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Hammerfest, April 2009
There aren’t many things about HammerFest,
or Pontins, that are signposted. But luckily you can spot the members of
Thirteenth Sign because they’re all rather helpfully wearing their own
tour T-shirts. As only the second band of the day, the crowd in the pub
was building up and quite expectant, and Thirteenth Sign didn’t
disappoint. eFests arrives just in time to catch East Anglian death metalers THIRTEENTH SIGN, who brutalize the third stage with their relentless blackened assault. Its one hell of a way to kick things off, and makes Scottish rock troupe Firebrand Super Rock seem relatively tame when they arrive on stage fifteen minutes later. You'll also find a couple of interviews the band did while at Hammerfest at the following links.... Moonie at pod-omatic - http://moonlightjfl.podOmatic.com
Metal Gods TV Hammerfest
Special, with Hammy -
http://www.metalgodstv.co.uk/ Supporting Napalm Death, June 2007
Taking
to the stage amidst windmilling hair, a bombastic drum bombardment and the
sound of a man being grilled in the fires of purgatory. Opener, “Talons In
Deism” is delivered with enough venom to kill both a passing bull elephant
and anything that touches it for a week, and soon the front row is
flailing about in response as the front man moves up and down the line.
Indeed the whole band will spend much of the set goading, cajoling and
gesticulating to the crowd, creating an intense front row which soon
starts to start operating a rota-system, such is the intensity. The next
track rattles past with barely a pause for breath before the avalanche
intro of “Oracles…” brings out the first hint of melody in the death
rattle vocals, which begin to take on aspects of Skyclad’s Martin Walkier
in that bands early thrash days. Often death and thrash metal in smaller
venues have a tendency to turn into a bit of a sludge, but Thirteenth Sign
see that particular pitfall and swing nimbly over it with riffs that
emerge from the chaos like some melodious butterfly. By now it is clear
that the vocalist is a master of expressing himself by means of his free
hand. If there is an international sign language for, “I’m gonna
disembowel you and feed you to your dog”, then this man knows it, and has
probably used it! The rest of the set continues to impress, batter and
bludgeon the crowd. “The Silhouette Of Her Wings” sees an audience member
briefly gain the stage only to plummet off in an untidy yet happy and
unharmed heap and set closer, “Crown Of Pallid Shadows” is marked by truly
titanic riffage that brings many of the lurkers to the fore and rounds
things off in fine style." "Thirteenth Sign were onstage, they were a bit thrashier than the last last band; they were tight, noisy with the obligitory face melter solos. I was quite scared of making eye contact with the rhythm guitarist who I was positioned in front of; he looked a bit tweaked, the way those dudes do who have lived and breathed metal since it was invented. The songs they introduced all seemed to have those brilliant six to eight word titles that metal bands do, stuff about spinal cords being removed etc, they did do an Iron Maiden cover I believe. Anyway, these were a proper metal band, non of this Linkin Park/Slipknot wank which has made a joke of metal of recent years. When I were a lad, I was into bands like Anthrax, Slayer and (early) Metallica, amongst other bands of that ilk, and apart from Thirteenth Sign being an English band, these guys took me back to that golden era of thrash/speed metal that you don't see much of these days. It has been many a year since I'd "thrown the horns" at a gig, death to false metal!" _____________________________________________________
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A startling debut album from the East Anglian thrash-tinged, melodeath outfit. 'Oracles....' is bursting with fresh ideas, interesting arrangements and great riffs. Unfortunately, the dry mix and some disastrous production decisions put a damper on things but that makes watching this space all the more compelling. Get these guys a recording budget and great things will surely follow. [7] sp
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