Norwegian prog rockers Green Carnation have announced the third part of their epic A Dark Poem trilogy of albums, The Messiah Complex, will be released through Season of Mist on September 4.
And the band have shared their first new music from the album with the release of a video for new single, Unconditional Artificial Chemistry.
“A Dark Poem is by far our biggest achievement since Light of Day, Day of Darkness”, Green Carnation vocalist Kjetil Nordhus says. “Our new album trilogy returns to the epic storytelling that put us on the map back in 2001. While the reception to Part I and Part II has been overwhelmingly positive for us, we do believe that Part III saves the best for last. The Messiah Complex ties the whole story together with our most uncompromising statement to date.”
“The intention behind A Dark Poem was to build a completely new musical universe”, Green Carnation bassist and primary lyricist Stein Roger Sordal says. “While the direction revealed itself as the creative journey unfolded, The Messiah Complex was carefully planned with a clear vision for where we wanted the story to end. Our goal was for all three parts to stand on their own, but Part III brings them all together into a unified whole.”
“The video for Unconditional Artificial Chemistry tells a meta story about the danger of artificial intelligence”, Nordhus continues. “We all know, if we are being honest with ourselves, that A.I. is going to take control of our lives. There are powerful people who stand to profit from it and that makes its takeover inevitable.
“The video shows this happening before our eyes. As soon as the A.I. takes control, our likeness is corrupted. Before the song is even finished, we’re completely destroyed.”
A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex will be available as a CD digipack, in various coloured vinyl formats with a gatefold sleeve, and there will also be a limited edition A Dark Poem, Part I-III Colored LP Box Set (includes demos and outtakes)/.
Green Carnation will perform all three parts of A Dark Poem at a special live show at the Kilden Performing Arts Centre in their hometown of Kristiansand in Norway.
Green Carnation: A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex 1. Unconditional Artificial Chemistry 2. The Messiah Complex 3. Broken Souls, Common Enemies 4. A Dark Poem – Orchestral Suite
Download XXIII Festival (2026) – Review by Howard Keogh
Photos by Enda Madden
Download Festival is still evolving. This year’s lineup brings together a hugely diverse selection of styles and genres in a maelstrom of musical mayhem. 2006 also saw new partnerships with the Final Fantasy gaming franchise and author Rebecca Yarros. In a nod of respect to past glories, the Lemmy Forever Initiative brings a miniature urn containing the star’s ashes to the Download site.
DAY 1 – FRIDAY
Creeper
Blood thirsty rockers Creeper are busy at this year’s Download, playing two sets, and hosting a DJ set. Their set unfolds as a gothic comic book brought violently to life featuring “Mistress of Death,” and “Headstones”, where Will von Ghould prowls the stage with the confidence of a man who knows exactly what kind of story he’s telling. “Razor wire” sees Hannah Greenwood deliver a standout vocal performance. It seems vampires do come out in the daylight.
Periphery
From the off, it’s a brutal assault of guitar backed by soaring vocals. Periphery deals in precision, brutality, and shifting time signatures. Riffs appear, disappear and mutate before your brain has properly processed them. Today, we witness the first live performance of material from the new album “A Pale White Dot.” Unfortunately, guitarist Jake Bowen was missing due to a family emergency; however, that didn’t stop the delivery of a killer set. By the end, Periphery has demonstrated once again that technical proficiency need not come at the expense of emotion.
Daughtry
Chris Daughtry has vocal agility, power, and huge range…gifts that are all on display today. Daughtry understands something many bands forget: songs matter, big choruses matter. His voice remains a formidable instrument, carrying effortlessly across the field. The song “Pieces” is dedicated to anyone who has experienced loss or darkness. Warm sun adds to the feel-good factor as the crowd claps along and gets to participate in “Over to You.” The highlight of the set, however, is the evocative “Heavy is the Crown.”
