Gavin Spearhead

Ataraxie @ 013 bat cave, Tilburg, 11 May 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:34:00 GMT

Okay this is the fourth gig I went to in four weeks. This time the French doom/death band Ataraxie was playing in the smallest hall of the 013 club. And it was pretty full especially for a doom gig.

When I arrived - I was a bit late due to traffic issues where I didn't expect them really - the German Ophis was about to start. And opening with the song "GodForsaken" off their debut album is quite excellent really. Their doom/death style is really bleak, yet very crushing. The new song that was played next, to be on the forthcoming split EP with Officium Triste was an excellent example of this so I am anticipating this release a lot. With all these long songs they closed their set after three songs with Earth Expired of the latest release. Excellent band and excellent gig really. I'd like to see them do a longer set some time.

Next was the CD release show of the local Faal. I saw them with diSEMBOWELMENT a few weeks ago and like then, they played their new album in its entirety. Except with a bit of a twist, as they played a longer and more experimental version of the title track - The Clouds are Burning. The electronics parts reminded me a bit of the mighty Esoteric. Also the bass player played some parts with a bow - something I hadn't seen before.

Finally, Ataraxie was playing in the Netherlands again since some time. This time with a guest drummer, as their original drummer couldn't come. It didn't seem to matter as the drums sounded quite good really and the rest of the band was in fine shape too. Starting with L'Ataraxie of the debut album - which I prefer over their Anhedonie album of which they played the rather long title track. And I guess not much shorter was the song they played next, to be appearing on a a not yet recorded, but forthcoming new album. Stylewise it wasn't very different from their latest. They had to break it up after a short wihle, as they had some technical problems. When that was fixed, and they restarted it went a lot better. And there was a fourth track for which I didn't quite recognise which one it was. A very solid gig I must say.

Paradise Lost @ Tivoli, Utrecht, 2 May 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:40:00 GMT

Third gig in three weeks, not bad. This time it was Paradise Lost. A band I haven't seen live before despite I know them since their debut album in 1991 or so. Possibly because I was less than interested in their mid-era material with all the electronics crap and they never really seemed to play at any places and times for me. But they seemed to have picked up for a couple of years where they left with Draconian Times. And so they were touring a bit again with a new album under their belts. So off I went to Utrecht to the Tivoli, which is a pretty shitty place in an equally shitty town. Good thing it was a school holiday this week so traffic was light, otherwise 19.45 as a starting time would be hardly doable by car. Nevermind that they started half an hour later with a only half full venue.

There was just one support slot and that was Swallow The Sun; a decent Finnish doom/death band I'd seen a few times before. They also just released a new album and not surprisingly that filed most of their 45 minutes set, with just three songs of the earlier albums. Even thought it is a pretty good album, it's a bit too much imo. Most of the gig seemed to be a band internal competition who could look the most angry. And I bet the keyboard player won. They played pretty tight but with little enthusiasm and the gig seemed mostly routine.

After half an hour the stage got cleared for Paradise Lost and the band opened surprisingly with Widow - a rather fast song of Icon. At least fast for Paradise Lost. Naturally we got a few songs of the new album, which sounded quite good. But what was less welcome - at least to me - was the inclusion of a couple of those crappy mid-era songs that seemed to fit better to a dance act than a metal band. Of course they skipped the first two albums entirely, but did manage to pull off two songs of Shades of God, namely Pity the Sadness and As I Die. Further the set list was a bit disappointing with just one song of the Faith Divides Us album and Draconian times. They played alright tho, the vocals were a bit thin, but I guess that is just the ageing of Nick's vocals. Oh and Aaron managed to break no less than two strings during the gig. So all-in-all not a bad gig but I'm not really all that excited about it. Perhaps that is due to the diSEMBOWELMENT gig of two weeks ago which was really brilliant.

Oh and then when I had to drive back raining was pouring down extremely hard with mighty thunders. Not a pleasant drive really :/

Setlist Paradise Lost

Desolate (intro)
Widow
Honesty in Death
Erased
Forever Failure
Soul Courageous
In This We Dwell
Praise Lamented Shade
Pity the Sadness
As I Die
Symbol of Life
Tragic Idol
The Enemy
Encores:
One Second
Fear of Impending Hell
Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us
Say Just Words

Whiplash @ Scum, Katwijk, 26 April 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:51:00 GMT

Scum is one of those legendary metal clubs in the Netherlands of the past, most of which sort of vanished somewhere in the 1990s or so. But they found a new spot and a new building right next to the beach. And it´s only a some 20 kilometers away from my home. This Thursday, US thrasher Whiplash were reliving their gig from 1988 in the old club as part of a few gigs around a festival show. Then with thrash legends Sodom, now there was a local support band.

Trashcore Fanatics or TCF opened with a rather simple 80 thrashy hardcore and they brought some local fans to enjoy it. The rest of the crowd, like myself stayed mostly in the back. Not my thing really.

Tony had switched members once again since the last album, so Whiplash was just him as an original member.once again. And nowadays he looks more like a country singer than a metalhead. Not that it mattered really. Tony's vocals were vile as ever and the guitar playing was sharp. Most of the set was comprised of songs from the first two albums interleaved with some newer songs. Surprisingly nothing from the latest album even though it has a couple of really good songs on it. It wouldn´t have hurt to swap the song Enemy of the hideous Cult of One album for one of those. Nevertheless a quite fanatic band, that played quite tight/y with an excellent set. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening. Setlist:

Last Man Alive
Warmonger
Spit On Your Grave
Killing on Monroe Street
Stagedive
last Nail in the Coffin
Eternal Eyes
Insult to Injury
Enemy
The Burning of Atlanta
This
Walk the Plank
Power Thrashin' Death
Nailed to the Cross

diSEMBOWELMENT @ Gloppe 17 April 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:56:00 GMT

In 1993, an album was released that is one of the definitive albums of the doom / death genre. And that isn't from My Dying Bride, but the Australian Transcendence into the Peripheral diSEMBOWELMENT. Groundbreaking in every aspect, and at the time never heard before. I still rate it as one of my all time favourite album. Unfortunately the band quickly dissolved and there never was a successor. Albeit it is hard to believe that they could top this one. But now they more or less reformed under the name dUSK and started rehearsing their old songs again. They were announced to play the Roadburn festival this year where they'd play the entire album, and they opted to add a few gigs to that in Europe. Actually this is the first time they even play on European ground. In the mean time they changed their name to Inverloch and even recorded an EP with three new songs. So there you have a bloody good reason to travel to my former hometown on this Tuesday evening. Good thing I found out it was happening just on Monday evening. And I think that more had overlooked this due to very little promotion as the club was frighteningly empty. Though a few of them even came from abroad to check them out.

