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Damnation Festival is the UK’s premier one-day metal event; giving a voice to the underground, a stage to the shunned and and a much-needed shot in the arm to a starved British scene… and Eyesore Merch are extremely proud to be sponsoring the event and hosting one of the 3 stages. Plus we have a great selection of merch from some of the top bands on this years bill available over at our store. Bands include: Electric Wizard, Pig Destroyer, Bossk, Gama Bomb and Extreme Noise Terror.
This awesome 1-day event is happening on Saturday the 3rd of November at the Leeds, UK, Metropolitan University.
Since its bold inception in Manchester eight years ago, the event has grown to a three-stage behemoth in Leeds, catering for vastly varied tastes from crust and grind through extreme metal to the soothing tones of post-rock.
Backed by Terrorizer magazine, Eyesore Merch and Peaceville Records and fuelled by Jägermeister, Damnation Festival has hosted remarkable performances over the years with the likes of Devin Townsend Project, Carcass, Godflesh, My Dying Bride, Ulver, Life of Agony, Napalm Death, Therapy?, Kreator and The Dillinger Escape Plan writing themselves into the history books.
After Christina Parie finished sixth on Australia’s third season of The X Factor, she didn’t let that stop her – keeping on song writing, cover recording, meeting across the ocean, even earning a support spot on Simple Plan’s Australian ‘Get Your Heart On’ tour (after they watched her “Jet Lag” cover on YouTube), until she finally landed a record deal with Warner Music Australia.
The debut EP from the Australian version of Avril Lavigne marked her entrance in the pop punk world. It contains 5 songs and the title explains it all, 16 & UNSTOPPABLE. It also is the first single from the EP, a catchy pop song, and the music video show some reckless guys having fun round the town (it also raised controversy because of Christina and friends’ bully behaviour in the video) “Hot boys, hot girls, outta control. Late night, play fights, that’s how we roll. Don’t tell us to turn it down ’cause you’re too old if it’s too loud”.
The Veronicas wrote one of the tracks, Back To Life, a melting ballad about getting back our own lives after a breakup. “Big deal, you and I ’cause we nerver really got it right […] I’m gonna get back to life”.
Sorta Wanna Be With You and Ex Oh both deal with the common teenage girl problems such as love, indecisive boyfriends, parties, friends, growing up and the fear of the future. The Sydney’s 16 year old rock chick’s irony characterizes the lyrics.
My Life Story points on Christina’s decision to be part of the music world and industry, but still remaining herself creating “her own movie”.
The EP ends up being pop, youthful catchy, youthful, pop with a pop punk influence deriving from her favourite singers and idols, I’m sure the EP is only the beginning and I hope a future full-length album will be more various and maybe it will attract a larger audience than teenage “Fringelets” girls.
“No way, no never! Don’t tell me what to do!” Cherri Bomb are confident with their album’s opening small track Take This Now, even if they just seem an all-teenage-girl band they’re more, some already fans defined them the “new hope for rock”. What’s my opinion? Well…the album rocks! In every single way! Just starting with the title THIS IS THE END OF CONTROL.
Their ages range from 14 to 16 and already, the Californian quartet (Julia: guitar, Miranda: guitar and keyboard, Nia: drums, Rena: bass) has toured with bands like Foo Fighters (whose The Pretender has been covered in the band’s first EP) and Smashing Pumpkins and has grown its own fanbase: the BombSquad.
This masterpiece is full of potential hits: the second song on the album is Better This Way where they claim their independence and scream their presence to the world of music, not definitely what you’d expect from girls of their age!
Raw.Real. is the lead single of the album “Follow rules or rebel” – Rena screams, – “Say a prayer as I sin” they want to compare themselves with modern artists, but I personally think that the lyrics that more sum up the whole album are “LET’S UNITE, VICTORY!”; a perfect portrait of the entire band, they win. There’s no front woman or lead singer, there’s just a band.
Shake The Ground was part of The Avengers Soundtrack (Cherri Bomb can shake the ground more than those heroes can!) and some of its lyrics also give the name to the LP, the grooving riff proves that they are not only serious, but they can face in the rock industry. THIS is definitely THE END OF CONTROL.