Halestorm
Lzzy and Arjay Hale first surfaced at Download back in 2012. Since then, Lzzy has developed that increasingly rare quality of absolute command. Some performers ask for attention. She simply grabs it. From the moment she steps forward, the stage belongs to her. “Fallen Star” opens the set, before Lzzy gets her voice warmed up with a massive scream that launches into “I Miss the Misery.” All the favourites are there with “Love Bites” up next. New music “Watch out!” from the 2025 album “Everest” is dedicated to “all the bitches in the audience” before we hear “Freak like me.” Lzzy pushes her voice close to breaking point on “I Get off” to a rapturous reception from the crowd. The voice remains astonishing: powerful enough to cut through any mix and nuanced enough to carry genuine vulnerability.
Limp Bizkit
After a rousing performance in 2024, Limp Bizkit are enjoying a huge resurgence and return to triumphantly carry on the party as first-time Download headliners. A countdown onscreen hits zero, and a bizarre image of mother and baby flashes onscreen before a dedication to former bass player Sam Rivers and band friend Dougie Miller. Limp Bizkit emerge to a reception that borders on delirium. It would be easy to dismiss them as a relic from the turn of the millennium. Yet, standing in a field filled with thousands of people losing their minds to those songs, such arguments feel academic. “Break Stuff” appears early, setting the tone for what is to come, and the crowd are lapping it up. A lyric board onscreen ensures the whole crowd can sing along to a rollicking performance where Fred Durst has the crowd wrapped around his little finger. The set is chaotic, self-aware and relentlessly enjoyable. The crowd wants riffs, they want choruses, and they want to jump around screaming lyrics that some here today first learned twenty-five years ago. That is exactly what they get!
Cavalera
Max and Igor Cavalera return to play the Dogtooth tent, which is full of die-hard fans, and they carry with them an entire legacy. Opening with the thunderous “Refuse, Resist”, these icons of tribal thrash blast their way through an electric set. The songs remain ferocious. Age has done nothing to soften their impact on a crowd responding to the ancient rhythms. Time has not stilled the fire in their bellies as the Dogtooth crowd moshes through “Territory” and Black Sabbath classic “Symptom of the Universe.”
DAY 2 – SATURDAY
The Wildhearts
Today, we celebrate life with Ginger, who, unfortunately, was recently diagnosed with Mantle cell Lymphoma. It’s an early start, but one supported by a big crowd and a warm media presence. Ginger shouts, “Some of us didn’t make it here today”, and tells those that did to raise their hands in celebration of life. The band tears through their set with the energy of musicians determined to prove they still belong among the festival’s heavy hitters. “Suckerpunch” and “Diagnosis” go down well, and even Ginger’s dog gets to appear on stage. This is rock n’ roll at its finest.
Tailgunner
Tailgunner ticks almost every box on the classic heavy metal checklist. Heavy metal has spent decades borrowing from its own past, but Tailgunner wear their influences with genuine pride rather than irony. Rushing onto the stage with a sense of urgency that doesn’t relent, vocalist Craig Cairns dashes around the stage like a scalded cat. The band’s performance feels like a transmission from an era when guitar solos were mandatory, and every chorus demanded a raised fist. The enthusiasm is infectious. New album title track “Midnight Blitz” and “Tears in Rain” are just some highlights. Recent lineup changes led to rumours that a Download appearance might not happen; however, luckily for all, this was averted. Download crowds can be notoriously difficult to win over early in the day. Tailgunner completely nailed it.
Those Damn Crows
Eerie squawks of crows herald the arrival onstage of a band riding the crest of a wave. The Welsh rockers have spent years building momentum the hard way, and Donington feels like another significant step forward. A huge crowd are here to witness the band’s first live show in eight months. Shane Greenhall announces, “It’s been a while; I wanted to smell the grass.” A great and melodic set that includes “Man on Fire”, “No Surrender” and “Sin on Skin” is completed with Shane delighting the assembled masses by the announcement of new material in the works and a potential UK tour in October. This powerful show is bound to have won over many new fans.
