Northern Oak Charity Gig - Corporation, 13th Feb 2010

Sheffield based folk metal collective Northern Oak played the Corporation, Sheffield's premier dank, smelly dive, for a charity gig supporting the British Heart Foundation last Saturday night. Always up for supporting local talent, 23inertia and I donned our blackest clothes and headed out for an evening of metal with tanzeelat, our resident metal guru. And for 3 quid, why not?

Northern Oak were not alone in this bit of charity. Nottingham based doom/groove/stoner/sludge metal band The Engines Of Armageddon played a set, as well as Sheffield's own Viperous, an extreme metal assortment of misfits.

After the obligatory swift half in the Devonshire Cat, we arrived at the gig just in time to see The Engines Of Argmageddon finish up their set. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I get the impression they're really not big fans of RFID chips. It's all just a bit too subtle for me.

Viperous were up next. Well, they certainly made a noise. Much retreating to the smoking area took place and eardrums were abused, but the band seemed to have a good time. Some people seemed to like it, but it wasn't our cup of tea.

Finally Northern Oak, the band we'd actually gone to see, took to the stage and played a peculiar variety of growly folky metal. Not at all unpleasant, although 23inertia, not being a fan of the cookie monster vocal, preferred the musical interludes. And pleasing they were.

Sporting an uncanny resemblance to Rory Bremner doing an impression of Tony Blair, but thankfully not sounding anything like, frontman Martin Collins guided us through the set. And what more can you expect from Sheffield's finest purveyors of folk metal and waistcoats than, well, exactly that. Verging toward a black metal style, but (thankfully) with none of the obnoxious attitude problems, the band seemed like a genuinely lovely bunch of people. Which is good, because it makes them easier to support.

I picked up the new self-titled demo for a pound (hand numbered 10 of 20, so there!) so I'll give it a listen and see if it takes my fancy. It's not quite the strident, intricate wall of sound used by other folk metal bands like Eluveite, and has the distinct tone of a small local band finding their way in the world. Definitely more folky than metal, with the strained grunting of Mr. Collins nicely contrasting the airy flute melody.

Quite a pleasant evening, all told, and I got a demo CD and a t-shirt out of it. Tanzeelat got The Engines Of Armageddon t-shirt and CD deal, too, so we can listen to them a bit and see what other political statements they can make using only F-bombs. And of course, the Dev Cat was the only possible port of call after the gig finished.