Devil Sold His Soul, The Defiled, Gojira and Ghost at O2 Academy Bournemouth 22/3/13

Post-hardcore band Devil Sold His Soul opened the show, and with their energetic stage performance they definitely set the tone for the rest of the night. The harsh vocals from lead singer Ed Gibbs were outstanding and blended well with the harmonic guitar riffs. Devil Sold His Soul bring a fresh take to post-hardcore music and they received a great crowd reception in Bournemouth.

After recently getting signed to Nuclear Blast Records and having finished recording their album new ‘Daggers’, the past couple of months have been great for metal band The Defiled. Their performance proved exactly why they were chosen for the third time to play on the Jagermeister tour: their energy on stage is contagious and it’s almost impossible to stand still whilst watching them perform. ‘Call To Arms’ was definitely a crowd favourite and it will be interesting to see what musical direction they take when their new album is released later this year.

French metal band Gojira are well-known for being an incredible live band, and tonight in Bournemouth was no exception. Opening with ‘Explosia’ from their latest album ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’, Gojira definitely rocked the O2 Academy. The crowd reception was incredible, there were mosh pits and headbangers everywhere. The heavy riffs and harsh vocals from lead singer Joe Duplantier were amazing, especially in the metal anthem ‘The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe’. Gojira are definitely one of the best live bands in the metal scene at the moment and I’d highly recommend that you see them at least once!

Swedish heavy metal band Ghost have always been somewhat of a mystery to many, mainly due to five of the band members wearing hooded robes, whilst lead singer Papa Emeritus wears a cardinal outfit. Despite their identities being a secret, Papa Emeritus managed to interact with the crowd perfectly, instructing them when to sing and clap, whilst the crowd obeyed him as if he was the real pope. With a backdrop of a church, lots of smoke and incense being burnt, it almost felt as if you were in a real church, apart from the metal music and hundreds of metal fans. They played classic songs, such as ‘Satan Prayer’ and ‘Ritual’, as well as their impressive new song ‘Year Zero’.  All in all, it was an incredible night of metal music for only £5! 

Check out Devil Sold His Soul here: http://www.facebook.com/devilsoldhissoul
Check out The Defiled here: http://www.facebook.com/thedefiled
Check out Gojira here: https://www.facebook.com/GojiraMusic
Check out Ghost here: http://www.facebook.com/thebandghost

Interview with The AvD from The Defiled 22/3/13

The AvD plays the keyboard and sings backing vocals in The Defiled. I caught up with him on the day of the Bournemouth show of the Jagermeister tour.

Julia: How would you describe your musical style to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
The AvD: Our musical style to someone who hasn’t heard it before? Like a rusty trombone on a sunny day! They’ve described us as ‘industrial metal’ a lot, whatever you want to call us. We’ve written acoustic tracks, we’ve written metal tracks, we’ve written a track that may surprise some people on the new album, so whatever really. That’s up to you guys to pigeon-hole us.

Julia: Who would you say are your major influences?
The AvD: I don’t know, everything really. Growing up, I think anything you do in life is just an amalgamation of whatever you’ve experienced really, so I guess we just get into the studio and whatever comes out comes out. Yeah, I can’t really pin-point one person that changed my life. I’d say maybe when I was younger Nine Inch Nails influenced me a lot into what I studied, but yeah, I wouldn’t say that it’s a major influence on what I write.

Julia: How has the tour been going so far?
The AvD: It has been going really well. It’s a privilege and an honour to be invited for the third year in row to the Jager tour, they treat us really well on this and to play with Gojira and Ghost is amazing. We’re really big fans of those bands so it’s really good.

Julia: How does it feel to sign with Nuclear Blast?
The AvD: Nuclear Blast, ah man! It feels like a payoff for many years of work. To be honest we’ve wanted to work with Monty and Mark, who are the new, I guess, head A&R guys over there now. We’ve been talking to Monty since he was working at Roadrunner Records and when they closed down we were like ‘Oh right, so I guess that’s over now.’ But he was like ‘No, come to Nuclear Blast!’ So we did. It feels really good to finally get a record deal and get recognised. The reckoning is coming! It will be good!

Julia: How is the new album going?

The AvD: Yeah, it is recorded; we recorded it in Florida with Jason Suecof. We recorded fifteen tracks and I think we’re going to release eleven. It is going to be called ‘Daggers’ and it’s sounding pretty brutal, I think. I don’t know, I hope you guys like it, basically!

Julia: How does it feel to be playing in Bournemouth tonight?
The AvD: Bournemouth! Man, we used to play Bournemouth in… What was it called? I can’t remember. ‘The Gander’? We used to play really little clubs over here and now we’re playing the O2 Academy, so it feels really good. Showing people we’ve moved on, really.

Julia: What’s your favourite thing about touring?
The AvD: My favourite thing about touring is seeing parts of the world I’ve never seen before. Touring just makes you a better person, I think, because you’ve got to respect people in a certain way that you don’t need to generally in life. You live in a really close proximity to people and everyone has their little weird things and it makes you just learn to leave people alone and give people down time. I think it makes you a better person, that’s the best thing about touring.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite song that you’ve written?
The AvD: That I’ve written? I don’t know, I like all of them, that’s why I wrote them! I’d say the one that means a lot to me is ‘Five Minutes’ on the new album ‘Daggers’ because it’s about a family member that died, so that means a lot to me. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite, but you know.

Julia: Do you have much else planned for 2013?
The AvD: Yeah, a lot planned for 2013! Basically once we release this record this summer it’s go, go, go! It’s going to get a worldwide release and we’re going to be touring globally. We’re going to be playing festivals, we’re going to be releasing our reworks album, we’re probably going to release a covers EP as well. I don’t know if we’re going to do it as a deluxe edition of ‘Daggers’ or whatever, but we’ll see.

Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/interview-with-the-avd-from
Check out The Defiled here: http://www.facebook.com/thedefiled/