Self-Deception
Modern rock can often struggle to stand out, but this Swedish outfit understands how to command attention. The set is built on huge hooks, electronic textures and enough energy to power half the festival site. Opener “One of Us” is heavy, so the band sprays down the crowd with water pistols afterwards. The crowd response grows song by song. The band moves with confidence, feeding off the audience. Singer Andreas Clark asks, “Anyone Married?” as the genre shifts the energy again for the song “Wedding.” Later, he instructs the crowd to make room for Patrik Hallgren on bass, who takes up position playing from the centre of a furious circle pit. The atmosphere is electric, and we leave with a sense that many may have arrived curious, but all will have left converted.
Architects
Architects headline the Opus stage tonight to a massive crowd, and the anticipation is palpable. Few British rock bands have evolved as dramatically over the past decade; Sam Carter remains one of metalcore’s most compelling frontmen. The set opens with “Elegy” and the ferocious “Whiplash,” before Carter dedicates “Doomsday” to former band-mate Tom Searle. The set is stopped twice due to health concerns from security as multiple circle pits erupt. Overall, however, Architects deliver a set that balances crushing heaviness with enormous melody.
Blood Incantation
The stage is set with an otherworldly backdrop and two giant obelisks on either side of the stage. This band take the whole idea of progressive to the next level, weaving strands of Psychedelic material with death metal, electronic flourishes and a dash of Hawkwind to create a truly malevolent force. The band has virtually created their own genre that takes the listener on a roller coaster ride through the cosmos with musical elements of light and shade.
Guns ‘n’ Roses
Forty years in and back to headline Download, for many in attendance, this is the reason they’re here. Uncharacteristically for Axel, the band arrives onstage ten minutes early, for what has been billed as a three-hour-plus set. The opener “Welcome to the Jungle,” “It’s So Easy”, and “You Could Be Mine” bring us back to the eighties. GNR first performed at the Donington festival way back in the “Monsters of Rock” days in 1988. Now mid-way through a world tour, and some cracks are starting to show in Axl’s vocals as he struggles to hit the higher notes.
DAY 3 – SUNDAY
Mammoth
Arriving on stage with a humble “Hi”, it’s straight down to business with virtuoso guitar licks from the family gene pool. Wolfgang Van Halen has spent much of his career exceeding great expectations as the son of a guitar icon, yet Wolfgang himself remains an engaging presence, displaying humility and confidence. Mammoth‘s continued success has been built on the undeniable fact that the songs are great. The band’s performance is packed with huge riffs, choruses and the kind of effortless musicianship that comes from years of dedication rather than inherited reputation. It was two years ago when Mammoth first played Download. Opener “The End” is swiftly followed by “Another celebration at the end of the world,” and a well-received set closes with “Don’t Back Down.”
Dogstar
A quick sound check from a certain Keanu Reeves bass creates quite the stir before the set starts. Such is the buzz surrounding Dogstar that every photographer on-site is in the pit. New album “All In Now” provides most of the material played today. The main attraction here seems to be Reeves; however, in reality, it is just three friends playing straight-ahead rock n’ roll. The show is enjoyable and convincing if unremarkable. Their performance is understated and melodic, but you can’t avoid the feeling that the band are trying to underplay their celebrity member.
The Pretty Reckless
This band seems to have grown up with Download Festival, now returning to the Main stage slot. The husky vocals of Taylor Momsen are punctuated with great guitar licks. Momsen possesses the sort of charisma that cannot be taught, and a voice as smooth as smoke & whiskey. Mid-set, Momsen takes a walk in the pit to meet the punters. “Witches Burn” is dedicated to the ladies, and audience participation is the order of the day during the classic “Make Me Want To Die.” The Pretty Reckless has long occupied a unique space between classic hard rock and contemporary alternative music. Today, they sound completely at home.
