Gig Review - A Pale Horse Named Death (with support from Mother of Six and Blood Runs Deep) Wrexham Central Station 24/1/12

I would absolutely love it if the first band on the list wasn’t actually a bona fide band, because ‘Always The Quiet Ones’ didn’t show. I had to check my watch that it wasn’t April 1^st, because what they did was almost a masterstroke.

Second up!?, 'Mother Of Six', should have taken a leaf out of ATQO book and not turned up and saved themselves from a lack of support. Opening with Artificial Aid (an instrumental of sorts) it lacked any substance or quality. When the (stand in) vocalist appeared for the second song I almost wish he hadn’t as his stage presence was lacking somewhat. It was like a musical version of a Man City fan, he faced the back of the hall for a good part of the song, and when not doing this, just looked at the floor or towards the roof and had no connection with the (small) audience at all. Their third song started decently enough but really fell apart in the middle (drop this section and you’d have a decent track to build upon). Despite my (personal) lack of enjoyment a decent effort was made considering the circumstances.

Now with ‘Blood Runs Deep’ the ante was upped quite bit. Sound was much better, the quality definitely was upped a notch. Hailing from Switzerland ‘BRD’ was here to give it some welly. In Denis Vera they have a young lad who could take them very far. A guitarist in the mould of a Sykes/Gilmore/Page who adds a certain melodic style to a death metal/gothic doom band. With this style of singing, straight out of the Mikael Akerfelt school of vocalisation, it’s difficult to get any meaning or content from Stefan Vida, but musically these guys ripped! They even had a prominent keyboard (which was rather nice!), and a shit hot drummer holding up the proceedings. It’s not a happy set of songs, ‘Lost Myself Again’, ‘These Thoughts About Suicide’ ‘Overdose Anaesthetics’, and ‘Suicide Is Life’ the latter being the best song of their short set. BRD could mistakenly be classed as Death Metal, but their music is 100% influenced by Classic Rock (Sabbath/Floyd/Zep etc).

 If you’re out to catch APHND, it’s definitely worth getting out to catch Blood Runs Deep. If Doom/Goth/Black/Death is your thing, only played with a bit of classic rock finesse then you will not be disappointed. Putting my Anglophile hat on Switzerland is renowned for Alps (and a certain lookalike choc bar)/ Watches/ Army knives, but now I’m convinced that BRD will be putting Metal firmly on the Swiss map.

Onto the main event. Firstly what a bunch of twats are working the desk for the gig. Not employed by the band, the 2 nuggets involved, inbetween chatting amongst themselves and pissing about with their phones, couldn’t find their arses with both hands tied behind their backs. I checked out the band and asked if they liked playing in the dark as they were only lit from behind, Fuck me! It could have been anyone playing up on stage. If money is that tight Central Station I will bring 50p with me next time for the meter. See what I mean below...

Apologies, back to the band. A Pale Horse Named Death were here to promote (pretty much in its entirety) their debut album from 2011, ‘And Hell Will Follow Me’. Again like BRD, the songs on offer don’t lead to a happy & fluffy environment. A purgatorial odyssey of drug abuse, nightmarish deleriums and agonizing meditations on loss. Sounding like prime Alice In Chains throughout, these ashen songs – from the Burroughsian narcotic haze of ‘Heroin Train’ to the psychopathic discharge of ‘Serial Killer’ – are inescapably bleak, but quite compelling. Vocallist Sal Abruscato, and guitarist Matt Brown, define themselves as ‘’the murdering evil version of Lennon & McCartney’’. And you know what, I cant argue with that at all.

Type O’s original drummer (Sal) has moved to the front of stage for this band to lead his own way for A Pale Horse Named Death, and does so with great confidence and attitude. They clearly do not mimic Type O Negative, but use them as a creative influence alongside the afore-mentioned Alice In Chains.

Opener ‘To Die In Your Arms’ has a grinding riff keep the headbangers in the crowd happy. You can feel the pain and despair in his voice.  Whilst not the best singer in the World, Abruscato holds a tune, and can be more in the Rob Zombie camp of vocalization. 

When a band has only one album to plug there is a tendency to play everything, and that’s just the case here (except for ‘Bad Dream’). Not all hit the mark for me, but hey, it was my first ever experience of APHND, but they did have some pretty useful songs – ‘Cracks In The walls’ being a more classic rock number, ‘Heroin Train’, ‘Bath In My Blood’, ‘Serial Killer’ in particular will become staples in their set over the coming year.

Whilst not my fave type of music, APHND put on a pretty good doom laden/gothic show. I suggest getting down to see them on the remainder of the tour as new bands like this deserve all the support they can get. For a tiny crowd like Wrexham (shame on you people of Wxm for not showing) APHND never let it get to them and put on a sterling performance. A cool bunch of guys. 

Setlists

Mother of Six - dont care! (3/10)

Blood Runs Deep - Lost Myself Again/These Thoughts About Suicide/All The Things Above/ Overdose Anesthetics/ Suicide Is Life (7/10)

A Pale Horse Named Death - To Die In Your Arms/Devil In The Closet/When Crows Descend Upon You/Heroin Train/Meet The Wolf/As Black As My Heart/Pill Head/Cracks In The Walls/Serial Killer/ Die Alone/Bath In My Blood (8/10)