The Anvil
The Victorian Whore Dogs opened with an enthusiasm that belied the fact that there are only around 15 people in attendance. Sludgy powerful riffs rocked the anvil basement and the between song banter dished out by Danny Page was funny as fuck. The raw singing was delivered with a cool ferocity and accompanied by much scrotum rubbing and microphone sucking antics. If these guys play like this to such a sparse crowd I’d love to see them in front of a full room giving them back the energy they produced. Good stuff!
Thankfully there are a few more bodies in attendance when Greenhorn took to the stage and delivered their crushing brand of filthy Doom. Lead singer and Bassist Simon had heart surgery a couple of weeks ago but hadn’t dampened his sprit in any way and the bands studio sojourns have paid off as they sound tighter than ever.
Tombstones psychedelic heavy doom is excellent. Rolling riffs, that have a low-down groove to them, envelop the crowd in a kaleidoscope of aural melodic goodness. Complaining of hangovers incurred from the previous evenings show at Camden Underworld, they implored the crowd to help out with their energy levels and judging by the sweaty state of them at the end of their set it worked!
I’ve said it before, I love female fronted Doom bands and they tick all my boxes on how the genre should sound. Clean singing and downtuned riff heavy music. Witch Mountain was no exception and started off playing to just me and some other bloke as the crowd were still upstairs drinking. It didn’t last long though and after a few thundering riffs were felt above, the audience descended the stairs to be treated to a slice of pure American Doom all the way from Portland, Oregon. Their sound is akin to Janis Joplin singing Doors songs being backed by Trouble.
Lead singer Uta Plotkin delivers effortless vocals and as on Veil Of The Forgotten the occasional growly throat rumble. Rob Wrong has obviously studied at the Black Sabbath School of riffs and graduated with honours as he unleashed a barrage of intense licks in to the crowds psyche! I can’t mention the above without giving major kudos to the pounding foundation that the songs were built on, with Nathan Carson on the drums and Charles Thomas who killed on bass.
As mentioned before not as many bodies through the door to witness these great bands but with Download on that weekend it was inevitable I suppose. In the end though a fantastic night of top-notch Doom!
Links
https://www.facebook.com/witchmountain
https://www.facebook.com/tombstonesoslo
https://www.facebook.com/GreenHornUK
https://www.facebook.com/VWDBAND
Words and photos: Dan O’Gara.
