The Metal Column - February 2010
Even though February is the shortest month of the year, four jam-packed weeks of killer gigs ensures that all the bases are covered (with blood, or course). In fact, the first week alone is crammed with enough circle pit-inciting awesomeness to guarantee that every metal maniac will get more than their fair share of ear-shredding pandemonium. But the fun doesn’t stop there.
Thrashoholics Municipal Waste erect a human wall-of-death as they pollute King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (1 Feb) with help from local brutalists Circle Of Tyrants, followed by a virtual deathmetal symposium at Ivory Blacks featuring Decapitated, Kataklysm and Man Must Die (2 Feb). On the same night, Italian vampires Lacuna Coil haunt the O2 ABC (2 Feb), while evening number three sees the Bonecrusher Fest (The Black Dahlia Murder, 3 Inches Of Blood, Necrophobic and Ingested) descend on the Garage (3 Feb). Corpse-painted tank commanders Marduk then cauterise the Classic Grand (4 Feb) with support from grind misanthropes Anaal Nathrakh.
Future UK convicts Throats criminalise the 13th Note (8 Feb), followed by priestburners Lamb Of God and plague angels Job For A Cowboy at the Barrowland Ballroom (11 Feb). The same venue hosts underground metal celebrities Mastodon (19 Feb) who are a sight to behold in the live setting. With the aid of visual projections specially designed by artist Josh Graham (Neurosis, A Storm of Light) to augment their latest full length Crack The Skye, you will be ushered on a psychedelic journey to tsarist Russia by means of astral projection, wormholes and solar incineration. Come early and catch a rarely seen opening performance by NorCal powertrio Totimoshi.
With Dino Cazares and Burton C Bell recently reunited, a revamped incarnation of cybernetic assassins Fear Factory returns to industrialise the Garage (18 Feb) a few days before the O2 Academy presents an epic lineup of heaviness with Machinehead, Hatebreed and Bleeding Through (23 Feb). For some good ol’ classic rock adulation, encourage prog revisionists Big Elf and Canadian retro-rockers Priestess as they raise the roof at The Cathouse (22 Feb).
In Edinburgh, Bannerman’s will run red when Swedish necrobutchers Insision eviscerate their flock of fans with the surgical assistance of Dead Beyond Buried and Dawn Of Chaos (25 Feb), while Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (trans. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) institute their Teutonic metal mythology at Studio 24 (20 Feb). Back in Glasgow, spandex aficionados Europe will resurrect their unique brand of keyboard-driven orchestral stadium metal at the O2 ABC (28 Feb). Last but obviously not least, underrated Dunfermline legends Nazareth pull out all the proto-metal stops at the O2 Academy (19 Feb). Expect no mercy.