stage one gets the feeling that the two bands have had an absolute riot on this tour. Cheesy grins and metallers shouting the word “Pizza”? It can only be the band finishing up with their version of the Turtles theme! Cowabunga dudes!
Only two months have passed since Gama Bomb last stopped off at this venue only this time they find themselves playing to twice the crowd that came to watch them in August. Tonight is the final stop of their European conquest which evidently has taken it’s toll on the boys from the Emerald Isle who aren’t at their most animated, although conceal it successfully enough to be just about overlooked. Naturally, there are more cult movie references thrown out than a visit to the IMDB as they thrash their way through ‘In The Court Of General Zod’, ‘Time Crime’ and ‘Zombie Blood Nightmare’ with sadistic aplomb, and as Philly Byrne stumbles and crumbles about the stage in a radioactive manner one almost can picture his face being full of worms as he reaches for those glass-shatteringly high shrieks. Reciprocating their earlier stage invite, they call up the ‘Blood dudes to join in the madness on ‘Thrashaholic’, causing the intoxicated crowd to get messier than a truck load of brains, and rounded off a most excellent evening of thrashing. ‘Zombi Brew’? Well go on then, if you’re buying!
Luci Herbert
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