Tag Archives: rock music reviews

JO QUAIL LIVE @ KCC, SHIPLEY

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HEAVY CELLO, ELECTRIFIED

Cannot quite place where Jo Quail‘s name first cropped up because I’m no cello head or orchestra buff, but it was in passing in the past couple of years and was definitely metal/rock/prog adjacent. Must have been a rock mag feature*. Beyond that, I know nothing about her or her music.

Yet here we are, a two-hour drive through Storm Austen on 23/10/2026, straight north of Buxton for a gig in Shipley, West Yorkshire

and Jo Quail is not even the reason for going to a Jo Quail gig.

But, we’ll touch on that later. The big question is, what’s it like seeing her live when all you’ve heard are the briefest of Bandcamp clips? All they did was confirm Something of Interest.

Mind-blowing and revelatory and beyond expectations, contradictory as that sounds given the deliberate lack of exploration beforehand. Taking to the stage solo with an electric cello – which is a piece of art in itself, a goth-ish carving of hollows, curves and dark-arts conjuring – Jo creates fragments of sound and music which she records and loops into fresh-made musical beds. She then plays cello with those backdrops, adding or subtracting sounds as she sees fit. It’s a live band with one person. And, musically, it’s compelling and intense. It rocks hard with heavy menace, changing all the time like a musical storm of colliding fronts. Powerful stuff.

This kind of performance has a virtuosity, intricacy and technical calibre far beyond my remit so if you need a proper musical insight, you better go elsewhere. All I can do is use emotional responses to impress on any rock or metal heads just how well Quail’s electric cello crosses over and satisfies anyone chasing a heavy, progressive, experimental fix. Rex, Butterfly Dance and KingFisher, from last year’s Notan album, are among the pieces played and each one captivates. Such playing – percussive, fragmented, physical – creates visual drama too, yet none of it is acted or choreographed … it’s all in the playing, the expression and the manipulation of sound in the moment. You watch as much as listen. SOLD, instant new convert here. Check Butterfly Dance if you haven’t already.

So, given that Jo Quail was more of a bonus – colossal bonus, as it turns out – who was the instigator of this Shipley night out?

worriedaboutsatan, the support act. They used to be a duo but Gavin Miller has steered the ‘satan ship solo for many years now and he’s a pretty prolific creator/producer of, to nab his own Bandcamp tag, spectral electronica. Don’t be thinking it’s dungeon synth or hauntological soundscapes or anything ethereal, though – typically, it’s big, solid, mid- or downtempo beats, kosmische propulsion and/or psychedelic ambience with occasional techno heat, depending on the mood. It’s spectral by way of the cool-not-cold edges and unhurried, slightly hushed atmospherics. Industrial ghosts.

Anyway, Miller is very local and this patch isn’t far from where I grew up, just over the border in Colne, so this Leeds-to-Skipton stretch of West Yorkshire feels very much like home. This could be influencing my interest, though that wouldn’t be enough if the music was shit.

Which it isn’t. With Sophie Green joining on violin, we get a half-hour instrumental of gently hypnotic, slow-trance type pulsations, lush electronic layers and unfolding guitar accents. No visual spectacle here, it’s all pretty static on that front, and the track is a mystery – though I have fallen behind with ‘satan listening, assuming it belongs to an album – but it’s an immersive wash of textures. Feels good to finally get here and enjoy at volume, in the room.

Finally, a quick word about the venue, Kirkgate Community Centre (KCC): get there if you can.

A converted former Victorian school, it feels like a restored chapel and truly runs on community fuel. Very friendly and inclusive, and two Type O Negative t-shirts spotted – good omens. Mercury Music Award nominees Knats play this week, and the day before Jo Quail it was Ye Gods. Back in July, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs played. So did The Wildhearts. Looks like Salford psychonauts Gnod play next year too so keep an eye on the listings and go support when poss. With bands like that, it’s shaping up to be a grass-roots magnet for adventurous gigs.

*just happened to read Metal Hammer magazine’s review of ArcTanGent festival and Jo Quail gets a mention. Those are the circles she’s moving in

Other stuff to check:
worriedaboutsatan Bandcamp page

And on this blog:
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs gig review, Manchester 2025
Wildhearts Endless Nameless album review

FOR DOOM THE BELL TOLLS

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A HALLOWEEN BUMMER?

Halloween greets! Fancy another old-skool seasonal selection? Good, because back when Black Sabbath were pre-Reunion uncool and doom was damned-near uninvented as a sub genre of metal, Cathedral put out the four-track EP In Memoriam. Recorded and released on tape in 1990, the record came out in 1994.

Confession: I hadn’t played this record since buying it about 30 years ago, picking it up on the back of a Statik Majik and Carnival Bizarre induction into Lee Dorrian’s lysergic groove-doom congregation in the mid 90s. The reason it went unplayed for so long was this:

It was fckn horrible.

All I really remember is hearing something so slow that it was nauseous. TOO MUCH DOOM, man. I wasn’t ready for that – hell, I barely knew what doom was so In Memoriam got left on the shelf to decompose.

But now, like a good horror cliche, it’s time to contrive a needless stand-off and face this purple demon of record purchases past.

