Metalfest, beer, and vegan grillin’!

We just had a three-day weekend over here in the US, and myself and a group of others from the vegan metal crew celebrated by going to the 11th annual Tidal Wave festival. They couldn’t have picked a better weekend or a better venue for this free thrash show… yesterday was a gorgeous, clear, bright, and cool Saturday in the park filled with metalheads lying on the grass, drinking lots of beer, hanging out with a million awesome dogs, and cooking up a storm on the many barbecue grills that peppered the green. This in itself would have been an amazing day out, though I haven’t even mentioned the performances from the likes of Hirax and Exodus.

Our very thoughtful friends had brought a separate grill for us to roast up some vegan goodies, and while it did take our picnically-challenged, and drunk, group the entire length of Attitude Adjustment’s set to get the damned thing working, we were eventually able to complement our cans of Tecate with some grilled mushrooms, vegan hot dogs, and lots and lots of chips and salsa, right as Hirax came on stage. Truly a perfect day.

The prize of the weekend goes to the guy who had made a denim metal jacket, complete with Angel Witch and Bathory patches, for his chihuahua. That’s some love right there. While it’s unfortunate that no one had brought a camera to document any of this, it’s probably for the best, as at least one phone (yes, mine) was lost during a bout of drunken wrestling… thanks to Mike for the photo above!

Oh right, the bands!

Zombie Holocaust
Detente
Havok
Attitude Adjustment
Hirax
Exodus

Havok and Hirax were the highlights of the afternoon for me. Really solid, old-school speed metal/thrash from both the newbies and the veterans (Havok’s very 80s logo couldn’t mask the fact that every member of the band looked about 15). It was an amazing experience to finally see Hirax thrash it up live, and to actually see Katon De Pena belting out those soaring vocals on stage. Kick ass! Of course, everyone was waiting for Exodus, but although they sounded good, the singer was a bit too “Phil Anselmo”, if you know what I mean. And his repeated appeals to girls in the crowd to “show him their titties” were pretty fucking lame. Disappointing.

All in all, though, a most excellent Saturday- the final proof of which is the fact that I am way too hungover to go again today. Ah well, there’s always next year… pranjalistkrieg

Cathedral / London Vegan Festival

It’s a cold, miserable and rainy Sunday in London (and yeah, I know it’s July). I’m suffering from a hangover and  a severe lack of sleep and need a suitable soundtrack in which to wallow in. First thing that springs to mind for some reason is Entombed’s ‘Left Hand path’, but I quickly realize that the speed of the drums will do my aching head no favours. I spy Cathedral’s ‘Forest of Equilibrium’ on the shelf and I know I’ve found just the ticket – melancholy lyrics, riffs that sound heavier than than a box full of Skullflower albums falling down the stairs and a picture on the back cover of the band in a graveyard looking like they’ve just been told that they’ve missed the last bus. Perfect.

I love this album. Seriously. I can’t really get into the later Cathedral stuff; it’s good by most standards but everything pales in comparison to Forest of Equilibrium. The Doom genre seems to cover many different types of sounds, from the more traditional sounds of Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus to the more avant garde stylings of Sunn o))). For me though, this album is the pinnacle of the genre. There’s a definite sense of foreboding that comes through from the lyrics, and it’s not of the ‘the world is going to be eaten by 50,000 demons from the nether-regions of Ka-Za’ variety often heard in metal. Nope, the lyrics are much more personal; they dwell on things such as relationships ending and are often almost existential. Listened to carefully the album sounds like some kind of journey – the way the organ swirls upwards and beyond at towards the end of the last track gives a real funereal atmosphere and sense of release. The riffs are as a slow as a steamboat coming into the harbour, and how Lee Dorrian’s vocals turned from sounding like two cats fighting in Napalm Death to the mournful dirges on this album I’ll never know.

 

So what does this have to do with veganism? Well not a great deal, but the London Vegan Festival (http://www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1197 ) is only a couple of months away, and last year at the very same event I bumped into…Lee Dorrian! Well, I say ‘bumped into’ when in reality I just stared at him in a totally star struck way. I think I read years ago that he was a vegetarian (no surprise, given Napalm Death’s lyrics), but I was still surprised to see him. If Lee is there next year I’m determined to pluck up the courage to talk to him about ‘Forest of Equilibrium’ and see if he has any interesting cookie recipes . Here’s hoping. PeteF.