There was just a single support act, namely Dutch doom/death outfit Faal. Although their musical style is far broader that just doom/death, blending all kinds of styles, including black metal and shoegaze into it. They had just released new album. So they played all of it. The sound quality was quite good actually, especially for this kind of club, which is basically a bar with a stage. And it just proofs again that Faal is simply a very good band. And this was a very good live preformance, better than when I saw them half a year ago in Tilburg.

Then, it was time for diSEMBOWELMENT / dUSK / Inverloch. They are now a five piece, with two original members - the drummer and the bassist who now plays guitar. After an ambient intro, the band stepped on stage to kick off "The Tree Of Life and Death". The opening of the track is fierce and brutal and executed tightly. Much tighter than than the actual recording, especially the drums. The continued with "Your Prophetic Throne of Ivory" my favourite song off the album and I can't say but that it was brilliant. Unlike on roadburn they didn't play the entire album, but then switched to Inverloch, playing a few songs off the EP (actually all three of them). Those were surprisingly good and the diSEMBOWELMENT influence is pretty obvious, but it is far from an exact copy. So we also got the song "The Spirit of the Tall Hills" and "Cerulean Transcience of all my Imagined Shores". And ending the gig with a demo track "Extracted Nails" an earlier version of Excoriate. I must say I was quite excited to get to this gig before and I can't but say that this was definitively one of the most impressive gigs I have seen. Too bad there were only like 30 people to experience it.

Obscura, Spawn of Possession, Gorod, Exivious @ Patronaat, Haarlem, 6 April 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:43:00 GMT

It has been quite a view years since I've been in the Patronaat and never in the small hall, but the penultimate gig the tour headlined by Obscura and with Spawn of Possession in particular seem like a valid excuse to go to Haarlem. I was right on time due to some issues finding a parking spot as the first band was about to start.

That band was the Dutch Exivious who are an instrumental band. Half of the band toured a few times with Cynic. And frankly the music isn't that far from the later, rather laid-back Cynic style but with a lot more guitar soloing. So excellent music skills aplenty, but half an hour of this was more than enough for me as all the "songs" sorta blend together.

Then there was Gorod, a French band. This is fast, technical death metal, interesting but I didn't know the music beforehand. And it's kinda hard to digest this kind of material. Most of the music seemed to be played quite high up the fretboard so it lacks a bit in power and brutality. But overall well executed, and the singer knew a little Dutch which is cool. Funnily, the bass guitar seemed to have filed-off frets beyond the 5th or so leaving only the top and bottom tips.

Then there was Spawn of Possession, a Swedish technical death metal band who had just released their third album Incurso. Nevertheless they only played one song of that album. The rest of the set was filled with material of their first two albums, including Swarm of the Formless, Church of Deviance and Spawn of Possession of the debut and Lash by Lash of the second. Their performance was tight and precise, with just a few minor glitches in the solos, but apparently the music provides little room for actual movement since all of them were basically standing still staring at their instruments. I must say their fretboard gymnastics is of the highest ranking. They brought yet another second guitarist, who turned out to be Dutch and was quite, good. Also extra kudos to the new bass player, he is really fast which put a nice, thick extra layer underneath the guitars - there are some cool videos of him on youtube in case you'd care.

The headliner was Obscura who were promoting their latest album, that was released a while back. The level of technicality dropped a bit compared to the two previous bands, as well as the sound quality. The bass drums sounded unnatural and rather loud. They only played songs of the latest two albums which is a bit of a shame, since I like the debut the best. Playing was reasonably good but not entirely faultless, and they've got a really good drummer this time (Hannes Grossmann formerly of Necrophagist). And Jeroen Paul Thesseling left this band to focus on Pestilence (but why as they have been slammed all over). The new bass player also played fretless, but had drawn on frets, which look a bit weird too. Nevertheless a decent gig, with a drum solo near the end where Hannes could do his thing. And they played a quite unnecessary cover as an encore - Death's Flesh and the Power it holds - with Tymon Kruidenier of Exivious on vocals. Oh and I did manage to grab one of them drum sticks Hannes through in the audience :D.

Celestial Season @ Merleyn, 30 March 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:55:00 GMT

Last time I went to Merleyn there was lots of snow and so it took me over 2 hours to get there. This time it only took an hour and a half or so. Much more comfortable. The reason to go there was simple Celestial Season. They were invited to play the roadburn festival this year performing their entire second album Solar Lovers. Imo this is still one of the best doom / death metal albums around. So it was the effort to check them out for this try-out gig. There were no support acts, which is a bit peculiar. When I entered the venue the band was still soundchecking and playing a couple of songs already. Unfortunately the band wasn't in the complete lineup of the album, with a new drummer, singer and strings section, but the guitarists and bass player where there.

The set list was of course a bit predictable - the entire Solar Lovers album. So they just started with Decamerone on a stage that was quite full with no less than 7 musicians. The sound needed some finetuning as not all the instruments were all that clear. Particularly the violin and cello were a bit down in the mix. Considering that the material is more than 15 years old and I guess they hadn't played it for many years, it sounded quite good and just few mistakes. They even managed to include the acoustic intermezzo's of the album, as well as one of the best covers ever recorded - Vienna (originally by Ultravox). After the final The Scent of Eve that was is - so where was A Tune From The Majestic Queen's Garden? Anyway. For an encore two songs of the debut album were played - Cherish My Pain and The Merciful. So it was pretty cool to see this band again after so many years since their tour with Nightfall in 1994.

Neurotic Death Fest, 3 march 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:52:00 GMT

Normally I'm not a huge fan of those massive multi-day festivals, such as Neurotic Death Fest. Usually there are too many bands I don't like and the bands I do like play to short, or have overlapping time schedules. This year I made an exception for tho for this festival, and for a very particular reason: Gorguts. And a few other bands were quite a nice bonus.

I arrived when Origin was still setting up their gear in the main hall and soon they started their set. This is basically ultra fast, brutal death metal, which playing was impressive and very tight, but in the end bored me a bit - basically Nile on steriods with blast beats all around.

Afterwards I was able to see a few songs of the Dutch Dictated on the smallest of the three stages. They sounded okay - a bit generic death metal, but having two women providing for the guitar work was at least a bit special.

Back to the main hall, It was time for Morgoth - and old school death metal band from Germany, that a long time a go split up, but reunited for some festival gigs. I am quite a bit of a fan of their Cursed album, and the EPs before that are cool. And I never had the opportunity to see them live in the 90s. But after some 20 years or so, I wondered how they would still sound like. Somehow the sound became a bit thin and the guitars were hard to hear. But that didn't hurt the gig that much, most of the songs could be easily recognised and sounded actually quite good. That is with one exception, Marc's vocals have not really aged too well and don't sound as deep as they used to be. The set was mostly Cursed material, with some White Gallery and Pits of Utumno from the Eternal Fall, and with Resistance off Odium.

