Doozr's Half-Time Review

It's been a busy old year, musically speaking. 24 album purchases in 6 months, of which 14 were released in 2010. And of course, there are numerous artists and albums that I've heard but not bought. With this wealth of new musical greatness, I thought I'd break from tradition and produce my personal "best of" list for the first half of 2010 rather than waiting until New Year. So without further ado, here are my top 5 albums of 2010, part 1.

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void

I think this one goes without saying. My review of the album has been criticised for being less of a review, and more an outpouring of praise for this amazing album. I plead guilty, your honour.

65DaysOfStatic - We Were Exploding Anyway

One to work to. Whether writing code, mowing the lawn or writing blog posts, this post-rock/dance infusion is both motivating and enthusing. It's a fair departure from previous albums, but all the better for it.

Tarot - Gravity Of Light

This is my new driving album. Doesn't matter where I'm going or what sort of traffic I'm stuck in, this album makes it all the more bearable. Wind down the windows, turn up the volume, and use the steering wheel as your drum kit.

Martriden - Encounter The Monolith

Surprise of the year comes from Martriden. I first heard about this album on Invisible Oranges, and bought it on a whim. It's brilliant, and definitely one to put on headphones and listen to properly. Like so many death/black metal albums, the joy is in the subtle details that you might miss if you just had it on as background noise.

Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here

A latecomer, having only been released very recently, but instantly a "best of" candidate. I've lost track of how many times I've listened to this album, and when I do it feels so very familiar. It's like I've never not known it.

Of course, lists should always be 10 items long. I've only listed my "top five" so that, come Christmas, I'll have a "top ten". But just in case the second half of the year fails to live up to the promise of the first, here are five honourable mentions.

Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

I picked this one up from Amazon's MP3 shop after spotting them in my last.fm recommendations. A bit more commercial than the likes of Dark Tranquillity, and with a vocal leaning toward Black Metal, but still some brilliant tracks.

Dream Theater - Octavarium

Prog rock meets heavy metal. It's heavy, it's twiddly, it's definitely prog. This is what you'd hear if Montgomery Hall in Wath held 10,000 people.

The Engines Of Armageddon - Self Titled

Probably the best stoner-thrash-prog-doom-groove metal band in the world.

Avenged Sevenfold - Self Titled

Another one of those random Twitter followers that I thought I'd check out. Ostensibly metal-core, but with heavy metal, hard rock and many other influences. This album changes genre faster than I change underpants. A bit thrash, a bit heavy, a bit stoner, and just a bit good.

The Courteeners - Falcon

What's this? Not metal? Well no. I do like a fair old variety of music, and that does include a bit of radio friendly indie. I surprised myself by liking them so much, but like them I do and this is a bloody good album. A guilty pleasure indeed.

The Courteeners @ O2 Academy - 19 March 2010

The Courteeners are something of a guilty pleasure for me. Mancunian indie rock with distinctly chavtastic themes, but so catchy that it puts dreary bands like Oasis to shame. I’ve never been a big fan of the Manchester indie scene; the accent does nothing for me and far too many try to be like the aforementioned Oasis, but Courteeners are actually much more like Sheffield’s own Arctic Monkeys than anything else.

23inertia and I first saw them way back in 2008 at Magna at the Love Music, Hate Racism rally, organised by Reverend & The Makers’ frontman Jon McClure. 23inertia was so impressed that she did the unthinkable and purchased the album from iTunes, DRM and all, rather than wait for a trip to town to buy the CD.

The band came to Sheffield as part of the tour for their new album, Falcon. It’s a world apart from their first offering, St. Jude, and manages to avoid second-album-syndrome altogether. The music is more melodic, with a lighter, more melancholic feel, and the whole thing hangs together wonderfully. I’ve already learned most of the words, and I haven’t even looked at the little book yet.

So yes, looking forward to this gig quite a lot. And we weren’t disappointed. Sensibly locating ourselves up on the balcony at the Sheffield O2 Academy, we had a great view, could hear perfectly, and best of all weren’t in the path of the flying pints so favoured by the scruffy urchins downstairs. The support band weren’t much cop and went for volume over quality, but once they’d gone away everything got much better. As a bit of a random aside, there were a couple of women walking about with plates of crisp sandwiches. I’m assured that one of them was Marmite flavour. It was suggested that this might have been a ploy to prevent the obviously under-age audience from getting too drunk. Who knew that crisp sandwich would ever be an hors d’oeuvre?