Too Many Faces, Act The Part and Paper Doll deal with how their image could be seen and interpreted by the audience and also with people who change themselves just to please others, they’re definitely not like that! “So I smile to the camera and I act my part”…”I’m not here to break your fall, I won’t be your Paper Doll”.
Let It Go was one of the songs contained in their first EP STARK, it sounds like a radio-friendly tune with its repeating “I just can’t let it go, just won’t let it go…etc” sung by all the girls.
Sacrificial Lamb and Heart Is A Hole are the dark sides of the album: the first cryptical one sung by the redhead drummer, Nia, with teen themes of rebellion rises to the ears thanks to its continuous drums’ sound; the second one is a dark ballad about the tragic end of a love “Nothing to fill this heart that’s a hole”.
In the end the vibes of the songs Drawing A Blank and Hold On will definitely convince you to give the girl a serious look – “We gotta hold on to each other”.
Be scared of what Cherri Bomb will reach in future.
It’s been a few days now, I’ve slept in a real bed and I’m not drinking gin for breakfast so I am ready to write about Leeds Festival 2012! It’s been a long time since I went to Leeds, my last visit was when Temple Newsam decided they didn’t want the festival back, so my bags were packed and I was off to Bramham Park.
The great thing about festivals is the opportunity to discover new bands and great music and Leeds was no different, I knew a couple of bands from the line-up but otherwise it was a weekend of discovery!
Friday started with my discovery of the weekend – Band of Skulls (I’m actually listening to them while writing this, sadly there are no vinyl releases yet). A heavy three-piece who make match a driving rhythm section with male-female vocals and some super-sweet guitar licks over the top.
Band of Skulls is the band you’d want to stumble across playing the darkened back room of a bar… lights low, drink in hand and their hard rock filling the room, which has plenty of groove to get the crowd moving (I’ve not been surprised to see they toured with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who share a similar sound on a number of their songs).
Friday also delivered my first tastes of the Eagles of Death Metal and The Gaslight Anthem, both impressive, but the Eagles of Death Metal slightly edging it as they followed the Band of Skulls perfectly, plenty of hip shaking bar room swagger for a Friday afternoon!
Friday evening saw the arrival of The Black Keys and I freaking love The Black Keys, from the early blues duo records to the more recent fuller sounding albums they have never lost their blues and ability to get you moving… it was an amazing early evening set that featured “Howlin’ For You”, “Strange Times”, “Lonely Boy” and “Tighten Up”… hard rockin’ blues, hit after hit this was a perfect festival set and they ruled the main stage.
Friday night was closed by the Foo Fighters who spent two and a half hours belting out classic after classic, from someone who doesn’t really know much about the band’s back catalogue it’s staggering how many of their songs you know. The field was packed for them and they worked it, at one point Rufus, the son of the Roger Taylor from Queen was playing drums while Taylor Hawkins sang “Tie Your Mother Down”… didn’t expect that!
Saturday brought a hangover that was eased with painkillers and coffee and then it was off back to the arena to see what the day brought and to build up to The Cure! The first band to stand out was Coheed and Cambria who had an impressive looking guitar rack at the side of the stage. Intricate and technical they showed how to be heavy and not rely purely on screaming vocals. Coheed and Cambria are next to hunt down after the Band of Skulls.
Paramore were also new to me (seeing a theme here) but were great fun, massive crowd and oh so many Paramore t-shirts on the Saturday! They made way for The Cure…. THE CURE… this gig has been a long time coming for me and to see the band live was momentous. And they were awesome, a huge sound filling the Leeds sky, plenty of smoke and Robert Smith’s vocals sounded amazing – the sound was beautifully mixed. A two hour plus set that featured the hits you would expect (“Boys Don’t Cry” and “Love Cats” were saved for the encore) but it was two songs in particular that hit home the hardest, a mind-melting “Pictures of You” from Disintegration (the album that made my love The Cure) and a spell-binding “A Forest”. This was two hours plus of magic, an effortless demonstration of how good this band is as each song weaved into the next – it wasn’t about gimmicks just beautiful music enveloping a crowd of fans.
Los Campesinos opened the final day, and these lot had more bite than I remember from when a friend played me their first album a few years ago. The beefier sound suits them and it was a great way to ease into the day.
