Artwork inspired by Northern Oak's Monuments

Artist Jack Holliday has been toiling away at a series of paintings inspired by Monuments, the latest album from Northern Oak. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, breathtaking. Head over to the Northern Oak gallery page or Jack Holliday's own blog post to see these magnificent works. I particularly like In These Hills. It captures everything I love about standing on top of the Peak District and admiring the views, all the while risking been blown clean off the top.

If someone were to decide that it might be a nice idea to release a collector's set of postcards of these paintings, I'd definitely buy them!

Metal and Morris at West Street Live

Something very strange happened at West Street Live on Sunday evening. A trio of bands played an evening of folk, progressive and alternative metal, and between sets a whole bunch of Boggarts danced for the audience's pleasure.

Joining forces with Northern Oak and Setsudan, some of Sheffield's best kept secrets, were Andraste from Manchester and Boggart's Breakfast, a border morris team based in Hillsborough with a thing for blue faces, dark attire and a flair for the sinister.

The bands were on fine form, and the crowd almost (well, not really) kept up with the Boggarts. The floor certainly took a beating! All the jumping, banging and clattering culminated in, quite spontaneously, an outbreak of the Waltz.

I've never been to an evening quite like it, but it's something I'd definitely go to again!

Boggart's Breakfast

Setsudan

Andraste

Northern Oak

See the full set.

My Top 10 Essential Metal Albums

While watching Gojira at the Corporation in Sheffield the other day, I was challenged to produce my Top 10 Essential Metal Albums. The albums that I keep going back to, or have some special meaning to me. It's obviously a very personal list and I can guarantee that just about everybody in the world will find fault with it, but that's the point of these things, isn't it?

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void Dark Tranquillity's latest album (although it is now five years old), and the one I have played most by a very large margin. I have even played it twice as much as Projector, my previous favourite. Featuring some shudderingly creepy melodeath riffs and covering all the classic Gothenburg bases, you can't go far wrong with this one. It's hard to choose a favourite track of this album, but I guess Shadow In Our Blood or Iridium would take it. Or Her Silent Language, or The Grandest Accusation. One of those, anyway.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries There will always be controversy over choosing a favourite Opeth album, but this is mine, narrowly beating Blackwater Park to the top spot (thanks to my decision to only have one album by any given band in the list). Of all the Opeth albums I have on my iPod (most of them) it's the one I return to time and again for my fix of proggy deathy growliness. The Grand Conjuration is probably the best track, but like We Are The Void there are too many good ones. The cover of Soldier of Fortune is bloody good, too.

Lacuna Coil - Comalies From way back in the days when I was finding my metal feet, as it were, Comalies contains just enough heavy, just enough catchy to get me hooked. This was my gateway drug to a love affair with melodic death metal, of all things. Top track would be Tight Rope, which gives me a little nerdgasm for recognising the game the voiceover samples are taken from.

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit I heard about Agalloch long before I heard Agalloch, and when I finally did hear them, I wondered why I hadn't looked them up before. Dark and disquieting and epic in equal measure. Favourite track would have to be, um, all the tracks. Seriously, I can't choose between them.

Judas Priest - Painkiller The one and only venture into NWOBHM on this list. As must as Iron Maiden is seen as the pinnacle of British heavy metal, you just can't beat Painkiller for volume or tempo. I did air guitar to the title track a couple of months ago and my left shoulder still hasn't forgiven me. My favourite tracks are Painkiller, obviously, and Night Crawler.

Insomnium - Above The Weeping World Although in recent months it has been pushed aside in favour of One For Sorrow, Above The Weeping World is still Insomnium's magnum opus, and proof that they are still one of the finest melodic death bands in the business. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have tried to include a favourite track. On this one The Gale, Mortal Share, The Killjoy and Devoid of Caring are my choices.

Wolverine - Still One of my favourite albums ever. I first heard Sleepy Town on a friend's shuffle, and wanted to know what the rest sounded like. I was amazed, and have been a fan of the band ever since. Sleepy Town itself is high on the list of favourite songs ever, too.

Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth As grandiose and epic as it is proggy as it is ear pummeling. I originally dismissed Sylosis as being too -core for my tastes based on looks alone. Big. Mistake. This album was one of the surprises of 2011 and still gets regular rotation on my commute. It's hard to pick favourite tracks because the whole album flows so well together, although Empyreal (both parts) deserve special mention.

Eluveitie - Slania Is it folk metal, or is it Gothenburg melodic death with a hurdy gurdy? I don't really know, but it's bloody good. I first heard of (and, indeed, heard) Eluveitie at Bloodstock '08. I rushed to the CD sales tent, only to discover that I had missed the rush and every copy of Slania had been sold in 30 minutes. Inis Mona is the definite highlight of this folk juggernaut.

Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs I originally found out about Ghost Brigade from Last.fm, recommended due to my constant playing of Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium. I'm glad the recommendation engine worked this time! Possibly the most depressing death metal band I've ever heard. Highlights include Into The Black Light and Lost In A Loop.


I was also graciously allowed 5 "honourable mentions" for those albums that I love, but didn't make the top 10. To be honest this was harder to come up with than the first 10. There are so many albums I love  that narrowing it down proved difficult.

One in particular that gets regular plays is Skyforger by Amorphis. A random purchase at HMV led me to discover Amorphis, a sort of hybrid of melodic death and folk that's both heavy as a heavy thing and melodic as an, um, melodic ... thing. Aerolithe by Fall Of The Leafe (which led to the coining of the term "fotling", meaning "listening to Fall Of The Leafe") is another that I throw on a lot when I fancy something a bit more utterly nonsensical.

Perhaps a controversial choice because it is the least metal of anything I've put so far, but How To Measure A Planet by The Gathering is a long standing repeat listen. A fine work among a body of fine works. More recently, and definitely less controversially, is Woods of Ypres's final album Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Lights. Sure, it's depressing, but it's frankness and honesty elevates it from pointless morbidity into something far deeper and more philosophical.

And finally I can't forget to mention Monuments by Sheffield's own Northern Oak, the album I've seen played (in parts, at least) more than any other. If I fancy listening to it, I could put on the MP3s, or I could just pop to a local gig to enjoy it with an ale or five. 

Professor Elemental feat. Northern Oak

March 3rd saw a very unusual night at the Corporation in Sheffield. The mighty Northern Oak were providing support for the eccentric, the dapper, the tea-obsessed Professor Elemental! A cracking Northern Oak set, punctuated by burlesque turns from one Kassandra Killjoy, preceded an evening of hair touching, animal dancing, and free-styling cephalopods. The local steampunks turned out en masse, and the room was awash with goggles, hats, and general fine attire. Quite fitting. And the evening ended with a never before seen folk metal/chap hop crossover extravaganza as Northern Oak supported the Professor in a rousing rendition of Fighting Trousers. Here are a handful of photos to mark this stupendous occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Oak & Sanctorum @ The Frog And Nightgown, 30/04/2011

Northern Oak & Sanctorum - 30/04/2011, a set on Flickr.

Another Saturday, another chance to go and listen to Northern Oak. And what better way to spend a Saturday is there? Well, how about listening to Sanctorum too? Yep, that'd do it. And to top it all off, parody metal band Evil Scarecrow were headlining the night. And so it was we headed down the M1 a bit to the sunny village of Worksop, to the Frog and Nightgown, a strange little pub next to Halfords.

It was, in all, quite an experience. The Frog is certainly the hub of all types of alternative culture. Everone from mohawk-wearing punks to fairy wing wearing goths were in attendance. I would say that more sub-cultures and cliques were represented in that one small bar than I've ever seen in one place before. The staff deserve a shout out. They were amazing; professional, efficient, courteous and willing to have a laugh.

After a 3 hour soundcheck, a bit of waiting around, and rather more Coca Cola than I'd usually consume, it was time for Northern Oak to perform. They played Arbor Low, Gawain and Sylvan Lullaby amongst others. The sound quality was really excellent, proving that the sound checks were worthwhile.

Shortly after the set started, a strange mist descended. The smoke machine was working overtime, refracting and exposing the little ceiling mounted lasers, making the stage (and most of my pictures) look like this:

Fear the 80s laser disco!

Next it was time for my cunning switcheroo. I have a Northern Oak t-shirt, but I also have a Sanctorum t-shirt. Which to wear? Only one way to find out ...

Actually, best not start a fight. I'll just wear both at the same time. For the first 4 hours, I wore my Northern Oak t-shirt proudly visible. But after the set finished and Sanctorum were ready to play, I switched them around and wore my Sanctorum t-shirt on the top. It must have worked because members of both bands noted I was supporting them!

Sanctorums set was also excellent. The new material started to make a lot more sense to me. I was, after all, a bit underwhelmed with it before. It's definitely grown on me, and seeing an album played live can often cement it in my mind and give a fresh appreciation. It was another relatively short set, but definitely a worthwhile one. Great stuff.

Unfortunately, after all the waiting around, we didn't have time to watch Evil Scarecrow. It was closing in on midnight, and we sadly had things to do. Not all of us were entirely sober, either, which didn't help! So we headed out into the Worksop night.