CENTURIONS GHOST, SERPENT VENOM & OLD MAYOR
LONDON UNICORN 01/10/10
All three bands on tonight’s bill sound like they could be the names of beer and at least one actually is. First up are Old Mayor a dark treacly tasting brew of heavy gravity which kind of stuck to the roof of your mouth and gave your palette a good work-over. This Brightonian duo made quite a noise with a fuzzy apocalyptic riff-monger / distempered screamer and a heavy hitter keeping the rhythm together. It was like the sound of two kids who had progressed from playing in the sandpit and causing a right old racket there and having decided to carry on the tradition with musical instruments. ‘Bring On The Sleeper’ was discordant, ugly and boisterous and destined for a latter day production from one of the Steve’s; Austin or Albini, take your pick. We were told the combo had not played for six months and had some new ones for us. The first went into a loud post rock work out leaving us waiting for the screams, which we knew were on the way. After this there was a patch of free form yelled beat poetry, which was certainly different and it panicked one of the bars regulars who had fallen asleep in the corner. Two pints of this and I was ready to fall over.
Next up Serpent Venom; cider with a shot of tequila and some peyote for good measure. I had heard plenty of good things about this lot from good olde London Towne from other scribes of this site and their sound was quick to leave me gasping. Just signed to The Church Within Records, in fact so recently the ink was still drying, they were the perfect match for the label. Vocals leapt out the speaker so loud I had to take a few steps back, singer Gaz ex-Sloth has a melodic croon about him that could easily topple buildings. Musically the rest of the band were as heavy as concrete and I immediately felt like I had stepped back in time to the 70s. Unfortunately the barman refused to believe we had when I tried to pay 10 shiny pennies for my next pint. Doom disciples in the audience were bowing to the heavy weight of this sermon and the first song seemed to be lasting for several aeons but it had us entranced with classic sounding vocal lines and a flare shuffling stomp. Even though the next number was slow, everyone on stage was going for it. Vox were full throated and shattering, the bottom end leaden and the drums tumultuous. I am not sure if it would have helped being stoned for this but even not, I found myself melting into the floor.
Being ghostly Centurions Ghost should perhaps be a pale ale washed down with a generous measure of spirits. We know as beer this is quite removed from the truth but you never know what you are going to get with this band or indeed as screamer Jake points out who is going to be in the band. Their long serving drummer Milly is watching from the audience tonight and new skins-man Dimitris is on the stool doing a formidable job. The sound was ‘shattering’ in a word, vocals hellacious in their extremity and everything else thundering with might. This may not have left us with a comfortable listening experience on songs like ‘Hyena Circle’ but it certainly bowled over with its feral assault. There was a bit of a Godflesh sounding vibe coming off guitar and bass here, one that I had never noticed before. Again it could have been the mix and I didn’t even realise they were playing ‘Wizard Of Edge’ at first when that wrecking ball was delivered. This was another destructive spell flung out in a loud and brash fashion complete with doom beatdowns. As for the new song of the night ‘Bad Wisdom’ the words caveman and Neolithic seem to have been scrawled down on my notepad again due to the vocal performance. By ‘Bedbound In The House Of Doom’ they even managed to get a few people in the pit tearing at each other and for me this seemed like a good time to stagger out bedbound myself. Job done all round tonight and the hangover is what beckons.
Pete Woods
MTUK HOME