Highlights of Sunday were the brilliant on-stage antics of Santigold and plenty of “hits from ads” that you would recognise if you watch enough TV like me! Another highlight was my introduction to Billy Talent in the NME/Radio 1 Stage, watching a circle pit open up was an impressive site like a vortex… obviously if I wasn’t edging closer to 31 and wearing wellies I would have been in there! I’ve had “Devil On My Shoulder” stuck in my head since in Sunday and you couldn’t leave the set without a massive grin on your face.
Florence could really do with being more machine like and toning down the wispy arms because she can most definitely sing… but wispiness and being marvelled by a sofa can distract me from the songs!
This left Kasabian to close the day and festival. I have a lot of early Kasabian records and remember seeing them in 2004 before they headed off to Glastonbury. Those early records came out of nowhere and for me weren’t tainted by the “lad-ness” that has built up around them. Live, they are amazing and have a huge number of songs which are perfect for the outdoor arenas and it was great to hear a number of the early singles. Kasabian are always a much better band (in my old opinion) when their guitar sound is mixed with the darker electronic beats and this was delivered during their live set… great to hear “Club Foot” and “LSF” live again.
Finishing their set in skeleton suits, Vlad the Impaler was much heavier than the recorded version and reminded me of that feeling in the air on a Sunday night that always drifted over Leeds Festival… waiting for that spark that used to signal to people to cut loose. Followed up by “Fire” they definitely delivered.
Who doesn’t love a good horror movie? And if you are a fan of horror then what better T-Shirt to sport than a Night Of The Living Dead T-Shirt? A total horror classic and in my opinion a totally sweet looking shirt.
This T-Shirt features a slightly adapted version of the original theatrical release poster. The black and white action shots are set off brilliantly by the garish and ghoulish bright green text making this a really eye catching and striking T-Shirt.
Wow! We are now mid-way through August. The months are rolling on and the bands are pumping out the records and merchandise. We started this thread back in April and promised that we would update it again in 4 months time. So here we are, 2/3rds of the way through 2012… the world has still not exploded as predicted… so we better get this posted before it’s too late!
It’s strongly noted that there has been an insane amount of great releases during the past 4 months. This list is pretty long and could have been a hell of a lot longer had we added everything that we wanted to.
So have a read through the following list and let us know if you have been digging any of these albums/EPs, what ones are missing that you think we should have posted and what else you are looking forward to in 2012. We will be back to complete this list in December with a comprehensive round up and a list of our top 10 albums of 2012.
In no particular order:
Slash – Apocalyptic Love
Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage
Anathema – Weather Systems
Every Time I Die – Ex Lives
Testament – Dark Roots Of Earth
Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power (20th anniversary edition)
Hawkwind – Onward
Accept – Stalingrad
Paradise Lost – Tragic Idol
Cancer Bats – Dead Set On Living
Unleashed – Odalheim
DragonForce – The Power Within
Torche – Harmonicraft
Black Sheep Wall – No Matter Where It Ends
Pigeon Toe – The First Perception
7 Horns 7 Eyes – Throes Of Absolution
Graf Orlock – Destination Time Tomorrow
Woods Of Ypres – Woods 5
St Vitus – Lillie: F-65
Storm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion
Europe – Bag Of Bones
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Tenacious D – Rize Of The Fenix
Royal Thunder – CVI
Burzum – Umskiptar
The Cult – Choice Of Weapon
Mekong Delta – Intersections
Grand Magus – The Hunt
Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
Tank – War Nation
Mnemic – Mnemesis
The Night Flight Orchestra – Internal Affairs
Dying Fetus – Reign Supreme
Rush – Clockwork Angels
Spiritualised – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Unsane – Wreck
Nile – At The Gate Of Sethu
Deathspell Omega – Drought
Ancient Ascendant – Into The Dark
Cambion – Last Rights
Wodensthrone – Curse
Periphery – Periphery II: This Time Its Personal
Baroness – Yellow & Green
Since we love T-Shirts so much we decided that we would start a monthly blog where we choose one awesome design from our store each month, say a few words about why it is so awesome and then post it here for you to ponder/comment/suggest better designs/tell us our taste is crap/tell us our taste is amazing or simply be impartial.
I absolutely love this design. It has such a cool retro style about it and the colour combinations are really striking. I love the light blue logo and text against the pinkish/beige of the 4 face segments. Question is, can you tell which band member is which from the 4 squares? (I can’t).
