Videos from Demon Eye, Colossus and Solar Halos

 On Saturday I went to the Demon Eye album release party at Kings with Solar Halos and Colossus, and did something I haven't done in quite a while -- shot video of the bands playing. I didn't really feel like shooting stills with my camera. Honestly, I was pretty tired and had to drag myself to the show, but once I got there, I had a great time. All three bands were in top form. I can honestly say it was the best Demon Eye performance I've seen.

I bought a copy of the new album, "Leave the Light," which is out now on Soulseller records. Apparently they ran out of vinyl, so I was glad I actually scored a copy. The album sounds killer. Much doomier than what I've heard them do live. I'm also pretty excited that the band used my Instagram shot of them from the Maywood. I still think that's one of the best photos I've ever taken.

If you missed the show, Demon Eye will open for Lord Dying, who released an underrated album last year, on Feb. 24 at the Maywood.

Highlights from night two of Bull City Metal Fest

(Colossus)

Wow! What an amazing evening! There are so many great things to say about all the bands on night two of the Bull City Metal Fest that I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say that I'm really looking forward to next year's festival. In order to conserve space on my cam, I only got video of a few of the bands. 

I arrived about mid-way through Monsonia's set, missing a few of the bands that played in the early afternoon. Even though this weekend was billed as a metal festival, there were quite a few bands that aren't strictly metal. Monsonia is one of them. This was my first time seeing them, and I thought they had a really cool Helmet/Jesus Lizard sound. 

Next up was Horseback, who put on the performance of the evening with a 15-minute version of "Invokation" and "Tyrant Symmetry." Rich from Hog was playing his first show with the band. He told me later that they're working on booking a European tour now. 

Gollum from Wilmington were next. At first I wasn't into them, but they grew on me during the show. I really liked the last two songs that they did. I can say they were one of the absolute true metal bands on the bill. 

Royal Thunder was the other band on the bill that wasn't really metal, but they ended up being my favorite band of the night. They were more like a really heavy Fleetwood Mac, with a bit of Led Zeppelin, Stooges, and even some U2 thrown in. They also had a phenomenal female singer/guitarist. I bought their CD and have been listening to it non-stop. 

The surprise of the evening was USX playing with just Nate, Josh and Justin on stage -- only half of their line-up. Nate said that they had played shows as a trio before, and it was no big deal to them. Lots of folks (myself included) have said that USX isn't necessarily a metal band. They're a band with metallic elements among a variety of influences. On Saturday, with just the three of them, they brought the metal, and were heavier than anything else I heard all weekend. After their show I was done (and so was my camera's memory card), and I ended up skipping out on Hog and Caltrop. See more photos from the evening. Ross Grady also has some great photos on his Flickr stream. 

Is Mercury in retrograde?

I don't know what's happening, but it seems like minor disasters have been popping up all week, culminating in a daylong free-for-all of confusion on Friday. 


I was one of the organizers of Friday's New Raleigh showcase at the Berkeley Cafe. After the Infamous Sugar got sick and had to drop out, we agreed to let Grayson, Brad from Megafaun and Jenks from Horseback play a "secret" set with their project, Man Blossom. I was already a little worried that the Mars Volta show would hurt us, especially after a comment war ensued on New Raleigh over whether people should go see our show or the Mars Volta. 


Then, in the space of a few hours I found out that 1. Man Blossom were NOT playing. 2. Mars Volta were cancelled 3. NAPS, which is the side project with members of Lonnie Walker and Annuals, were added to the bill and 4. two bands for today's Cherry Bounce finale couldn't make it, and they needed help getting someone locally to fill in. That's how the T's ended up playing down there at 1:30 today. 


During the day, I started feeling like I was coming down with something, so I knew I'd make an early night of it. I saw Colossus and thought they were great. The audience were really into them, and even started moshing, which seemed to take the band by surprise. I also purchased their new vinyl LP, "Drunk on Blood," and will give my opinion soon. Unfortunately my video of Colossus was corrupted. As I said, weird luck all night. 


Having NAPS on the bill turned out to be good because it was the first time I've seen them. I only got to see one song, so I can't really give much of a review, but I did capture some video so you can see them for yourself. I heard that Rooster were great, and that The T's had some trouble when Lutie broke her bass strap. 





NAPS from Mann's World on Vimeo.



Before the Berkeley show I checked out Mommie and Tonk at Seaboard, and I can say that Tonk's first show was no fluke. They're really good. Imagine drinking a bourbon and Coke and chatting up a peroxided woman named Lurleen in a dark, wood-paneled honky tonk bar, circa 1975. Tonk would be playing on the jukebox. Can't wait for the next show, because I have it on good authority that singer Graham "The Night Honky" Fry's next outfit will be a denim suit adorned with some sort of big-mouth bass design.