Cathedral's In Memoriam EP
Cathedral: purple hazed

At this time of year, Cathedral’s wicked cocktail of damp magick, witchery and crushing bloody riffage always beckons. The Ethereal Mirror gets a mighty groove on while the proggy tricks and turns in The Guessing Game and The Garden of Unearthly Delights cast a little jester-ish mischief and psychedelia our way. Those albums always work well when nature retreats and daylight shrinks.

In Memoriam is not like those.

It WILL be slow, we know this. But will it still be unlistenable?

[lowers needle to record]

Big surprise – not unlistenable.

Pretty damned riffy, in fact. Did not expect any fast positives on this replay but the sonic wallop from Mourning of a New Day‘s bulldozer opening is absolutely huge, the guitars landing heavy with bending, mournful harmonies that weep melancholic and crunch hard. It’s an unholy downer pushing through banks of cold fog.

A promising start, then. How did this record go so wrong first time round?

[verse starts]

Aaaah …. right. That’s how.

Any downtuned stank-face brung on by that glacial wall-of-morose guitar intro is quickly lost by the motion-destroying trudge that Mourning becomes when it hits the two-minute mark. Slow to the point of distraction, Lee Dorrian’s slug-paced delivery would be comical if it weren’t so painful. A slow vocal is one thing. A vocal so slow you can’t bear it is another … and with nothing else to hook onto, you’re trapped, waiting for something, ANYTHING, to happen.

Maybe this is a sign that I’m really not meant to be here but go check for yourself. Salvation eventually arrives with a shock tempo shift, a groove-metal breakdown and a heroic solo before an abrupt punchy end. Musically, this thing cooks.

Next up is All Your Sins, a Pentagram cover. The riff’s an absolute earworm, no question. But if you hum it to yourself in public at the pace Cathedral play it here – dur nur nur nurrrr nur, dur nur nur nurrrr nur – people will question your sanity. The Pentagram original sounds biker-punk speedy and if you switch In Memoriam to 45 rpm, you get pretty close to Pentagram’s tempo. But maybe just choose the Pentagram version instead.

Flip the disc and Ebony Tears explodes into inaction with huge Sleep-esque bass and more of that beautifully melancholic twin-guitar wall. Very simple, very awesome and very low. WIN. But then, the vocals … see above. Same deal.

No such issue with the closing March because it’s an instrumental, haha. THANKYOUVERYMUCH. Aptly named too, because it is what the title says – a funereal march and a processional groove-free zone to finish.

So, there we go – In Memoriam Listening Party: The Return. Verdict?

I think we’re done with In Memoriam. This doesn’t mean it’s without merit because this EP is part of the Cathedral story and Cathedral are very necessary. But maybe the whole point of In Memoriam – demos for Forest of Equilibrium (still haven’t heard that one), basically – was to be single-minded and obstinate A.F., an extreme extraction from the first-wave of post-Sabbath doomers. Intensely underground in vibe and execution, In Memoriam is music as masochism, as endurance, and its saving grace is it’s only an EP.  It’s the pursuit of an absolute – the slowest – which overrides any notion of song, rhythm or rocking out. Like Earth 2, it pioneers but rarely entices – for me, at least.

The bell tolls.

Looking for more enjoyable Halloween-friendly sounds with an oddball twist? Try last year’s Celtic Frost and Captain Beefheart double whammy for avant-metal chills and weirdo art-rock voodoo.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Coventry: the doom ‘n spires

JIM GHEDI x HELLRIPPER

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HIGH-VOLTAGE NEW SINGLE ‘THE HUNGRY CHILD’ FROM JIM GHEDI. CORONACH UNLEASHED BY HELLRIPPER

The omens were always there. When Jim Ghedi played in Hathersage, it was as a two-person set-up with Owen Spafford on fiddle in a 50-capacity venue. The songs were stripped down but, in the gig review, I scribbled that ‘Wasteland… could easily explode into sprawling, riotous dissonance with the wrong (right?) band behind it.’

Speculative wishes granted, peoples – The Hungry Child is that very thing: a cacophonous electrification of a harrowing tale.

It starts with fiddle-and-drone and downwards bend, like Zep’s Whole Lotta Love left-right speaker panning by way of a hulking wartime bomber. This sets the mood to bleak as Ghedi sings the tale of ‘the hungry child’, based on a German poem from the early 19th century.

It’s a lean start, musically – after the drone, it’s voice and fiddle alone. But a storm soon brews as his no-bullshit band fleshes out the sound: a marching doom shanty where strings and choir (?) shoot for transcendence like Thee Silver Mt Zion Orchestra, switching from rigidity to shamanic chaos over a filthy bass grind.

Hearing Jim Ghedi and crew crank it up like this is pure joy, if that’s the right word for such a forlorn slab of downer folk. Sunshine music it is not, so save it for the greyest, most barren of wind-whipped days and steel your heart for the poem’s end. Sink into it right here.

On stage, The Hungry Child should be a beast so let’s hope Ghedi and crew play it when the UK tour kicks off at Hebden Bridge Trades Club this very week on Thursday 18th June. Me, I’ll be at The Strines Nightingale the day after. Cannot wait.