A tour of the other two stages showcased Within the Ruins and Putrid Pile, the latter with just one guy with a guitar and vocals, and a tape taking care of the rest. Quite odd, but both weren't really my thing.

Back to the main stage, there was Anaal Nathrakh setting up. This is the other band of Dave Hunt, who also sings in Benediction, but in a rather different style. When I heard them on CD I wasn't much impressed, but live they sounded quite okay. Some interesting guitar work and all. Maybe I ougtha give them another listen sometime

Another round along the other two stages brought Molotov Solution which is shitty deathcore and Carnifex both for which I don't care

Then in the main hall, it was time to watch Gorguts set up, which was more interesting than watching the other two bands. And right on schedule, the kicked off with "From Wisdom to Hate". Luc and his new bandmates flew in to this gig from Canada, performing for the first time in Europe after some 19 years - ever since the tour for "The Erosion of Sanity" album. This was excellent tho, and the complex and technical material was played with precision. They set list was varied, playing Obscura, Nostalgia, Carnal State of Obscura, Inverted from From Wisdom to Hate, Orphans of Sickness and the title track of The Erosion of Sanity, and even the old Stiff and Cold from the debut. Plus they played an instrumental song yet to be recorded which sounded a bit different tho, but I can't wait to hear any new album. So in short this was really worthwhile to go to. Excellent gig and let's hope we don't have to wait another 19 years for the next gig.

Disincarneted played the third stage, but after Gorguts, they failed to impress me totally, and so didCold Worker.

Then Suffocation headlined the main stage. And with drummer Mike Smith gone and another Suffo veteran stepping in - Dave Culros, I guess they hadn't time to learn some of the newer material, since we only got Abomination Reborn of the titleless album. The remainder of the set was comprised of nothing but classic material from all the material up to Despise the Sun. So nothing to complain there with Infecting the Crypts, Jesus Wept, Liege of Inveracity, Pierced From Within, Funeral Inception, Catetonia, Breeding the Spawn, and a few more. Suffocation rarely lets down and they didn't fail to impress this time. They only complaint was Frank's chattiness, extending sometimes several minutes (is he studying for preacher or what the fuck) - and I wasn't the only one being a bit irritated about that considering the "shut the fuck ups" from the audience. But nevertheless a really good gig.

I went to see a few songs from Abysmal Torment from Malta, but I couldn't really care about them too much, and being tired I quickly got a Gorguts shirt and went home. Had a good time tho despite my reservations towards festivals. And I might go to another one too, Bolt Thrower playing on Into the Grave.

Krisiun, Vital Remains @ Baroeg, 11 February 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:06:00 GMT

The Sounds of the Extreme tour counts no less than 8 bands with three headliners and varying support acts. At the Baroeg there were no less than 3 supports slots hence the obscene starting time of 18.00 sharp. No wonder the venue was nearly empty when the first band started to play.

That band was the Belgian Pestifer who turned out to be from the French speaking part, hence they did the announcements in English. This band plays technical death metal, mostly mid-paced not unlike Pestilence in the 90s. Obviously they are very skilled musicians, but somehow the songwriting is a bit dull, so none of the songs really stand out. Maybe it works better on CD - I should check them out.

From Australia, Truth Corroded appeared next. These lads play a thrashy death metal with some hardcore overtones that has been done hundreds of times before. Although generally well played, it never got any interesting at all.

Quality metal from Italy seems to be quite scarce, so I was a little anxious that Karnak wouldn't be interesting either. Too bad, it turned out I was right. They play rather unstructured hyperfast death metal that I don't really care about. Half way through the PA got shut down, but the band played on, I guess on the raw sound of amps and drumkit. It didn't even sound that bad, but it took more than 5 minutes to get the PA running again.

Then we got to the headliners, first up was Vital Remains who apparently still exists, though I hadn't heard anything about them since their last album from 2007 or so. It seems Tony has got a new line-up together after Dave Suzuki left so I wonder how that would turn out live with the unplayable drums and the very catchy lead guitar work. After the intro, they started their set with only songs of the last two albums. Well at least Tony brought his guitar with the cheesy (shall I say childish) red lights in the shape of 666. The new singer was decent not all that much unlike Glen, but his stage act was a bit static. The drums were fast but kinda unaudible during the fast parts. And the lead guitar decent as well. The problem with Vital Remains is that half their songs consists of blistering fast blasts that are quite dull, but they spice that up with midpaced sections that have really good lead guitar work in them. But generally not bad, but they could have spiced it up a bit with a song like Battleground off the Forever Underground album or so.

Malevolent Creation are much like Vital Remains a band that has been around for a long time and has been through a similar amount of different members. However I haven't followed them really, but seen them live a few times before. And the experience was a bit varying a couple of gigs were quite dull, and others were quite good. This time it turned out to be somewhere right in the middle. Even though the band mostly played songs off the early albums, it didn't get all that interesting mostly. And it all suffered a bit from having only a single guitar this time. So pretty much okay.

Lastly there was Krisiun - a Brazilian band of three brothers that haven't had a lineup change since the early nineties. And neither have they changed style much, even though they beefed up their latest album with some slower parts, most of the songs consists of rather staccato riffs over extremely fast drum work and equally fast guitar leads. Their set consisted of songs from most albums, including such songs as Bloodcraft, Ravager, Hatred Inherit, The Will to Potency and even the old Apocalyptic Victory was performed. Like always Krisiun are extremely tight and energetic - I haven't seen them do a bad gig ever in all the 7 times I've seen them. However this was the first time I saw them playing Black Force Domain - the excellent title track of their first album which fits in very well with the rest of their set. That made this gig a bit more special. After the regular set they came back to do one more song - well extending their scheduled time by some 20 minutes.

Ulcerate @ Merleyn, 3 February 2012

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:22:00 GMT

Ulcerate are one of the most interesting newer bands in the death metal scene, whom I only discovered last year. They went on a short European tour with only a single date in the Netherlands, so Nijmegen it had to be. And considering they are from New Zealand, I didn't expect to have a second chance shortly. So regardless of all the snow and temperatures well below -15, I left for the Merleyn. Luckily it started late so the heavy traffic was not really a big issue, it took me over 2 hours to get there instead of 75 minutes it would take normally.

