Camden Underworld Showcase resceduled to 21st January!
+
TITANS reschedule for 22nd January!
+
BANDS - enter BAND QUEST 2010 now!
+
Rat n Parrot Re-Lived - A Tribute to Spider (Deon Weston)

Deon Weston (Spider) quite simply is a legend, as legendary as the nights at the Rat n Parrot where he frequented, and for many the reason why so many people in the local Rock Scene know each other to this day. Spider was buried on Wednesday 30th December 2009 and the church service was packed with friends and family who will miss him dearly.

What many dont realise is it was Deon's love of music that was a big part of how the Thursday night rock nights became so successful. Deon introduced Danielle Baker (Deon's Group Admin) to the music we are all familier with. Danielle was a barmaid at the Kings Arms where it all started and she helped round up over a hundred people for the very first night.

From there - no turning back.

So this night is a dedicated night to the life and love of music of Deon Weston, our friend Spider.

King Steve and The Kev the original DJ's from the Kings Arms will be guest DJ's.

It will be a charity night with a £2 donation as entry to the Spina Bifida charity, the condition Spider suffered from all his life. 100% of ALL money raised will go to the charity. We would like an offer of help in printing flyers and posters and distributing them.

Please of course search high and low to the depths of the alternative scene and bring back everyone we know who attended the Rat n Parrot and and especially who knew Spider.

Thanks for all the support.

Rest In Peace Our Dear Friend Deon 'Spider' Weston Facebook group

Rat n Parrot Re-Lived - A Tribute to Spider at the Ivory Lounge in Bexleyheath.

£2.00 on the door.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Rat n Parrot Re-Lived - A Tribute to Spider? – Email us a request now!

Get ready to roar at the Red Lion again this Friday!

Heavy alternative metallers COLT.44 return to Gravesend. SUNRISE FALLING also play alongside plenty of other bands, yet to be announced.

Live At The Lion at the Red Lion every odd Friday.

£3.00 for everyone.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Live At The Lion? – Email us a request now!

After a sold out debut show at the Underworld in 2009 (featuring Alestorm, Silent Descent and O.M.T) CUTTING EDGE returns in 2010 with another top line-up.

Melodic death metallers IGNOMINIOUS INCARCERATION headline this special showcase event. Their 'Of Winter Born' (debut for Earache) album received top reviews across the industry and they are ready to release their fury on you! Wacken bound SNAKEBITE are the main support alongside DENOUNCE who ripped Bloodstock a new one in 2008. Band Quest 2009 Metal finalists REASONABLE DOUBT and INTO EXILE open the evening.

Cutting Edge - An Industry Showcase at the Underworld in Camden.

£6.00 in advance and £7.00 on the door.

Tickets available from all bands (except the headliners) and Stargreen, Seetickets, Ticketweb and behind the bar upstairs at the Worlds End Pub.

The SNOW won the day back on the 8th January but not the war! The Titans are finally here!

The BIG Boys are coming to town! The birth of strength within the British Metal Scene collide in one MASSIVE furious night of metal. Gravesend will shake for months after this.

Local techno metallers SILENT DESCENT need no introduction. Sets at Download, Bloodstock and most recently at the Cutting Edge showcase event at the Camden Underworld has seen the band take massive strides, beating their electrofied metal riffage over the heads of fans and industry folk alike. Also playing are INFESTATION while THE CUSTARD CHUCKERS add some comical respite. The simply excellent SANCTORUM also play with able support from SANITY BURNS, ZOCALO, A CHAOS WITHIN, FACADE, ACCIDENTS and THE GRAFTERS. DJ 69 will keep things metal between bands.

The Titans - A Heavyweight Showdown at the Red Lion in Gravesend.

£5.00 entry to all.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at The Titans - A Heavyweight Showdown? – Email us a request now!

"It's nice to know that theres extreme bands ready to rip 2010 a new one. Ignominious Incarceration are one such band."

Jason Brett (Rock Matrix) - Full review in reviews section of this newsletter.

Ignominious Incarceration are a fast-rising modern death metal band based in Bath in the UK. This talented, young five-piece deliver an instantly recognisable, crushing, modern sound whilst being unmistakably rooted in traditional death metal.

Having only formed in 2006, Ignominious Incarceration are one fast-moving band.

Only six weeks after forming in a small town called Wellington in the UK, the band played their first gig to a humble audience of around 20 people. By the time the band played their third show, they had replaced Abigail Williams on a tour slot as the main support act for Bring Me The Horizon and were playing to over 400 people.