When the band first took to the stage, frontman Liam Fray was sporting a shaggy haircut and a pair of shades. I was rather concerned at the apparent attempt to resemble another, far less affable fellow named Liam, but fortunately my fears were unfounded. The shades were soon gone and, as I was inspired to comment to my co-giggers, he actually looks like a very pleasant young man.

The main set contained a mix of new and old material, with some classics being inserted between the new material they were there to showcase. This was done very well, and provided the crowd with familiar material between the newer stuff they might not have known yet. Even then, I was surprised at how well the crowd knew the newer material, even though the album hasn’t been out long.

One problem with a band such as this is the type of people who are attracted to the event. Being on the balcony was definitely the place to be as the crowd below seemed to revel in soaking each other in beer and throwing each other about. Quite how they afford to spend £3.50 on a pint only to throw it at somebody’s t-shirt I don’t know, but there you go. And of course, they absolutely love the word “fuck”. Every single time a line containing the word came up, the whole downstairs surged forward as one ... “It’s got FUCK ALL to do with me ...”

Once the main set was over with, the band disappeared, but Liam hung about and played a solo set of 5 or 6 songs. These were the quieter ones of both albums. The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home is a favourite of mine, and the classics Please Don’t and Yesterday, Today, & Probably Tomorrow were thrown in for good measure. This was my favourite part of the whole gig. The songs are strong enough to stand up on an album, live with the full band, or just a solo guitarist singing on an otherwise deserted stage.

Again, he disappeared, but moments later he was back again. Two encores! This time he brought the whole band with him and played what are arguably their most popular tracks, and 23inertia’s favourites, Not Nineteen Forever and You Overdid It Doll. They finished up with What Took You So Long? and wrapped up a very well played set.

Gigs, gigs and erm more gigs!

2009 was pretty hectic as far as gigs were concerned and I wanted 2010 to be even more impressive. A lot of dups last year: Electric Six 2 times, Reverend and the Makers 2 times, Magenta 3 times ... challenge for 2010?? At least one gig a month ... no dups!

The January gig was Lacuna Coil on their Shallow Life Tour at O2 Academy, Manchester.

This was followed by Sheffield Folk Metal band Northern Oak at Corporation.

Then came the long awaited Dead Like Harry album launch at The Plug. A Sheffield band who are really starting to make waves in the industry.

Last weekend we saw Frightened Rabbit at Leadmill. A favourite with some friends of ours and certainly worth going to see. Venue let the gig down a little bit, but the band were superb.

Next week we see The Courteeners. A band I first came across after seeing them at the Love Music, Hate Racism gig held at Magna in 2008 where they played a set before local boys Reverend and The Makers and Leeds lads the Kaiser Chiefs. This will be the first gig this year so far at O2 Academy, Sheffield.

The next gig will be The Joy Formidable at O2 Academy, Sheffield. I first came across these on Indie Music Filter Volume 5 and Doozr bought me tickets for their mid-week gig as a birthday present. That will be followed by the mighty Wonder Stuff at Leeds O2 Academy in April performing songs from their amazing album HUP! And finally Misstallica a female tribute to Metallica at O2 Academy, Sheffield in May. OMG I can't wait to see that!!!! LOL!

March has been a little manic as far as gigs are concerned and when I found out that Delain were playing Nottingham and Leeds next week, I had to hold myself back and not book them. Little disappointed but then I have had 4 gigs this month alone. I will have to wait until they tour next time. :(

So what is that then? 8 gigs by May? That is not bad going at all. I know Electric Six are playing in December again and so I think I will have to go see them again. There is also talk of a trip to Bloodstock this year, money and childminding permitting. So I will get to experience a whole weekend of mud and metal! It is looking very likely that I will successfully achieve my challenge for this year. Hmmm, I wonder what I can challenge myself to for 2011??