Also, and I actually only just realised this… the theme works rather well for EYEsore Merch, right!?! The large eye in the background with the 4 squares containing an eye from each band member (James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted). Perhaps for the sake of this post we can call the design ‘Eyesore Of The Beholder’.
For me, this shirt evokes many memories of a distant teenage youth when my friends and I were just discovering the joy of heavy metal and rock music. There is something about this shirt that takes me right back to those days. I was and still am a huge fan of Metallica’s ‘And Justice For All…’ so this shirt is high on the list of all time killer T-Shirt designs.
Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage
Released June 26th 2012
Label: Roadrunner Records
Finally, the wait is over! French metal titans Gojira have returned after a 4-year wait with their massively anticipated fifth studio album ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’. Released on Roadrunner Records the album is Gojira’s major label debut, so expectations were running high. They do not disappoint!
Recorded in Long Island City, NY with Josh Wilbur who is known for his work with Lamb Of God, this is a record of immense power and serious attitude while all the time exhibiting the trademark groove and catchiness of the previous 4 albums all bound by the haunting atmospherics and magnificent grace and finesse that Gojira have become so well known for.
Opener ‘Explosia’ dives straight into classic Gojira territory, opening with a massive rolling pick slide / harmonic style riff backed by thunderous rolling double kick drums that give you little option but to bang your head half-way-off a mere 30 seconds into proceedings. Title track ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’ is up next and really gives us all a very clear picture as to why Gojira have become one of the most exciting and inventive extreme metal bands on the planet. From open to close L’Enfant Sauvage delivers extremity and elegance in equal measures bound by the complex polyrhythmic drumming of Mario Duplantier, catchy groove laden guitar riffs and the very distinct vocal style of Joe Duplantier. Everything is just so cohesive and natural. There is no filler, no unnecessary interludes and no distracting electronic samples or extra post-production meddling.
The most noticeable thing about this new album is its running time. On previous releases, the band had a tendency to over extend the content but ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’ is a noticeable 10 minutes or so shorter than the usual outing which makes for a much more compact and captivating experience which simply begs to be replayed every time the album reaches the final distorted feedback of The Fall.
Other stand out tracks on the album include ‘The Axe’, ‘Planned Obsolescence’ and ‘The Gift Of Guilt’ but to be honest there isn’t a weak moment during the entire 52 minutes. It’s the album that we all hoped Gojira would deliver and it’s the album that has now 100% cemented Gojia’s place as one of the most exciting and forward thinking metal bands of our time.
We are extremely excited to announce that Eyesore Merch are now an official stockist of Brothers Cider merchandise.
Like us, Brothers are serious music fans! You will more than likely have seen them at some of the leading UK music festivals hosting bars at Glastonbury, Big Beach Boutique, Creamfields and The Glade Festival. Brothers can also be found at international festivals such as Peats Ridge in Australia.
We are currently offering a men’s and women’s T-Shirt design for the Brothers ‘Festival Pear Cider’. We hope to expand this range in the coming months and bring you many more exciting Brothers merchandise products.
For now, head over to our store by clicking the image below, check out the ‘Festival Pear Cider’ design, then buy with confidence.
Just a quick one! In relation to our post from May 21st, Bossk have just released 2 more brand new merch designs which are now available to order exclusively at Eyesore Merch. We have the “BSKMMXII” design, now printed on a white shirt as well as a sexy Tote Bag. Go check them out Here: BOSSK T-Shirts & Merch
Bossk recently played their first come-back show in London with Unsane and Big Business to great response. The guys played to a sold out crowd and went down a storm, selling tonnes of merch after their set. More shows are being booked right now with a support to Baroness just confirmed for July 11th in Mancester.
Be sure to get your Bossk merch ordered now while stocks last.
Damnation Festival is the UK’s premier one-day metal event; giving a voice to the underground, a stage to the shunned and and a much-needed shot in the arm to a starved British scene… and Eyesore Merch are extremely proud to be sponsoring the event and hosting one of the 3 stages. Plus we have a great selection of merch from some of the top bands on this years bill available over at our store. Bands include: Electric Wizard, Pig Destroyer, Bossk, Gama Bomb and Extreme Noise Terror.
Eyesore Merch 