But when I got there, it was starting time exactly, but the first band was still sound checking; but after a short delay, it was Serotonin - a local band - that kicked off. This two man outfit plays some sort of industrial death metal with some black metal elements where the drums and bass guitar come from a drum computer and a single guitar is played manually accompanied by vocals. I never did like drum computers much, especially with blast beats and this time it was a bit so-so as well. Not really interesting, but not too bad either. The tour support slot came from the French Svart Crown who play a kind of fast death metal with some black metal influences. Technically a very apt band, and not all that bad, although they didn't seem to be able to warm up the crowd (which would have been nice, as it was _cold_ inside as well). I just might check them out on CD some times as well.

Then finally there was Ulcerate that got to play, over half an hour later than planned. Man that band is _brutal_ and _fast_. The vaguely remind me of Gorguts at the time of Obscura, with music that is full of dissonant chords with a very high pace, but slows down to keep it interesting. Even though the music quite hard to digest and rather complex it was performed excellently, but the needed concentration probably limits their ability to have a strong stage presence. A varied set covered all three albums with a little focus on their latest album. So an excellent gig albeit a little short and definitely it was worth driving through the bad conditions. Hopefully they'll return to Europe again soon.

Trojan Metal Fest @ t Paard van Troje The Hague

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:37:00 GMT

Even though I have been living in the area, I had never visited the once legendary club 't Paard van Troje (Trojan Horse) in The Hague - just one of those clubs that had all the cool metal gigs in the 80s and early 90s along with venues Nooderligt, Atak, Dynamo and Scum. But ever since it reopened after a long time refurbishing, metal gigs have been quite scarce really. But this night there was a small festival with only four Dutch death metal bands. So that was where I went.

The first band is Victimizer and the only one I didn't know in advance. They play a rather generic form of brutal death metal with lots of blast beats. In the end it all sounded a bit too similar but aside from the rather untight faster double bass drum parts it was played quite skillfully.

Next up was a band from around here, called Carceri I had seen them live years ago when they hadn't released anything yet but they sounded quite good then. So finally last year they released their debut album and they are doing some gigs again as well. Stylistically though not all that different from the previous band, but much more variation in tempos and riffs. Apparently one of the guitarist couldn't make it (or quit?) so during some of the leads the sound seemed a bit empty despite the solid bass. Probably one of the better death metal bands in the Dutch underground scene at the moment.

Okay, so after that there was Izegrim. A band I had seen a few times before and always completely bore me. And they didn't fail at that this time. The highly distorted, rather sluggish thrash/death metal with bland semi-grunted vocals lead to completely uninteresting music, vaguely similar to Arch Enemy.

Then the headliner of this evening was Toxocara who also have a new album under their belt which they wanted to promote. They amazed my first time I saw them some years ago by playing a very fast brutal death metal full of varied, interesting and original riffs. Yet their new album is slightly different bearing some industrial influences, but still sounds pretty good though. Nevertheless they opened up with an old song - T34 - and it was fast, tight and brutal. And as a matter of fact most of the - too short set - was filled with songs off their first two albums with just 2 of the new one. So a great performance again.

Unfortunately I can see why there are few metal gigs in The Hague area, as there were just about 50-60 people all together and I must say probably one of the lamest I have ever seen. Scarcely any headbanging at all, and nothing even close to moshing. And at 23.00 the venue had to cleared out, as apparently there was gonna be some dance fest later on. So probably the last gig in the once legendary 't Paard for me :(

Mar De Grises @ Little Devil, 14 December 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:03:00 GMT

Chilean progressive doom/death metal band Mar de Grises were doing some festival gigs in Europe, and were doing some gigs in between. This Wednesday evening they played a headlining gig in the cafe Little Devil in Tilburg (without an entrance fee) - a place I had never been before really. I guess it won't be that often that a band like this would play a headlining gig in Europe all too soon. So a great opportunity to see them play a 75 minute set in stead of a 40 minute set. Two support slots were added.

The first band of the evening was the local, but reasonably well-established band Faal with one album under their belt. They were about to start when I entered the venue. Faal (Dutch for fail) plays a modernised version of doom/death with some funeral touches as well as some black metal influences. The sound was remarkably good - which continued to be so for the entire evening. They played a two songs of their album (00:00 and Perpetual Solitude) as well as a two new songs (The Tempest and one which title I forgot). The only thing that really bothered me were the really untight double bass parts even though there were few. Other than that a fine performance and a very interesting gig.

From Belgium came the band Thurisaz who seem to play a mixture of various styles, including death, power, thrash and half a dozen or so more styles of metal. I had never heard of them before but they already released 3 albums. The music was basically okay - varied, tight - but the added keyboards were annoying and added little to the music. The clean vocals at times were terrible and often didn't fit the musical style too well.

Then there was Mar De Grises whose last tour I missed. Their keyboardist and singer could apparently not make the trip so the old singer returned. The keyboards were left behind - which actually is an improvement imo. The quite complex music was played very tightly by five guys that really seemed to enjoy playing. Naturally they played a couple of songs of their latest album, such as opening track Starmaker but they frequently returned to their debut album as well which I think is still their best album. And they concluded their set with the very epic To See Saturn Fall with the classic break in the middle where they just let all the instruments wander into chaos for a while, then stop and they continue with an awesome melodic guitar line. Definitely one of the best gigs I went to this year.

Starmaker
El Otro
Shining Human Skin
The Bell And The Solar Gust
One Possessed
A Sea of Dead Comets
Sleep Just One Dawn (was on the set list but they didn't play it)
Recklessness
To See Saturn Fall

Cynic @ Baroeg, Rotterdam, 7 December 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:32:00 GMT

Cynic had just released a new EP and so there was an excuse to do a European tour. Supposedly with the French band Hypno5e, but for some reason they were dropped of the tour. Instead the Baroeg arranged a local support band to open the evening.

Eden To Ashes were the lucky few. A young, Dutch progressive death metal band. They employ no less than three guitars and three singers. Stylistically they vaguely remind me of early Obscura, playing some modern sounding death metal inspired by bands like Death, Atheist, Pestilence with an original touch. Not a bad opener really.

Next was an instrumental UK progressive metal band called Chimp Spanner of whom I had never heard really. The mix various metal styles of old and new to relatively short songs with a focus on the lead guitar. One of the guitars having no less than 8 strings. Somehow instrumental bands always seem to bore me quickly and that happened with this band as well. The drummer tried to spice up his playing by doing all kinds of fancy movements with his stick and doing weird facial expression. Like the former band very proficient but not as interesting tho

Then there was Cynic who had set up the stage differently than is usual, with the drums in the back corner, the bass all to the side, Paul on the other side of the stage and the second guitarist at the centre back. Despite the early Wednesday evening, the venue was quite full, but certainly not sold out. They kicked off with a new song. Paul rarely spoke in between the songs and seemed to be kept busy with his effect pedals instead - quite unlike the last time I saw them a few years back. They played songs off all their albums very tightly despite the complexity of the songs. Even though the drums always seem to be a bit more hyperactive than suits the music. The focus songs had real grunts this time by the second guitar player instead of taped ones. So a pretty solid gig.