OK then, time for a different kind of grim: Hellripper.

If you don’t know, Hellripper is the irresistibly OTT speed-thrash-black metal brainchild of one-man studio riot, James McBain. The latest album, Coronach, came out in March and it fully rips (sorry), just like its predecessors – but the maniacal Hellripper blueprint is evolving.

For this album, McBain has added bagpipes, vocal range, violin and even (no fckn way) piano to Hellripper’s hot-wired black-speed frenzy and they all enhance the vision without losing heat from the molten goatcult core. Title track Coronach – a 9-minute linear epic that cruises with mid-tempo anthemics, classic metal licks and furious pace injections – showcases a progressive musical narrative that rarely circles back to verse-chorus regularity. Hunderprest, meanwhile, shreds with riffage that’s Rust-in-Peace tight and Voivod-cold. Ferocious blastbeat action, and the riffy hooks are never far away.

Perhaps a bigger difference on this latest album is that McBain’s Scottish culture and folklore references get a higher profile. They’re dark and macabre, same as they ever were – witchery, vampires, sacrifice, body-snatching – but here, they’re elevated to song titles like these (info cribbed from McBain’s own Coronach liner notes):

Coronach – an improvised song for the dead, traditionally played at funerals
Baobhan Sith – a female vampire of the forests of the Highlands
Mortercheyn – the disease spread by Nuckelavee, a demon from Orkney folklore

And:

Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm

Er…

Anyway, check Coronach for metallic extremes and extremely high-speed feelgoods.

Black and blue metal

IS IT JUST ME OR…

…is there common ground between Jim Ghedi and Hellripper? Both dig, in different ways, into culture, place and people, both bring the past to the present, both forge a distinct aesthetic, and both are gaining popularity in their scenes.

They should tour together.

No doubt this is a ridiculous and shallow observation, but can you imagine a co-headlining trek of the craggier outposts of these isles??? That would be something else. Heavy folk dread and Celtic kult-metal mutation – yes please.

A few more entry-level words on Hellripper right here

CONVERGE – We Were Never the Same: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, CONVERGE AND WHITE DENIM ARE BACK – BUT SAVAGES ARE NOT, EXCEPT FOR PARANOID

How are we supposed to find and listen to new bands when all these old bands insist on cranking out the heavy goods without losing a step?

Next month we’ve got The Melvins with Napalm Death collaboration Savage Imperial Death March – and if anyone typifies ‘not losing a step’ after decades of pioneering brutality and out-there intensity, it’s these two. Cannot wait to hear it (self-imposed embargo until the CD lands).

And check the timing – another April release by The Melvins, as is their recent wont.

So, we’re celebrating vital new sounds by the old guard, starting with Massachusetts noiselords Converge.

CONVERGE – We Were Never the Same

It’s a given that Converge will slash and jab with jagged riffs and meters while Jacob Bannon’s vocal abrasions sandpaper the skin, it’s all part of the Converge deal. But one of the things that really flies on this track and shifts it from neck snapper to full body-and-head banger is Ben Koller’s piledriver groove behind the chorus. His beats are exceptional anyway, no surprise there, but that particular flash is absolute killer – holding down the chaos just enough, like the very end of QOTSA’s Song for the Dead where you lose your shit to the locked-in fury. We Were Never the Same – mature, lived-in ferocity at its best.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – Gimme Some Moore

Speaking of lived-in, who saw new Corrosion of Conformity material coming our way this year? In The Arms of God drummer Stanton Moore is back for the band’s first album since Reed Mullin passed away in 2020 and lead single Gimme Some Moore is on the high-energy side of CoC’s rep. A choppy, prog-bass riff kicks it off before switching to a straight-ahead punk thrasher’s tempo – subtle it is not, andrenalised stomper it is, and Pepper Keenan is on aggressive vocal form. Great to have them back, let’s just hope that the new album is varied enough to showcase the mid and down tempo stuff they nail best.

WHITE DENIM – (God Created) Lock and Key

Must admit, I’ve not been tuned into White Denim’s albums since D – didn’t they veer down a Lite Denim path? – but if the muso-psyche fires of Fits and Workout Holiday was what first turned you on then the thicker, saltier riffs and semi-voodoo slither of (God Created) Lock and Key will definitely pique a re-interest. James Petralli rubs grit into his vocals and there’s a distant Beefheart vibe (the looping lilt of Her Eyes Were a Blue Million Miles) underpinning the heavier, swampier groove. Great video too.

SAVAGES – Paranoid

To mark the 10-year anniversary of Adore Life, Savages shared their version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, which they recorded in the Adore Life sessions.

It fckn smokes. Slow reworkings of Paranoid are often way more compelling than the OG Sabbath arrangement and this gothic, piano-led haunt is no exception. Every player brings it but special mention goes to Gemma Thompson whose howling, moaning guitar conjures the inner turmoil you’d associate with paranoid the state, not the original song … Savages, what a band. Video here.

And for more Sabbath covers and left field interpretations, check the Freakzone Sabbath Special.

’til next time!

Monthly rewind
The monthly music rewind