Since those early shows, Ignominious Incarceration have been moving at light-speed, both musically and in their progression as a band. Quickly being tipped as one of the best new British death metal bands, they have toured with the likes of Trigger the Bloodshed and Bleed From Within, and have an unreleased 6-track EP under their belts.

In May 2008, only two years after forming, Ignominious Incarceration's hard-working ethic paid off as the band signed a worldwide record deal with extreme metal label, Earache Records.

Taken from the Earache website.

IGNOMINIOUS INCARCERATION myspace.

Band Quest 2010 IS The South East's most comprehensive set of opportunities for alternative music acts. A Free to Enter*, multi-faceted promotional platform which includes opportunities such as Live Recordings and Filming of live events for DVD production within a Battle of the Bands-esque format, 6 Finals where at least every finalist wins a prize valued at £100 upward, with up to 60 PRIZES, worth over £20K and extended high profile industry showcases with top acts. Your music could feature on an exciting brand new set of triple Promotional CD compilations going to industry addresses. You will appear in a full colour program covering all Band Quest acts and supporters.

If you are in a band and want to apply immediately click on the image below and you will be taken to the application form:

This platform also offers reduced studio costs, festival slots, local discounts, money saving merchandise deals and more.... so what you waiting for? You just can't lose?

* A deposit is required to ensure a place which is fully returnable at the end of the duration of the events undertaken in the battle of the bands period.

You can view more details at the Band Quest website by clicking on the flyer below:

TEMPEST LOVE needs:

- Guitarist

We're a metal band named Tempest Love, from Maidstone, Kent. We have done a few gigs and are soon to be professionally re-recording our album. We're looking for somebody confident Who will provide creative input, will be able to learn our existing material quickly and plays comfortably within the metal genre.

Contact the band here: tempest-love@live.com.

COMETH OF SOLACE needs:

- Drummer

Cometh of Solace is a small metal band based in the north east we are not aiming to be like most metal band that are going around we are putting our own little twist with softcore lyrics and hard fast driving riffs. Cometh of Solace will make you wanna scream your house down.

Contact the band here: andylittlebritain@msn.com or ring 07941865704.

PRINCE KATOCO needs:

- Drummer

Contact the band here: cmp5000@hotmail.co.uk or ring Chris on 07506 550 303 or spoek@tiscali.co.uk or ring Joe on 07738 820 290.

Singer available - Contact Darren Holmes here: dareneholmes@hotmail.co.uk.

A cold december night and the World's end pub is packed with eager thrash fans awaiting the call to relocate to the Underworld. After drinks and a lenghty set-up time, the night is underway with Goatwhore (8/10) forcefully waking the sleeping masses. Their set is a flawless thrash onslaught mixed with new-era death metal, which leaves the fans salavating for more. Soundwise, the Louisiana quartet form a solid set to which the fans have no problem in forming an impressive moshpit.

Next up are old school thrash titans, Toxic Holocaust (7). As part of the aptly named "Revival of Thrash", the band certainly fufill their intentions as the fans explode into a sea of flying bodies. They thunder through a impressive set full of catchy riffs and gut pounding drums, fans of bands such as Exodus and Overkill are pleased here.

Finally, headliners Skeletonwitch (8) emerge, radiating pure energy. The Ohio five decimate all those before them and create a warpath in their wake. Their set spreads infectious headbanging throughout the floor and they prove to be the winners of the night ending their set with a ferocious circle pit which engulfs the contented fans.

Overall, this gig has proven one thing: Thrash is well and truly back!

Review by Frazer Bowdery

Epic! A word used sparingly of late but Dream Theater's new album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, encapsulates the meaning in every sense (I would end the review here but I feel that you need to know a bit more).

With this album, the band have decided to focus more on the beautiful/memorable melodies and inspired soundscapes rather than the technical shreddery of past albums. The album begins with the ominous 'A Nightmare to Remember' which sets the scene for the rest of the album. The songwriting is top notch with a guitar tone to die for despite lengthy tracks. Dream Theater have packed so much into each track it's hard not to be impressed with such memorable perfomances by all of the band's members.

To be perfectly honest, there isn't a dull moment with this album, soaring through such great songs like 'Right of Passage' and 'Wither' before smashing into 'The Shattered Fortress' and culminating into the magical adventure 'The Count of Tuscany'.