Ankor
A relentless dance beat provides the intro before Ankor explodes onto the stage with a show full of infectious fun and energy. Sticky-sweet lyrics provide a counterpoint to raw vocals, ably delivered by Jessie Williams, who immediately commands attention. She pouts and struts across the stage like a naughty girl, mixing sing-along choruses with intense growls, while the rest of the band provides the energy of a small power station. The Band have spent years quietly building a reputation as one of modern metal’s most exciting prospects, and today feels like a significant step forward. What stands out most is their confidence. Circle pits evolve as energy levels hit fever pitch. Bass player Julio Lopez takes off on a crowd surfing journey towards the end of a frantic show.
Tom Morello
Tom Morello doesn’t merely perform songs; he presents ideas. The riffs that helped define generations of alternative music remain astonishingly powerful, but it is Morello’s ability to connect those songs to larger themes that elevates the performance. Veteran fans who remember the original impact of Rage Against the Machine stand alongside younger attendees discovering these songs for the first time. The solos are still extraordinary, and the energy remains intact. The thunderous riff to “Soldier in the Army of Love” blasts its way across the arena before Morello addresses the audience. “Anyone love rock n roll and hate fascism?” He proceeds to create “An anti-fascist earthquake.” The audience erupts, bouncing up on cue together. Morello is a political force for good and perhaps needed more today than ever.
Linkin Park
How time flies! It’s been 12 years since Linkin Park last headlined Download Festival. They return with new singer Emily Armstrong following the tragic loss of Chester Bennington in 2017. Questions surrounded their future, their return, and whether the old songs could ever feel complete again. New track “The Emptiness Machine” opens this celebration, first for the band’s return and, as pointed out by co-vocalist Mike Shinoda, for the first Female to Headline Download Festival. The production is spectacular, and the sound is tight and focused. The set includes all the classics like “Numb” and “Papercut.” The set closes with “Faint.” By the end of this performance, all those questions have disappeared, and Linkin Park has smashed any doubts. Eventually, the house lights come up and the spell breaks, but what a way to end Download 2026.
And so, another Download Festival comes to an end, stages are already being dismantled, campsites are emptying, and multitudes of fans begin their individual journeys home. Some near, some far, but all happy having had a great weekend’s entertainment. Hell, there was even a secret set from those mighty Newport Helicopter pilots, “Skindred” added for good measure.
In cars, campers, trains, and airports, discussions about the weekend experiences will begin, and the memories will hopefully last forever.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PUNKS OF THE EMPIRE RETURN WITH NEW SINGLE “IDOLS OF THE CAVE” — OUT NOW!
Icelandic genre-bending metal force Punks of the Empire are back with their latest single, “Idols of the Cave,” released on June 19th via Inconsistency Records . The track offers the first glimpse into the band’s upcoming EP and continues their steady evolution into darker, more experimental sonic territory.
Formed in Akureyri in 2020, Punks of the Empire have built a reputation for refusing to sit still within any single style. Blending groove metal, metalcore, thrash, and melodic influences, the project began as a studio collaboration between guitarist Hörður Halldórsson and vocalist Guðmundur Magni Ásgeirsson before expanding into a full band with a unified creative mission: push boundaries and challenge expectation.
Following their debut EP Facade (2021) and the ambitious concept album Gehenna (2024), the band continues to sharpen both their sound and their message. Known for fusing heavy, aggressive riffs with cinematic and atmospheric layers, Punks of the Empire deliver music that hits hard while still asking bigger questions underneath the surface.
“‘Idols of the Cave’ is a twisted, genre-bending reflection of the digital age—where constant online conflict, hostility toward opposing viewpoints, and self-made ideological walls shape how we see each other and ourselves,” the band explains.
That theme comes through in a track that balances intensity with atmosphere, pulling elements of metal, melodic textures, and modern production into a tightly controlled storm of sound. The result is both a warning and a mirror held up to the fractured nature of online culture.
“Idols of the Cave” was produced by Hörður Halldórsson , with mixing and mastering handled by Hörður Halldórsson and Haukur Pálmason . The release marks a pivotal step forward as the band prepares their next EP, signaling a new chapter in their ongoing evolution.