Hail of Bullets @ Baroeg, 25 November 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:17:00 GMT

A World-War II-themed, old school death metal band town with veteran musicians playing in their sort of home. Can you wrong with that? Probably, but Hail of Bullets are way above average. And doing a one-off club gig aside all the festival gigs they do is a good chance to sort them out.

But first the Autopsy cover-band Cadaverine (formerly Modellbau) was set to play a bunch of classic Autopsy covers. The good thing was I knew all the song pretty well. The bad thing was that it wasn't Autopsy playing them. A couple of big mistakes were annoying, but overall it was enjoyable. And it is not all that often one sees a girl drumming in a death metal band. So a nice warm-up for the head liner.

Then, after changing the stage, it was time for Hail of Bullets. The venue was reasonably full when the intro (The Eve of Battle) started after which the band kicked off with the opener of the latest album - Operation Z. It was going back and forth between the Russian front and the Pacific with the crowd going wild. The band played very tight but with many of them having more than 20 years experience, who'd expect anything different (Theo Van Eekelen- Bass, Ed Warby - Drums, Paul Baayens - Guitars, Stephan Gebédi - Guitars, Martin van Drunen - Vocals). Yea so they bring nothing new, but what they do, they do quite well. And after an hour or so the air raid siren sounded over the PA to signal the end. But they came back for two more songs.

Operation Z
Advancing Once More
Red Wolves Of Stalin
Kamikaze
Nachthexen
Full Scale War
Warsaw Rising
On Coral Shores
Berlin
Guadalcanal
Tokyo Napalm Holocaust
Ordered Eastwards
--Encores--
The Crucial Offensive
General Winter

Dutch Doom Day X - 11/13 November 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Dutch Doom Day is celebrating its tenth edition with a three day event with in total 15 bands. Like usual the line-up is very varied with some bands not even all that doomy at all.

The Friday opened with a band form the Azores called A Dream Of Poe who play pretty standard doom / death with some gothic touches here and there. I wasn't all that impressed, especially the vocals were rather dull most of the time. Music-wise a bit too generic for me.

The band that made me go that Friday were the reunited Spina Bifida. Excellent doom / death from the early nineties who split up after only one album (like so many bands from that time it seems) and were long forgotten afterwards. Anyway after the intro (the same one as on the album) they opened with Witchfire. Excellent sound, and the band appeared to enjoying their old material. Most of the set was comprised of songs from the album, but apparently they have been writing new songs too as one was played. It seems to sound a bit different, so we'll just have to wait if they will record a new album and see how it turns out. They ended the set with the song called simply "Die". Great gig.

The Friday closed with the band The 11th Hour which is mostly a solo doom metal project by former Gorefest's drummer Ed Warby. I wasn't really all that impressed by their album nor did they impress me live last time. The live band consists among others of another former Gorefest guy and two Pim and Bram from Officium Triste. In total three guitars, which seemed a bit overdone, since as far as I could see at least two guitars always played the same riffs. Besides material off the debut album, they played two new songs as well. Anyway, they couldn't impress me much this time either. Even though the it was brought with lots of dedication I'm sure, I find their music rather dull and the clean vocals sound way too thin for me. And no encores were played.

I skipped the second day as I knew none of the bands and none sounded interesting enough to go. The third day opened with another Dutch band Abyssmal Darkening which turned out to be better than I expected judging from their album. Mostly doom/death but with harsh vocals and some black metal influences. Not bad, except that the rest of the band - two women actually on guitar respectively bass - acted like statues.

That could also be said of the next band which is a Finnish / Dutch collaboration called Night of Suicide. They play funeral doom - a very difficult genre actually as it can very easily become extremely boring. But when well composed it can be a very interesting genre - like Mournful Congregation seems to pull off. However in this case it turns out to be rather boring, not played very tightly, with aweful barking vocals and a rhythm guitarist that can do an excellent Nicholas Cage impression - ie have only one stoic facial expression.

And then there was the excellent Chilean band Procession who play classic doom inspired by bands like Candlemass now just Felipe with a couple of session members as he apparently moved to Sweden. It doesn't matter cause this was an excellent gig with songs off the latest album (The Road to the Gravegarden, Hyperion, Destroyers of the Faith ) as well as off the EP (Raven of Disease, Like a Plague upon the Earth). Maybe this is not all that original but it simply works and they perform it quite well with very solid and powerful - clean vocals.

The fourth band this day is the German band Ophis who specialise in bleak, extremely depressive doom death. They started with "Expired Earth" off Withered Shades. Their songs are long like most doom bands, but they keep them interesting by adding interesting lead sections as well as lots of time changes sometimes reminding me of the legendary Disembowelment. Off the debut they played "Beneath Sardonic Skies" which was followed by a new song to appear on a split with Officium Triste, which appeared a bit shorter and overall faster. They ended the set with the 15 minute long, opening track of the latest album called "The Halls of Sorrow". Excellent band, excellent gig.

Herder was next - promoted as a stoner doom band, but it seemed a bit fast for that to me as well is the screaming vocals didn't seem to fit. I didn't care much about them so I left, skipping the headliner all together - The Devil's Blood - for whom I couldn't care less either. Call me conservative but I don't see what this band has to do at doom festival. So like most of these editions a bit of a so-so festival with a couple of really good performances but also many disappointments and not all that well attended. It always strikes me as odd that there has rarely been a very strong headliner at this festival. but we'll see what next year will bring.

URD 1.1.0 released: I Am Number URD

Gavin Spearhead — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:19:00 GMT

URD has improved the Usenet experience even further with the release of 1.1.0.

In this brand new version, specific searches in newsgroups, rss feeds or spots can be saved and quickly retrieved. The use of spots have further been streamlined. And there is a new stylesheet available (Silver) as well as an overhaul of the Desert style and many minor improvements to the layout. Furthermore the statistics have been updated to show daily information as well. And as a bonus there is improved spam control, by blocking on poster names.

