I had the pleasure of spending a few days on tour with these fellas recently alongside Diesel King and Iron Witch, and as well as being thoroughly nice blokes it was on this jaunt that I finally realised quite how brutal this band are!

The EP itself is great and his some fine slabs of filthy sludge and grind inspired hatred. At the point of this being recorded I understand they had two guitarists but now they have just the one (and all the better for it!) The tone is that of fellow Brum’s Fukpig or Mistress so it does give them a real grindy edge which is why I think they stand out so well. Songs like ‘Bitch Goat’ and ‘Cancerous Bollok’ have mega riffs and punk elements that too are reminiscent of Iron Monkey but its Karl’s vocals that vary the style and his grunt to screech is something truly terrifying!

Have a little listen and Download for FREE HERE.

It was only a couple of years ago that my head nearly exploded with excitement at the thought of Earthtone9 having a reunion and that an EP would be following and even the possibility of a handful of shows, since then a lot has happened and the obvious success of a band that were finished way too early in their career. This band fell victim to the horrible world of the music industry and just as they announced their split they released their best piece of work to date at that point ‘Omega’. This was an EP that showed they were ready to mature as artists yet that was to be all you would hear from ET9…… Until now!!

The ‘FOR CAUSE & CONSEQUENCE’ EP that was released on Pledge music was a good come back BUT its ‘IV’ that truly allows this band to stand up and be noticed, It has the outright brutality of ‘Arc tan Gent’ but with the pregressivness of ‘Omega’ with each song showing a different side of this damn fine group. The first 3 tracks really kick you in the head and prove that they can write some killer anthemic tunes and in particular ‘Sea of Blades’ proves to be a highlight for me. Karl’s voice has grown a lot more powerful and the range that he can reach now is much better of that 10 years ago. Another brilliant moment lies in the Final track ‘Occams Razor’ which truly is an epic prog master piece (coming in at 10 minutes) it shows melody and monstrosity in equal measure!

This is a review written by a true fan boy but this album is by far my favorite of the year so far (and there have been some damn good release already).

Make sure you catch them on one of their festival jaunts this summer as they are already lined up to play Download, Hevy and the appropriately named new festival in Bristol, Arc Tan Gent.

The image above is soon to increase somewhat due to a snazzy new addition to the alldayer making it something truly unique and NOT TO BE MISSED, for now though i am proud to announce the addition of not 1 but 3 friendly (mostly) faces who shall be DJing throughout the day and night.

Firstly we have our good long time matey, Staggerin Matt from Human Disease promo who shall be playing the most crushing tunes throughout the band changeovers and in the 00:00 – 2:00 spot we have both Jessika from Psykomagik and the lovely Harriett ‘Hazza’ Bevan from Black moth ensuring that you have the last 2 hours of the night dancing your feet off!

So, GET YOUR TICKETS and come have a LOOK AT THE FACEBOOK PAGE and get ready as its less than 2 months until the fun starts!

SO SO SO Much fun at this years event and our stage on the Sunday was rammed all day (and Bongripper even gave Pentagram a run for their money!!)

Thanks all the people that came down and spent their time seeing our awesome line-up, now its time to get on with planning for 2014.

Here are some links to review already up:

THE SLEEPING SHAMAN

THE OBELISK

But if you have any Pictures, Videos or just funny stories. Please mail us at: whenplanetscollide@hotmail.co.uk

BLACKSTORM

CONAN

.. but as you can guess we are gearing up for Desertfest at the moment !!

Hopefully see you all there but if not look back here after for all the usual Reviews and bullshit to start up again as I am the only one running the site and have a lot on at the moment!

After that its Festival season time and obviously the SUMMER SIZZLER and details of the 3rd Anniversary show for WPC coming soon (save Saturday 12th October in your diaries!)

SEE Y’ALL ON THE OTHER SIDE x

With just over a week to go here are the full timings to the entire festival so you can plan who you want to see… but obviously you will all be spending your time in the Underworld on Sunday right?

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

We have not had one of these in a while too but to celebrate the release of GHOLD‘s new EP we thought we would praise them on what is a truly awesome TIE DYE shirt!! I am definitely going to get me one of these tomorrow night at their RELEASE SHOW.

GET THE BRAND NEW EP AND BUY THIS AWESOME SHIRT FROM THEIR BANDCAMP PAGE NOW!

KOMRAD certainly do not fall on the heavier side of the spectrum but this Oxford based band have some good ideas pulled off pretty well. There is alot of 90s influenced rock throughout and most obviously a strong bit of Patton influence going on, especially by the vocalist. All seven tracks sound like they could go alongside ‘King for a day’ era FNM and its the sense of humour that makes this a fairly enjoyable listen.

Give it a go, its abit of fun but maybe not one that will be a laugh for long. I think with my taste being in the heavier things in life its technically sound and the songs are well constructed, its just not one of my faves.

YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT HERE AND FIND Itunes LINKS TOO!

I ain’t no photographer and sadly had no professional there to take shots of what was a truly great evening, BUT for all those that missed it. Here are a handful of poorly taken shots and even a bit of video footage of each band!

ENJOY!!

BRIGHT CURSE

TRIPPY WICKED

BOSS CAINE

DESERT STORM are a very interesting band, since WPC has existed they have only had their first album ‘Forked Tongues’ available so this has been a LONG time coming but thankfully they have made that wait well worth while. Wearing their influences on your sleeve is not at all a bad thing and i often refer to this in reviews but with these guys they have them bolted to their arms… The riffs (and there are many of them) are damn catchy and the Clutch loving is strong through out but i feel this is something that need to be steered away from as they have to hone their own sound, This does happen more and more on the later songs on the album.

Matt’s vocals do offer a more harsh and gut wrenchingly gravelly tone to the tracks but i think one true enlightening moment on this record is on the epic 11 minute long track ‘TITAN’. This song is by far the greatest offering on the album as it holds that token sound but with an epic earth shattering twist, once again the riffs are there but its all together a more progressive feel, sounding like Mastodon one minute and then Tangerine Dream the next. Much to my enjoyment the theme is continued on the next track too ‘Shenzen’, a massive groove laden masterpiece which is a must for being played with large large amounts of volume.

I really would urge all to own this beast of an album right now and if your like me you will no doubt have TITAN on repeat as it really is an epic tune!

Horzontal life is available now on Blindsight records GRAB IT FROM HERE NOW