Blog Post

Intergalactic Terror Tour 

Iain McArthur • 30 October 2019

SWG3 Glasgow 25 October 2019 “...the most fun you can have with aliens that doesn’t involve an anal probe”

Wind Rose
When the opening band are wee furry Italians whose identity is based on Tolkien’s Dwarves and they’re not the most bizarre act of the night, you just know it’s going to be a bat-shit crazy evening.

Despite the late change of venue and the early start, there’s a healthy attendance for Wind Rose’s set and they go down really well with great crowd participation during ‘Diggy Diggy Hole’ and ‘To Erebor’ in particular. They’ve got the look and sound of a battle-metal band like ‪Turisas‬ with a bit of Celtic influence and they power along very nicely. New album, ‘Wintersaga’ sounds a bit tasty.

Beast In Black
These guys overcame adversity to give Glasgow one of the finest metal performances of the year. Anton Kabaden is absent through illness, leaving a hole on guitar and backing vocals, but the other guys step up and absolutely smash it – especially powerhouse vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos who exhibits great range and screams his heart out.

‘Die by the Blade’ gets an especially massive reaction from a rabid crowd who sing along with gusto. It’s the Finnish band’s first time in Scotland but they’re clearly very welcome, with the whole audience chanting the band’s name between songs (although allegedly Yannis misheard it as ‘Please Kebab’ at first – check out the video on their FB page!)
Rockfiend’s review of the ‘From Hell With Love’ album is elsewhere on our Facebook page and even Yannis introduces the title track as ‘not so disco, 80s or about women’...but it kind of is! That’s not a bad thing at all as the band have their own signature style and it does not deter anyone from jumping around and head-banging with wild abandon. This band definitely know how to rock.
It’s a bravura performance and they’ve clearly earned a headline show of their own next time – soon please.

Gloryhammer
As an intro, there’s a life-size cardboard cut out of Tom Jones on the stage while the crowd sing along to ‘Delilah’. Fittingly, as we’re in Glasgow, large parts of the crowd do the ‪Alex Harvey‬ laugh at appropriate times which made me disproportionately happy.

After that, the band unleash all sorts of plastic science fiction mayhem, starting with ‘The Siege of Dunkeld (In Hoots We Trust’). It’s for the glory of Dundee but the Weegies are so enthusiastic that a bra lands on stage and there’s people freaking out all around the hall.
Christopher Bowes is the main man for Pirate-Metal band ‪Alestorm‬ but in the ‘Hammer’ he’s content to be a hooded figure on keyboards at the back. That leaves the stage to super-hero Angus McFife (actually Tom Winkler) and his legendary Astral Hammer to lead the peasant hordes on this intergalactic adventure. With all the space pantomime f**k-wittery going on, it should not be forgotten that these guys are actually a superb power-metal band. Winkler’s vocals are as tremendous on stage as they are on CD and there’s some excellent guitar shredding going on too.

The catchily titled ‘Questlords of Inverness, Ride to the Galactic Fortress’ sparks a crowd frenzy and it seems at least half of the audience start to crowd-surf their way to Inverness (anything is better than the A9). ‘The Hollywood Hootsman’ and ‘Hootsforce’ are a bit of a hoot, naturally, and there’s some wall-of-death and mosh action during the ‘Battle for Eternity’.

Honestly, this is the most fun you can have with aliens that doesn’t involve an anal probe. The show is definitely more ‘Blake’s 7’ than ‘Star Wars’ but the people don’t care – they’re into it and having a good time. The set ends with ‘The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee’ - and not just any unicorns; these are undead unicorns! Unless you take yourself way too seriously this is a fabulous night out and it’s great to see everyone leaving with a smile on their face having been thoroughly entertained.
IM

https://www.facebook.com/gloryhammer/
https://www.facebook.com/beastinblackofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/windroseofficial/

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