For fans of Slipknot , Gojira , and Trivium , Punks of the Empire continue to carve out a sound that is heavy, cinematic, and unafraid to step outside the lines.
“Idols of the Cave” is available on all major streaming platforms:
https://punksoftheempire.bandcamp.com/track/idols-of-the-cave https://open.spotify.com/artist/4MG9dMUMTu4MRB3qwlUJfV https://music.apple.com/us/artist/punks-of-the-empire/1587890194
Band: Punks of the Empire Release: Idols of the Cave (Single) Label: Inconsistency Records Produced by: Hörður Halldórsson Mixed & Mastered by: Hörður Halldórsson, Haukur Pálmason Management: Independent
Turnstile have announced the dates of a new US headline tour, where they are bringing along the most varied and celebratory supporting cast you could ever ask for.
The ‘Never Enough’ Tour, part two, will make its way across the States as Summer turns into Autumn, and finds the band bringing in friends and bands from all corners of the creative sphere.
They will be joined on dates by Agnostic Front, Angel Du$t, Boy Harsher, ceremony, Clips, Cold World, Collateral, Die Spitz, Febuary, Fiddlehead, Hatebreed, Haywire, Hitech, Julie, King’s Command, Mall Grab, Nourished By Time, Pennywise, Pluto’s Kiss, Porches, Says Gray, Slayyyter, Terror, Texas Is The Reason, Thundercat, Trash Talk, Vince Staples and Yves Tumor.
Here are all the dates you need to know and who will be at them
SEPTEMBER
09 – MILWAUKEE The Eagles Ballroom (with Texas Is The Reason and Haywire) 11 – DETROIT Russell Industrial Center Lot (with Ceremony, Hitech and King’s Command) 12 – TORONTO Woodbine Park (with Yves Tumor, Saya Gray and Pluto’s Kiss) 14 – PITTSBURGH Stage AE Outdoor (with Thundercat, Angel Du$t and Nourished By Time) 16 – CININATTI The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park (with Porches) 19 – TAMPA England Brothers Park (with Hatebreed and Cold World) 20 – MIAMI Factory Town Infinity Room (with Mall Grab, Cold World and Collateral) 23 – QUEENS Forest Hills Stadium (with Clipse and Julie) 26 – PORTLAND Thompson’s Point (with Yves Tumor and Fiddlehead) 29 – RALEIGH Red Hat Amphitheater (with Yves Tumor, Angel Dust and Agnostic Front)
OCTOBER
03 – OKLAHOMA CITY The Zoo Amphitheatre (with Die Spitz) 06 – LAWRENCE The University of Kansas on the Hill (with Slayyyter and Die Spitz) 07 – ST LOUIS Arsenal BG Ballpark (with Vince Staples and Die Spitz) 14 – VENTURA Ventura County Fairgrounds (with Pennywise and Die Spitz) 15 – LAS VEGAS The Amp at Craig Ranch Regional Park (with Vince Staples, Trash Talk and Febuary) 18 – SANTA ANA Observatory Festival Grounds (with Boy Harsher and Terror)
British metal seemed ready to take over the world in the mid-1990s, but then the rise of nu metal scuppered its momentum. In 2020, Hammer caught up with Orange Goblin, Paradise Lost, Napalm Death and more to find out what exactly went wrong.
August 17, 1996 was a good day to be a British metal fan. The sun shone on the hallowed turf of Donington Park, and tens of thousands of metalheads made the annual pilgrimage to witness a reformed and re-made-up Kiss headlining that year’s Monsters Of Rock alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Sepultura and many more.
Plus, while the mainstream was wrapped up in ‘Cool Britannia’ and the Britpop phenomenon, our metal bands had been thriving. Carcass, Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower and more were all doing fine business, despite the threat of grunge that had killed off so many of their US peers.