Changelog:

Fixed bug in unhiding sets
Fixed bug in handling settings
Moved unhide/hide sets to quickmenu
Moved follow link to NZB to quickmenu
Added option to show statistics per day
Added hover effect to transfers/uploads, viewfiles and admin pages
Edit rss feed now authentication is a checkbox with hiding u/p fields
Changing user level in config is now saved into prefs too
Added storing of spot searches
Fixed bug in rss-feeds and groups with max/minsetsize
Fixed issue with NZB file handling in some cases
Now unique id for spots - fixes issues with marking sets as downloaded, interesting, etc
Added preview download name to document title
reset download parameters if all elements are removed from basket, such as dl_dir
added spot categories to dl dir formatting
added option to automatically clean inactive users
Added mapping spots to URD categories
Added default group/ feed for browse pages
Fixed bug in displaying category names with funny characters
Fixed issue not showing type of data in statistics (e.g. GB or kB)
Fixed bug in sorting rss feeds
Fixed showing correct tab in rss_feeds after applying settings
Fixed saving user setting on inactive rss_feeds
Fixed small bug with displaying deleting spots commands
Uploading an NZB does not refresh the page anymore
Fixed a bug in hiding spots
Added black list for posters when updating groups for more spam control
Fixed small giving harmless database update errors
Updated ADODB to 5.14
Added silver stylesheet
Updated dessert style to "fresher" colours
Search spots on poster field

Cheerio
URD dev team

We are looking still for people to test it and also for people who want write translations to other languages. Be sure to contact us if you're interested.

URD is a web-based application for downloading usenet binaries. It is written entirely in PHP, yet uses some external tools to do some of the dirty CPU intensive work. It stores all the information it needs in a generic database (like MySQL or PostGreSQL). Articles that belong together are aggregated into sets. Downloading files requires only a few mouse clicks, and when the download is finished it can automatically be verified and extracted. Downloading from usenet is as easy as using p2p software!

A strong point of URD is that no external websites are required, as URD generates its own download information. It is possible to create and download an NZB file from specified articles as well.

URD is a backronym of Usenet Resource Downloader. The term URD is derived from Nordic cultures referring to the Well of URD, which is the holy well, the Well Spring, the source of water for the world tree Yggdrasil. The old English term for it is Wyrd. Conceptually the meaning of URD is closest to Fate.

Website: www.urdland.com

Helstar and Vicious Rumors @ Baroeg, 25 August 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:27:00 GMT

A co-headlining tour from two US heavy/power/thrash metal bands that have existed for some 30 years. I wasn't all that familiar with either band really but since they seem to be classic I checked them out nonetheless. And the mp3s I heard didn't sound bad either. Turned out, the average age on stage and in the audience was way above 30. I guess the bands alternate on the tour to play last, as they switched the order here shortly before the gig.

The first band though was another really old band, Dutch, and had reformed a while back: Martyr. I wasn't familiar with them and I can't say they left a very lasting impression. The music is okay, but generally lacks punch and the vocals so-so - the tough vocals aren't all that tough and the high vocals aren't all that high and off-key. At the end of the gig the imbecile bassplayer through his bass guitar into the audience, scraping my head.

Next was Helstar - presumably with some session players (drums and bass) as they didn't look like the photo's I saw and they seemed quite young. Anyway, this is mostly mid-paced thrashy metal with some speed/power influences. Not at all bad with a lot interesting lead guitar work and the somewhat odd vocals of James Rivera. They got about 75 minutes to fill and a huge catalogue to chose from, so there is a bit from everything, not in the least from their latest album.

Vicious Rumors has a very similar style to Helstar, maybe less thrash there and very different - high-pitched vocals which were quite good. The drums aren't all that impressive, mostly rather basic really. But the same can be said about Helstar. The music contains a lot of great lead guitar work - some of which is played by 2 guitars simultaneously. And the set here too was comprised of old and new material, where they omitted any of their groove metal era. At the end the singer of Martyr pushed half the audience on stage and all (much like what happened during Martyr too). So all in all an evening well spent. Maybe I ought to check both bands out a little more on CD.

Primordial @ 013, 30 May 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:17:00 GMT

I've seen Primordial a few times over the years, but never headlining. And they don't do many club shows unfortunately, but only appear on festivals. And now with a new album under their belts, this is a one off chance probably to see them headlining in a club on this short tour with a rather peculiar package. And the weather was extremely hot that day, so the club was most like a sauna.

Starting 45 minutes later than announced, were the French Alcest. I never heard them but heard lots of them. So I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to be some rather slow, dreamy music thin clean vocals and occasional harsh black metal vocals. Not bad, but it all sounds a bit too light for me. Primordial singer seemed to enjoy this a lot as he stood near the stage sound board.

Then there was While Heaven Wept who I did hear before, but I can't remember much of that gig. It must have been in 2004 tho. Anyway, this is classic doom metal with keyboards from the USA. Like Alcest, this band was okay, but not all that interesting. Mostly mid-paced doom with some interesting guitar work here and there. The vocals on the other hand sounded way too thin for me and lacking power.

Then finally Primordial appears as the intro tune is played. Singer Alan had his face war-painted again and carried his enthusiasm over to the crowd from the first moment to the last. The rest of the band concentrate more on their instruments. I can't say that Primordial have any bad songs, so they can't really go wrong with any set list really. Naturally there is a lot from the new album and a mixture of older songs. The opener is "No Grave Deep Enough". Even the amazing song The Coffin Ships gets played, as well as the good-old Gods to the Godless. The overall sound is reasonably good after the vocals are turned after a minute or so. No encore is played so the set is closed with the more than excellent Empire Falls. This is really an excellent performance by an excellent band. The only downsides are that there is no song off Storm before Calm, and the continues asking to show hands or horns or whatever gets pretty old. But anyway, this band should do lots more club tours.

Set list:

No Grave Deep Enough
Gallows Hymn
As Rome Burns
Lain with the Wolf
Autumn's Ablaze
Bloodied Yet Unbound
The Coffin Ships
Gods to the Godless
Death Of The Gods
Empire Fall

Dordrechtdoom, 14 May 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:58:00 GMT

A new doom metal festival in a venue I had never been before - popcentrale in Dordrecht - with some interesting bands on the bill. I skipped the first couple of bands.

When I entered the venue, the Belgian Hooded Priest had just started playing. I had seen them play before (2008), but apparently it didn't make a very lasting impression as I couldn't remember it. Anyway, a bit of an odd band with an double bass (yea the upright bass - not the drums) and a singer who looks different - long grey hair, ditto beard and a blood-smeared face, dressed in a priests-habit. Oh and a scythe for a mic stand. So much for the looks. Music is mostly mid-paced classic doom metal. The double bass isn't all that prominent in the sound. Not really my thing.

The second band was actually the primary reason to go: Spina Bifida. A doom/death band from the early 90s that was long forgotten but after nearly 20 years they have resurfaced nearly in the line-up of their sole album. Only the singer is different. They played (I think) the entire album Ziyadah but not in order tho. The slow riffs rolled out through a thick layer of distortion with an odd solo here and there. The new vocalist fits in well with the rest of the band with the low grunts. They ended their set with the kind of odd song called "die". Even though given an hour they only played some 45 minutes, but I guess that's all the songs they got. Splendid gig. And hopefully they do some more gigs.

