Metal/Core crushers

Date: July 1, 1998

Venue: Stout Fidler Club, Newcastle, England

Crowds: 30 (approx)

The bands:

Catharsis: Extreme Metal from the U.S.A. (****)

Gehenna: Evil Metal Core (pulled out)

Gaia: Old-School Heavy Metal (pulled out)

Red Monkey: local Harshcore act (**)

‘The first band’: local school kids who play worst hardcore (no * at all)

Based on a full 5 (*) rating

The journey, huh, about 10 minutes walk from my ‘palace’. Thankfully enough!

The gig started exactly at 5 minutes past 8 p.m. To be frank, I have never listen to any of the bands playing that evening. Catharsis, yes, heard of them. But their music, nope. But I was really looking forward to hear them playing though, as this is the first time an extreme Metal band is playing in Newcastle since I arrived here!

The venue, however, sad enough to say, was about 30 x 10 ft wide. It is just a basement of the bar. Damn, I think this is the smallest gig I have ever attend!

With an hour of delay from scheduled time, the gig finally started at around 9 p.m.

Sad to hear that Gehenna and Gaia have pulled out, thus making Catharsis would be the only metal band on the list. The substitute, was a 4-piece hardcore band. School kids. Guess they aged around 13-17 years old, maybe. I do not underestimate young bands, but yes they are. They just suck. Also, from the guys around, I heard they have played twice before, and their third one tonight, was far from nothing. They need more exposures. With nearly half an hour of sound checks, and unprepared at all. They even borrow the bass guitar from the Red Monkey (they were asking for the bass guitar using the microphone!). What a shame. Maybe hardcore was just not my cup of tea. But damn, as a non-listener to hardcore music, I do know that they still suck!

The second band now follows. the 3-piece female-fronted hardcore, or they would prefer to call it as harshcore, the Red Monkey. And, hey, this is real hardcore. Those school kids should learn from ‘em. I don’t know how to appreciate hardcore music, maybe certain Slayer’s parts could be taken as example, but this one is for real. Good communication skills with the sad-yet-non-responsive audience. Playing up to 4 songs, they could have been better. I did heard that the band have already toured the U.S.A once. No wonder they delivered such a good performance.

The third band, well, the last one, were the awaited Catharsis. Yes, they were the only band with Metal in it! Catharsis have released 3 materials already. The latest one, a full-length album, ‘Samsara’CD , ‘Eponymous’, a CD collection of their earlier recordings and ‘Live In The Land Of The Dead’ 12", a split record with Gehenna.

It is a 4-piece band. With loads of ‘sorry for the delay’ uttered by the vocalist while

other members were sound-checking, he (the vocalist) did spare some words on the first act, in which have caused the problem. Now Catharsis only have 40 minutes before the time limit imposed by the club. Yes, they did it in a hurry. And they did it excellently. Playing up to 6 songs, of pure hammering guitar riffs and skull crushing drums. Their music, kinda Slayer-ish a bit. But with growling vocals. And hell, yeah, they did a Black Sabbath’s War Pigs’ spoof for their last song. Every single song, were ended and started with ‘talks’. What I mean is, preaching to the audience. Hey, this band are totally into all those humanity/rights kinda stuff. They really are.

From high-rise buildings, pollution, beliefs, capitalism, or in other words, all those real life threats to humanity. I feel like I’m being in a civic lecture, what a laugh. Despite the talk, the performance was very, very good. This time, they kick ass!

Just a pure fucking Metal! At least the 3 pounds worth of ticket are worth it! 3 pounds, just to see, one ‘my-cup-of-tea’ band.

The show ended at 11 p.m. exactly. And the band again, apologize for the delay. Hey, it’s not their fault anyway. They did well, and they definitely don’t deserve to be listed amongst the two other bands. Yes, they are headlining the show, and they are the headliners actually!

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