“It was incredible when you think back,” reflects Nick Holmes of Yorkshire doom merchants Paradise Lost. The band had broken out of the underground, been tipped as the next Metallica and, with 1995’s classic Draconian Times in their back pocket, were added to the Main Stage line-up. “We always dreamed about playing there. We don’t really get that excited by anything, to be honest, but that was pretty special after all the work we’d put in.”
Everything seemed set up for a moment of coronation for the new breed of British metal, a springboard to the next level for our scene… but, of course, that isn’t what Donington ’96 is remembered for. A few hours after Paradise Lost stepped offstage, Korn arrived to headline the second stage of the festival, their incredible, day-stealing performance triggering the forthcoming domination of the as-yet-untitled nu metal movement.
Almost overnight, the pendulum swung back in favour of the USA: nu metal became the biggest movement on Earth, Carcass split, Bolt Thrower were plagued by line-up changes, Paradise Lost rejected metal for synth-pop, and a generation of young, vibrant British metal bands ended up being treated almost exclusively with apathy and ignorance for half a decade.
“It was a really great scene back then, because it was so underground,” says Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward. “You’d go see Electric Wizard or Cradle Of Filth in [south east London’s] The Amersham Arms and Barney would be handing out flyers for Napalm Death gigs. We didn’t think about commercial concerns, because there was no chance of it. Everyone sort of knew each other and got along whatever music they were playing or into.”
The UK may have invented metal, but there was no place for the more dour, straightforward British stereotype in the nu metal scene that was taking over in the late 90s.
“It was funny to see the change in the scene,” says Paul Catten of Herefordshire-based metallic hardcore band Medulla Nocte. “We were coming from the punk scene and it just hit a point where you’d suddenly see all these people in baggy jeans getting piercings and dying their hair blue or whatever.”
It’s safe to say that, for some of the bands that had enjoyed success in the early 90s, nu metal was an unwanted addition. Nick Holmes remembers being backstage at a festival during the years of Korn and Limp Bizkit’s dominance.
“They were brash and loud,” he laughs. “I didn’t know who these bands were, but I saw a bunch of guys all smiling and high-fiving each other and wearing multicoloured clothing. I remember thinking, ‘This ain’t metal, is it?! Smiling!’”
The British bands of the time were not anti-American; they just took their influences from other areas of the US scene.
“We loved American bands and were hugely influenced by them,” Karl Middleton of Nottingham post-metallers Earthtone9 explains. “But our problem is that we weren’t influenced by hip-hop. We were taking bits of Corrosion Of Conformity and Kyuss, and there was very little of that in what was popular at that time. The band from our scene we really looked up to was Pulkas; they had this very British, almost Killing Joke, kind of vibe.”
Pulkas were one of the first bands to turn heads in the press during the dominance of nu metal. Although they were short-lived, the band splitting with no fanfare shortly after the release of 1998 debut album Greed, they were arguably the first band from British shores that had the audacity to take the fight to America, leaning heavily on the atmospherics of Tool and the textured groove of Deftones or Helmet. They wouldn’t be the last.
“I remember when Pitchshifter signed to Geffen,” says Karl, still awed all these years later. “One of our bands signing to an international major was a game-changer. Everyone re-evaluated the possibilities of what they could achieve.”
Pitchshifter were undoubtedly the biggest band of this period, their evolution from underground, Godflesh-worshipping industrialists to major-label drum’n’bass punks as surprising as it was exciting. Their 1998 album, www.pitchshifter.com, was their first to feature clean vocals.
“I didn’t want to make another record with grunting vocals,” Pitchshifter vocalist JS Clayden explains. “The guys were gracious enough to let me present more varied vocal and song ideas. I believe British anything can be successful if it has structural support. Unfortunately, that support had to come from the USA. Only Geffen were adventurous or dumb enough to back our brand of experimentation, so we took the money and ran.”
Pitchshifter’s success seemed to make the door creak open, and trickles of British bands, such as Anglo-Irish rap-metallers One Minute Silence and industrial northerners Kill II This, began to experience a modicum of success – albeit in guises that borrowed from the US metal sound du jour.