I have seen Officium Triste a dozen times before, and they never have let down but seem to fare on the automatic pilot on many occasions. Well surprisingly not this time. Opening with the set with "On the Crossroads of Souls" off their latest album showcased the band with eagerness and dedication and tight playing. The set consist of a variety of songs from their oeuvre, but half-way through there was a little surprise. Pim announced the recording of a new album and they played one song of it. It sounded a bit different but - slow, no keys and lots of melodies. So that promises a great new album. Like always they ended with the song off the Pathway, called "Goodbye".

Headlining is the UK act 40 Watt Sun (formerly Warning). It wasn't long ago I saw them in the Baroeg (with no more than 50 others). Like then they started playing all the songs of their debut album in order but it all sounded a bit better now. Or perhaps because I know the songs better. Well that is up until the fourth song "Carry Me Home". They played a cover of a song I didn't know of a band I hadn't heard of. Apparently they recorded this for an EP to be released soon. Then back to the album, with the final song "This Alone". But as a twist it was played slower, with clean guitars and little drums and bass. As an encore they played the awesome Warning song "Footprints".

Set list Officium Triste:

On the Crossroads of Souls
The pathway
This Inner Twist
Burning all boats and bridges
The sun doesn't shine anymore
my charcoal heart
Goodbye

URD 1.0.8 forthcoming

Gavin Spearhead — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:56:00 GMT

URD 1.0.8 is in the works. There are two major enhancements to this version of this web-based Usenet Download application. It will support Spots and it has a new and improved look. A preview can be found here. For the dare-devils, it can already be tried from the SVN repository See URDLand.com for more information

Power of metal, 20 march 2011 @ 013, Tilburg

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:50:00 GMT

Five bands toured through Europe under the moniker Power of Metal - all more or less power metal, hence the name. I'm normally not much interested in power metal, oh some early Helloween would be fine. But other than that, no thanx. But this toured featured no less than the recently re-united Psychotic Waltz. A progressive metal band from California who I had missed when they were active mostly in the nineties. So it was time to catch up and drive to Tilburg on this sunny Sunday afternoon.

The opening band was already playing for a while when I came in. This was the Finnish band Thaurorod and pretty much straight-up power metal. They were okay but not really my interested.

After a short time to change the stage around, the Danish lads from Mercenary came on stage. I had seen them before so I know more or less what to expect. But they had a couple line-up changes. This was more thrashy or death metalish power metal with some grunts and some clean vocals. I didn't like them before and I still don't like them.

Then it was time for Psychotic Waltz in their original line-up. This includes of course Brian McAlpin who is stuck to a wheelchair. It looks a bit strange on stage but nevertheless it never hurt his playing or so it seems. They opened with the amazing intro of their second album "Into the Everflow" called "Ashes". Soundwise it was pretty much okay, a bit bass-heavy. Their complex, technical music was executed splendidly. They treated us with a 45 minute set covering all four albums. They included "Into the Everflow" which is one of my all time favourite songs and a whole deal of songs from their debut album. Buddy (now called Devon) missed a few notes here and there, I guess the long tour had taken some effect on his vocals, but nothing too bad. They promised us a new album and a return to the stage, hopefully as a headlining club tour that time so they can play longer. But this was already quite excellent.

Set list:

Ashes
Spiral Tower
Haze One
Into the Everflow
Morbid
Halo of Thorns
Nothing
I of the Storm

Then we got the US band Nevermore. A bit of a so-so band who I had seen more than 10 years ago. They didn't impress me much then, as I can barely remember anything from that gig, except the drummer ruined a couple of drumsticks during the set and went to take a piss half way through one song. He didn't do that this time. I didn't care for their thrashy / groovy power metal which sounded quite flat and dull. Neither do I understand why people seem so impressed by the vocalist as he is quite generic.

Last band was Symphony X probably the most true power metal band on the tour, and they co-headlined. I had never heard them before - live or on album - so I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to include lots of cheesy sounding synths, wanky guitar leads, another not very impressive singer and otherwise rather boring as a whole. So I decided to leave after two songs and drive home.

40 Watt Sun @ Baroeg, 6 March 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:43:00 GMT

Patrick Walker is back with a new doom metal band ever since he broke up Warning. And with a new album under their belt, they are doing a few gigs around Europe, including this Sunday afternoon gig in Rotterdam. Not that it was a full house, maybe 50 people came to check them out.

There were two support slots, of which the first was for the Swedish Semlah. I listened to a couple of their songs on youtube and thought they were ok. Turned out that was exactly the way they were live. As with many classic doom metal bands, the problem is usually either they're just boring or the singer in not very capable. In this case a bit of both although not all that awkward.

Mirror of Deception is another classic doom metal band who were without their bass-player due to illness. This band has both problems, boring and a bad singer (or two actually). A few nice lead guitar sections break some of the mediocrity.

I listened to the 40 Watt Sun album a few times, but not too often. They sound not too different from Warning, but their are some changes. The riffs are a bit thinner and simpler, the drums less pounding and the speed has picked up a bit on average too. The band centres clearly around Patrick as the bass player stays way in the back and the drummer doesn't draw any attention. They start off with the opening track of the new album, called Restless and eventually work through every song on the album. Musically it sounded a bit thinner than on the album, probably because they're just a trio. And some the songs sound a bit too similar at times. For the encore they came back to a song I didn't know, so I guess this was the extra song on the double LP version of the album and very minimalistic. I guess that Patrick really wants to leave Warning behind as no Warning song was played. All in all a pretty good gig but somehow I felt a bit let down, maybe because I don't know the songs too well or because I missed Warning's latest tour.

Procession and Officium Triste @ Baroeg, 13 February 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:05:00 GMT

On this Sunday afternoon, the Baroeg in Rotterdam promised us some doom set. Basically this is the tour of the Chilean band Procession with two local bands added to the bill.

Opening is the Dutch Ortega who I had seen playing just a couple of months ago. So I already knew I wouldn't like them much. Not a bad band tho, but I am not into the sludge doom they play. But for the style they play, it's quite light.

How often does a Chilean band play in Europe. The only other band I can think of I have seen playing live here, is Mar de Grises. But now there are also Procession who play classic doom, not unlike big names as Solstice, Candlemass and Reverend Bizarre. They had just released their debut album "Destroyer of the Faith" which cover art reminds me more of a third rate Destroyer 666 clone btw. Anyway, it's good to see a very young band like this picking up this genre and playing high quality too. They opened with the two first songs of the album, the short Hyperion and the title track. Mostly this songs are quite simple with a thick bass sound and lots of great melodies. Off the EP they played Raven of Disease. Followed by some more album tracks including the amazing "The Road to the Gravegarden", Chants of the Nameless. They ended their set with the last album track White Coffin. Only to come back to play an encore of Candlemass' classic Solitude unfortunately without Messiah, unlike their Stockholm gig. Anyway, a very promising new band on the doom horizon. A shame really that Procession didn't headline because they really deserved it.