This is by far, Dream Theater's best album and definitely the most awe inspiring record of the year. This album will probably come under the genre of progressive rock but it has elements of black, thrash or even pieces to satisfy the appetites of classical listeners.

A definite must have.

10/10

Review by Frazer Bowdery

Swedish Black Metallers VALKYRJA have uploaded the first song off their upcoming new album Contamination on their MySpace. Please click www.myspace.com/valkyrjaswe to check out Oceans To Dust!

Contamination was recorded at Necromorbus Studios (Deströyer 666, Watain) with Tore Stjerna at the helm. Contamination is the logical successor to the bands debut album The Invocation Of Demise (re-issued by Metal Blade Records in July 2009). VALKYRJA act even more relentless than on their first effort and they have also refined their sense for compelling melodies close to perfection!

The band comments on Contamination as follows: "The two years which have passed since the 'The Invocation of Demise' session has been a hectic period of composing, crafting and some line-up changes. During this last summer VALKYRJA manifested the second album. There were no doubts that we would return to Necromorbus Studio, again with Tore Stjerna as producer, and the outcome of this session formed an abominable weapon. January 2010 Metal Blade Records will unleash this dweller of the underworld – by far the strongest material thus far - namely Contamination, a mark of violent and dark Metal for the predator and beast of opposition within man."

Every Black Metal fan in general and followers of DISSECTION and NAGLFAR in particular will love the hymnic riffing and the vicious atmosphere VALKYRJA unleash on their new album.

Crowned by a top-notch, freezing cold and brutal production, Contamination is indeed the first Black Metal highlight of the new year and makes VALKYRJA THE Black Metal band to watch out for in 2010!

Conceived by rock n' roll, born the bastard child of punk; raised on streets filled with trash, worshipped on the altar of rock and welded to the engine by metal...!!! Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the infamous INTREPID FOX... From it's beginnings in the heart of Soho in the sixties, once patronised by the likes of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, hellraising actors Richard Harris and Peter O'Toole; the seventies led to the Sex Pistols and Malcolm Mclaren proclaiming it "like an old friend"; Slash could be seen propping up the bar in the eighties whilst the nineties provided a watering-hole for such legends as Lemmy and Zakk Wylde... Re-located to it's new lair in St Giles in 2006, the Fox continues to uphold the alternative spirit, playing host to Iron Maiden, Bullet For My Valentine, Buckcherry, Zodiac Mindwarp and Backyard Babies to name a few, always providing a safe haven for London's rockers and goths, punks and metallers alike. Always entertaining and fun, frequently deranged n' impossibly handsome the wily old Fox continues to rock this town like a motherfker...!!!

Check out the calendar, our resident dj's Fri & Sat in the upstairs bar from 9PM: Dj Lola (Unholy) & Danny Serrano with "METAL DEMENTIA", playing all things hard n' heavy. Max (Generation Graveyard) & Rich Jones (The Loyalties) with "3rd GENERATION NATION", playing dirty gutter punk n' roll. Devilman, Lucyfur & Lucretia with "DENIM & LEATHER", playing tunes n' drinking booze. Adam Lightspeed (Electric Ballroom) & Ben Christo (Sisters Of Mercy) with "HELL YEAH", Jonny Le Shithouse (Generation Graveyard) & Sky (King Lizard) with "DIRTY BOMB", playing hard n' sleazy rock wiv a touch o' metal. Dj Lola & Dany (Breed 77) with "ALCOHAULIN' ASS", playing metal and stoner. Duncan & Giles with "LAST MEN STANDING", playing metal and hard rock. Shel with "SHOCK TREATMENT", playing all things glam.

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK MON-WED 3PM til 11PM THUR 3PM til MIDNIGHT FRI-SAT 3PM til 2AM SUN 5PM til 11PM We are an over 18's venue, ID will be required if you look under 21 We reserve the right to refuse admission (no football colours, chavs or suit n' ties unless it's rock n' roll...!!!)

Taken from the Intrepid Fox myspace page.

Address details for the Intrepid Fox.

Free entry for all.

FACEBOOK:

Facebook group - Band Quest/Unified Sounds

Facebook group - Rock Matrix

Facebook group - Red Roar Festival 2010

Facebook group - Rock Matrix Loyalty Card Holder

Facebook group - Dark Desires

Facebook group - Bloodstock

MYSPACE:

www.myspace.com/rockmatrix

www.myspace.com/rockmatrixpromotions

www.myspace.com/redroarfestival

www.myspace.com/bloodstock