“I lost interest as that decade progressed,” says Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway, who appeared on Kill II This’s Deviate album in 1998. “The spark that made heavy music interesting wasn’t there for me anymore. So we went back to being inspired by the things that originally inspired us, and if we did take anything from 90s music it was more stuff like Sonic Youth.”
It’s the old adage: be careful of what you wish for. We soon realised that without the machine you need for touring behind us, we couldn’t compete.
Karl Middleton, Earthtone9
But progress was being made. In December 1999, British/Gibraltan post-grungers Breed 77 opened for Black Sabbath at their one-off show at the Astoria, and Kill II This opened for Slipknot at their legendary debut UK show there. At the same time, One Minute Silence were out as main support to Machine Head on their Burning Red tour, and then played on Slipknot’s first-ever UK tour. Once again, though, it was Pitchshifter who were the trailblazers. They were added as the opening band on the bill of the inaugural UK Ozzfest at Milton Keynes in 1998, proving that British bands could hold their own if given the chance.
“That was a trip,” JS Clayden remembers. “We learnt a lot on Ozzfest. Love them or hate them, the American bands took no prisoners – they killed it like it was their last show at every gig.”
While Pitchshifter had the industry infrastructure in place to rise to the challenge of playing alongside the American behemoths, many of their peers didn’t, and the thrill of being placed on a bill with some of the biggest names in metal didn’t last long when the reality of the situation was made apparent.
“It’s the old adage: be careful of what you wish for,” says Karl, when asked about Earthtone9’s experiences of touring with the likes of Soulfly and Glassjaw. “We soon realised that without the machine you need for touring behind us, we couldn’t compete. We can’t complain about our label and the small budget we were on, but ultimately, you’re being put in front of the first few people through the door who don’t know your stuff and might not necessarily be interested in what you’re trying to do.”
“I loved the challenge,” smiles Paul Catten when remembering Medulla Nocte’s stint as the opening band on, again, a Soulfly tour. “You see your name on the poster with the bloke who used to be in Sepultura and you think, ‘Bloody hell! This’ll be good!’ But I remember building up the London show in my head, and when we got onstage, there were only about 30 people in the building! We still played well, mind.”
Orange Goblin’s Ben Ward onstage in 2022. (Image credit: Andrea Friedrich/Redferns)
While most of the British bands were swimming against the tide of the American onslaught, one band vehemently went out of their way to alienate themselves from everyone: Nottingham’s Iron Monkey. Their blend of New Orleans sludge, mixed with British grit and driven by the inhuman, nihilistic belch of iconic frontman Johnny Morrow, made them a band to look up to.
“They were something else,” laughs Paul, who formed Murder One with Johnny in 2001 after the break-up of their own bands (Johnny sadly passed away shortly after). “The first time I saw them, I had to laugh; this quiet, polite guy that I’d met before the show was up there making all these noises! And they didn’t give a fuck. Bands all say that, but Monkey were proper punk rock.”
By the dawn of the new millennium, most of the lower tier of British bands had split up due to a lack of interest. Those that were continuing suffered from diminishing returns, but Earthtone9 gave the scene its definitive parting shot with the arc’tan’gent album. This sprawling masterpiece should have catapulted them to the highest of heights, but instead they split just over a year after its release.
“We were really happy with the record,” says Karl. “We didn’t know that it’d be thought of as our ‘magnum opus’, we just felt we were getting closer to our initial vision. But it wasn’t working as a unit; it was actually a relief when we split.”
As nu metal flooded the mainstream, the metal world looked around for something new. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s visionary masterpiece Calculating Infinity arrived in 1999, and ushered in a new attitude to music. Suddenly the dirtier, angrier, more progressive and noise-based likes of Meshuggah, Botch, Candiria and many more shifted focus away from the ludicrously over-the-top third wave of nu metal and, slowly but surely, being British no longer reduced you to second-class citizen status.