Metal comes to Raleigh

First off, sorry for posting that extra blurry photo of Colossus, but that particular guitar player really does make the funniest moves on stage, and that was the best of the ones I captured. The photos I got of Man Will Destroy Himself at Slim's are even blurrier. At least Caltrop and Black Skies turned out OK. Anyway, downtown was strangely quiet on Wednesday night. I was under the impression that Colossus, Caltrop and Black Skies at the Pour House was going to be THE show of the month. Everyone I knew was going, and everyone they knew was going (though, since "everyone" in Raleigh all mainly know each other we're really talking about a fairly contained group of people). Eventually the Pour House did fill up, but there was a significant number of people who missed Black Skies's bone crushing set. Luckily I captured their first song, "Chain of Command" for you:

Black Skies - "Chain of Command" from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Caltrop was second on the bill, and probably the most highly anticipated since they rarely play Raleigh. They also put on a great show, and I captured a new, un-named song. But honestly, the best part of their set was the hilarity that ensued during the soundcheck. Soundman extraordinare Jac Cain kept trying to get the confused band members, who were really just interested in turning up and playing, to turn down a bit and tell him what they wanted in the monitors. It turned out just fine. Here's the video.

Caltrop -- New song as yet unnamed. from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Colossus ended the show and sounded perfect. I've said it before: These guys have a tendency to be either really sloppy or really amazing. Wednesday was a good night for them. Here's "A Year Later There's Still Meat in the Skull."

Colossus -- "A Year Later There's Still Meat in the Skull" from Mann's World on Vimeo.

After the show, we made our way over to Slim's for the last bit of Man Will Destroy Himself. Here's "Fuse."

Man Will Destroy Himself - "Fuse" from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Video of Tooth from Tir na Nog

It took me a little while to get this one up because of some cable issues. I recently switched to Road Runner Lite, even though I was a little worried that it might make uploading my videos a little tricky. Sure enough, it took several tries to get this video onto Youtube. Since this is the first video I've tried to upload after making the switch, I'm going to give it more time before deciding whether or not to go back to the faster service. Anyone else out there try Road Runner Lite? Any thoughts? Anywho, I finally caught Tooth at the first ever metal version of Local Band, Local Beer at Tir na Nog on Thursday. I can't say that I really liked them or disliked them. There were times when I was totally into what they were doing, and times when it went in one ear and out the other. Amazingly enough, Colossus did the same thing to me, so perhaps, wonder of wonders, I just wasn't in the mood for metal that night! I actually thought a little more about why Colossus wasn't doing it for me that night, but I think they may have been down a member (I wasn't even inspired to go up to the front of the stage during their set!), so I'm going to leave that be for now. Finally, here's the Tooth video:
Tooth from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Videos of Colossus and Hellrazor

(Hellrazor) I've been hearing great things about Hellrazor, and their show Saturday at Slim's didn't disappoint. They're thrasy, old school metal with nods to Megadeth and Anthrax. Check out the video below for "The Pawn."
Hellrazor from Mann's World on Vimeo. Colossus, of course, is straight-up NWOBHM, which they understand inside and out. They had a new song, the concept of which had something to do with a dead whale, called "A Year Later There's Still Meat in the Skull," or something like that. Unfortunately I didn't capture that particular opus. Instead I got their themesong ("Colossus"), and also got it from a bad angle because the show was PACKED.
Colossus from Mann's World on Vimeo. Also, check out more photos from the show.

Catching up

(Colossus) I know, I've been totally slack for the past couple of weeks, so now I'm forced to do a round-up of what I've seen. Thursday, Sept. 4: The T's at Tir na Nog The T's sounded great as always, but the sound on my video sucks. Evidently I was too close to Andy Kerr's amp. Anyway, here's video of "Mr. Rebel."

The T's from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008: Suburban Sweethearts at Slim's I didn't get video of this show, but I can tell you they sounded great. This was the band's last show with guitarist Joe Yerry. Andy Kerr is joining the band, and according to singer/guitarist Erik Sugg, they will likely change their name. I'm looking forward to hearing the new incarnation. BTW, I didn't catch much of the downtown live stuff, but did manage to hear part of the Annuals, who played to a small-but-dedicated crowd in front of Raleigh Times.Saturday, Sept. 6: Black Skies and Colossus at Slim's The best show I saw all week. Black Skies were heavy and powerful. I've been listening to their new CD non-stop. Colossus had the potential to be great, but were way too sloppy. There's a difference between having a great time without worrying about the details, and just plain being out of tune. These guys are too good to let themselves sound like this. But they did have a lot of energy, and they were obviously enjoying themselves. Earlier in the evening I tried to catch Sir Arthur & the Royal Knights and the Loners at Sadlack's, but someone in the dorm next door kept calling the cops to shut down the music. I hope that doesn't become a regular occurrance.

Black Skies from Mann's World on Vimeo.

(Black Skies) Looking way back, here's some video of Dirty Johnny & the Makebelieves that I didn't post. They were at Slim's on Aug. 29.

Dirty Johnn & the Make-Believes from Mann's World on Vimeo.

More from Caltrop, plus Colossus

A few years ago, some folks covered the early chiffon-era Judas Priest (pre-British Steel, maybe even pre-Hell Bent for Leather) at the Kings Great Cover-up. That was seriously one of the most awesome things I ever saw at the Cover-up. This morning I realized that Colossus, whose updated NWOBHM-style metal references Priest, Maiden and forgotten gems like Diamondhead, was the band that did Priest at that show. I thought they were fabulous enough after seeing them last night at Reservoir, but realizing that made me decide that they are now my new favorite band in the Triangle. Check out the video. You won't see much, but you will hear what they sound like. Go see them, and buy their CD.

Colossus from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Caltrop was even better than when I saw them last week, mainly because original drummer Jason Aylward, who now drums for Valient Thorr, sat in with them for a double -drum assault.

Caltrop from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Another one by Caltrop from Mann's World on Vimeo.