Actually headlining was Officium Triste, who play in the Baroeg each year and pretty much any other doom gig around here. So I had seen them often before, and all their gigs were pretty good, but on the other hand none of them were really great. They played a solid set this time too, although not faultless. The set consisted of On the Crossroads of Souls, This Inner Twist, Pathway of Broken Glass, The Sun Doesn't Shine Anymore, My Charcoal Heart, the Anathema cover Sleepless, ending the set as usual with Goodbye. Then they came back for one final song, another cover - one I hadn't seen them play, or ever heard before since it is only on some obscure 7", called Headstone of the band Chorus of Ruin. So that made it a bit more interesting. Once again a solid show, but not great.

Sodom @ Dynamo, 5 February 2011

Gavin Spearhead — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:18:00 GMT

After their cancellation at Headbanging Enschede, Sodom was back on the road for a short European tour, of which the only Dutch date was in Eindhoven's Dynamo. So after some 17 years I thought it would be time to go and see Sodom live again.

They held a kind of competition to fill the second support slot, which should be a local band. Peculiarly this was a German band here, named Eure Erben who were already playing when I entered the venue and I caught only 2 or 3 songs. I guess I didn't miss much from this rather generic band that is nearly as old as Sodom, but I had never heard of (okay they changed names in 2004 from Darkness but that doesn't ring any bells either).

The other support slot was for the whole tour given to the Swedish band Die Hard who I didn't know either. They play thrash metal with some Black metal (read Venom) elements in it. Anyway I found it rather boring.

Then there was Sodom with a new drummer. After the mandatory intro, they started out with the title track of their latest album. Then followed a set with mostly classic songs selected from nearly all their albums, only to return to the new album with The Art Of Killing Poetry. The usual songs filled the set, like Sodomy and Lust, Outbreak Of Evil, but also a couple of surprises, especially the awesome Nuclear Winter. Soundwise it was a bit so-so. The bass seem to disappear once in a while and the vocals were hard to hear. The band was having a lot of fun after a bit of a slow start. But after 90 minutes with the last notes of the mandatory Bombenhagel it all over without encores. Excellent gig!

Approximate set list:

1. In War And PIeces
2. Sodomy and Lust
3. M 16
4. Proselytism Real
5. Outbreak Of Evil
6. The Saw Is The Law
7. Nuclear Winter
8. Ausgebombt
9. Der Wachturm
10. The Art Of Killing Poetry
11. Eat Me
12. The Vice Of Killing
13. City Of God
14. Agent Orange
15. Blasphemer
16. Remember The Fallen
17. Bombenhagel

Frustrating the European directive for data retention (7)

Gavin Spearhead — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:50:00 GMT

Perhaps you know this European directive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_data_retention. It basically says that all your web requests needs to be logged for half a year (or longer in some nations). Naturally it is all for your own good. O and for terrorists of course. Naturally, it is completely useless.

Anyway there is nothing against making it all a little more difficult for them spooks. Perhaps you have heard of trackmenot (Website) or perhaps not. A firefox extension that does random searches on google and other search engines. But you need to have firefox running for it. So I decided to write a tool which can simply run in the background at all times and it works in php.

And this is crawler. It works slightly different from trackmenot. It just downloads a website and simply follows all urls from that page (basically like a webcrawler would) but in a random order. It can bootstrap automatically by fetching a random query from google or it can be bootstrapped by giving one or more urls on the command line. At exit it will save all stored urls to urls.txt which it will load on startup and start again from there. You can send a HUP signal to print the current list of URLs it has queued to fetch or send it a USR2 signal to clear the current list and bootstrap again.

Performance impact on the system is minimal. It only downloads 8k per page and tries only one URL per second. Of course these are all configurable settings.

It can be started from the command line running this command

php crawl.php

You need to have php installed and runnable on a command line. It should basically work on all php installation, but the inclusion of curl is strongly adviced. All settings are in the craw.php file.

The latest changes I made are

can broadcast all crawled websites to a UDP port so you can follow what it is doing
can send a predefined, random referrer or use the URL itself as a referrer

Some of its other features include

Tracking whether a host has an IPv6 address

Download this tool here Crawler

URD 1.0.7 released: I Spit on Your URD 1.0.7: Unrated

Gavin Spearhead — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:45:00 GMT

As promised, the 1.0.7 release is here! :D

What are the main changes you ask? How about some new themes for the default skin!

The old skin is now upgraded and is called the 'Classic' stylesheet,
there's a blue 'Blues' version
and a sandy 'Desert' one as well (still needs some work though).

Another new feature is the flexible specification of the download folder depending on category of the newsgroup, type of download, etc. Might save you from having to manually move completed downloads!

Lastly, we changed the database layout a little bit which may improve the performance during newsgroup updates / set generation.

Changelog:

    Fixed a small problem in preview
    Huge speed up of generating sets and minor speed up of update
    Fixed a bug in autodownload code
    Fixed annoying issue with white background when background image was not loaded
    Added default download delay option
    Added option to automatically download as an NZB file
    Fixed a bug in saving configuration blanking maintenance times
    Added option to set download directory in browse basket
    Fixed a small bug in getting time in the timepicker
    Added stylesheet chooser in prefs/config
    Added second stylesheet (blues)
    Replaced article count in browse - groupselector by set count
    Added set counter to categories in browse
    Added set counter to categories and feeds in rss feeds
    Fixed a bug in estimating the header count
    Removed standard alert / confirm by custom popup
    Fixed a bug in handling invalid or empty NZB files
    Fixed small bug in selecting next group, not resetting page offset
    Fixed a bug in installer not detecting gd extension
    Fixed a bug in rescheduling tasks that could not connect
    Added third stylesheet (desert)
    Ajaxified newsgroups and rss feeds pages
    Cleanup of control page
    Cleanup search page
    Fixed check for preview size so that 0 means no limit
    Detect selecting text in viewfiles
    Fixed bug in selecting year for statistics
    Option to load colours for statistics from stylesheet
    Fixed bug in viewing files with weird characters in it (like &)
    Added option to only download par2 files when needed
    Added search option to users
    Made checkboxes in admin/users work like buttons
    Fixed bug in preview progress indicator
    Fixed a bug in handling database intesive threads correctly