Corby-based sludge metal sextet Raging Speedhorn came within touching distance of the UK top 40 singles chart, Watford tech oddities Sikth suddenly found themselves being played on Radio One, and the likes of Hundred Reasons and Funeral For A Friend, and later Bullet For My Valentine and Gallows, put heavier British music back where it belonged… to the point where, over 20 years after Paradise Lost stepped out onto the main stage at Donington Park, one of the original members of British metal’s 90s underground scene did the same.
“It was hugely satisfying,” says Ben Ward of Orange Goblin’s appearance on Download 2017’s main stage. “After all these years of toil, we are taken seriously. You look at us and at Electric Wizard, and we’ve grown from that scene I was talking about earlier. We never could have imagined that day coming back then, but if we’ve played our part in helping it to where it is now then I’m happy with that.”
The late 90s may not have been the most commercially viable time to make metal in this country, but without the grassroots underground scene, we may not have reached a point where we hold the likes of While She Sleeps, Bury Tomorrow, Venom Prison, Black Peaks, Employed To Serve and the rest in such esteem.
“I wouldn’t want to comment on the artistry of others too much,” says JS Clayden to sign off. “But I think that Pitchshifter and Earthtone9 were underground bands that made music from the heart and didn’t have to pretend to write ballads to make more money. From my perspective, our music was a genuine and stentorian voice that came out by necessity rather than any nonsense designed to fill our bank accounts.”
On June 7, 1986, Queen kicked off their Magic Tour at the Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Those watching, and indeed those onstage, had no inkling that the 26-date European tour, scheduled in support of the quartet’s twelfth studio album, A Kind of Magic, would be frontman Freddie Mercury‘s final tour with the band.
On July 11 and 12, with INXS, Status Quo and The Alarm in support, the tour stopped off at London’s Wembley Stadium, where one year earlier, the quartet had delivered the most acclaimed and iconic performance of their career at Live Aid. Both nights were filmed, with the July 12 show subsequently released on VHS/DVD as Queen Live at WembleyStadium.
On July 12, Queen decided to celebrate their homecoming with a party, starting at 11pm, at the Kensington Roof Gardens club at 99 Kensington High Street in west London. Among the 500 invited guests were Yves St Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Cliff Richard, Spandau Ballet, The Who’s John Entwsitle, Fish from Marillion, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, glamour model-turned-pop star Samantha Fox, and various British comedians, actors and TV stars.
“As soon as you got into the lift there were naked women painted green, like a forest,” Samatha Fox later recalled. “They had midgets with little trays of drinks. You just knew it was going to be a brilliant party.”
The highlight of the night for many was a rowdy set by covers band Dicky Hart and The Pacemakers, who, to the untrained eye, looked suspiciously identical to Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor.
“They jammed for about an hour,” Samantha Fox remembered. “It was amazing. [Freddie] pulled me up and asked me what songs I knew. I asked if he knew [Fox’s debut single]Touch Me and he laughed and said, ‘What about Go Johnny Go?’ [Chucks Berry’s Johnny B. Goode] We ended up singing that together. It was amazing to do a duet with Freddie.”
You can see footage from the private party in the archive news clip below.
And you can see footage of ‘Dicky Hart and The Pacemakers’ performing Tutti Frutti with disgraced paedophile pop star Gary Glitter here, and more photos of the party below.
Iron Maiden had a rough time during their show at La Défense Arena in Paris. The British metal legends were going to film the show for posterity and a future release, but things went wrong, and they were forced to play a shortened set due to a power outage in the city. The band has now released a statement regarding what happened. Read more…
I Know What I Saw, the debut album from Nashville heavy shoegazers Lockstep, is out exactly one month from today. The group shared lead single “Ash In The Water” in the spring, and this week they’re back with a video for “Dog In The House Of Plenty.” It’s an exquisite slow-creep that made me forget I’m sick of heavy shoegaze. Shit rips, elegantly. Listen below.
