Judgement Day @ Ivory Blacks (21st September 2019)

with: Nocturne Wulf, Victorius, Gunpoint X, From Tyranny and Cerberon

Hosted by: The Doomsday Report

Photos: Joanne Gray

WORDS: Joanne Gray

Marking the first anniversary of Glasgow's Doomsday Report (a non-for-profit organisation who promotes the city's local metal scene. Check them out), was the Judgement Day gig at Ivory Blacks. Featuring some of the Central Belt's up-and-coming metal bands, this was an event that I wanted to get myself to, so I could check out some of the local bands I'm only now starting to get more familiar with. Safe to say, I have a little bit more knowledge after this stacked 5 band bill!

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Starting things off then were Cerberon; a doomy but groovy heavy metal band from Bonnybridge. 

Wearing some slightly creepy face paint in a manner that somewhat reminded me of the Swedish groove metallers Avatar, there was an instantly playfully menacing feel to the band before they'd even played a note. This sense of theatrical devilishness was only exaggerated when the ominously heavy down tuned guitars kicked in and Cerberon rumbled along. Enter some death growls from frontman Conor O'Donnell, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how powerful and gritty the sound was, coming from such an otherwise seemingly unassuming figure. As the set went on though, it became clear that the vocalist was anything but unassuming in terms of his stage presence, as O'Donnell stared out devilishly out to the crowd with a remarkable confidence within such a young band. Supported by the other members of the band with some gang vocals throughout the set, Cerberon sounded rather like if Amon Amarth, Avatar and Alien Weaponry decided to have an evil and doomy jam session. Infused with an infectious enthusiasm and energy, this band, who I hadn't listened to before, was a winner for me. 

Having a listen to what the band have released so far, it appears that they played all four songs from last year's Demo EP and threw in a couple of extra tunes. Notably, the one that got heads banging and people shouting along within the gradually filling room was their cover of King Diamond's 'Am I Evil'. Aptly deciding to take Metallica's heavier take on the song as their starting point, Cerberon could barely have picked a more appropriate song to cover, as the doomy, yet thrashy evil sound was executed wonderfully here. This wouldn't be the last time a band would do a good cover song on the night, but it was certainly a great end to an awesome band's set. There's already a lot of clear confidence within this cool band and the quality of the songs and live show went to show that this sureness was much deserved. One to watch, for sure.  

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Up next were Glasgow's From Tyranny. This was a similarly young band who started up in 2017, but they had a very different sound and look to the previous band from the get go. From Tyranny are very much a metalcore band in the more vintage sense of the word, taking cues from more melodic bands such as Killswitch Engage and merging this with a more aggressive sense of heft that you may find in bands like Job For A Cowboy and Pantera. 

With this being only the second show featuring the now-permanent vocalist Stuart Carlin, you wouldn't have known he hadn't been in the band for longer with the familiarity and close-knit ties the band seemed to have with one another here. It was clear almost instantly that the band were stoked to be on stage and the enthusiasm shone out between the band members. This energy didn't seem to immediately carry forth into the still relatively sparse crowd though. Other than a few people at the front, there was a sense that the audience didn't seem too enthralled with the band's style of metalcore at the start. Calls from the vocalist for the crowd to engage and his chants of "HWFG" didn't seem to do all that much here, leading to a slightly awkward feeling to the beginning of the set. Thankfully though, the tight sound and technical ability from the band here (particular shout out to the lead guitarist's death metal esque shredding) managed to slowly win the crowd over during the set throughout. By the time the band ended on a pretty straight-up but slightly sped up version of Slipknot's 'Psychosocial', larger numbers of people were pumping their fists, headbanging and singing along to the classic tune. 

Certainly the foundations of an exciting band were evident here with the energetic performance, tight-knit feel of the band, impressive technicality and conventionally metalcore interaction with the crowd. All that's needed are some more fleshed out songs from this band in order to get more traction. Working with the new vocalist though, this will probably come in time, and I would be very interested to see how From Tyranny solidify and grow from here. 

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The third band of the night were the Glasgow band Gunpoint X. Consisting of members of the previous metal outfit Lets Play God, the band here moved into more groove-laden industrial territories. Playing metal shows in their previous band for about a decade certainly showcased a sense of experience that carried over into this new lineup though. 

Bringing back a sense of theatrics and dark humour, the band came onstage with facepaint and masks that brought the slightly spooky industrial vibes to the table immediately. The black humour was then carried forward excellently with the sound of the songs which merged the chugging grooves of bands like Lamb Of God and Pantera with an infectious sort of bounce that Rob Zombie excels at. Topping this all off was the sheer charisma of frontman Rob Doom, who was the central focus of this band. His snarky black humour was confrontational in just the right amounts, fitting in with the aesthetic of the band onstage perfectly. In other bands, the slight smirk when delivering deadpan insults to the crowd may come across as arrogant, but within this in-your-face type of environment, the confrontational attitude came across as funny and typically Glaswegian. It also had the effect of giving the audience a laugh and getting them riled up in equal measures as well. Can't do much better than that really. Throw in some sample tracks, synth lines and some cool light effects alongside this and you clearly have a band that are already trying to deliver am impressive visual show which matches their industrially leaning sound. This was definitely a cool set to watch, and one of my favourites of the evening.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the band can continue to build up this stage set up, and build upon an already great live performance. Likewise, I hope that Gunpoint X release some music online at some point, as I would really like to check out their songs again. Until then, I'll need to just see them play again. Very fun band, and one I had a blast watching that night.  

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It was then over to the similarly seasoned heavy metal Glasgow group Victorius. Forming back in 2007, the band seemed to have garnered a considerable fanbase throughout their time of playing in the city. This was confirmed by looking around the room here and seeing that there was not a hell of a lot of space (or indeed cool air at this point) left in the venue, and more than a few people wearing Victorius merch. 

As the band kicked off, it wasn't hard to see why the crowd for the band was sizeable. Powered by galloping drums, bass and dual lead guitar lines, this was very much an old-school heavy metal band at work here. With the addition of some James Hetfield like vocals from guitarist and singer John Brandon, you had a band here that was like Iron Maiden meets Metallica in the most direct way possible. Now, I love both of those bands, and what they do separately, but I wasn't too bowled over by the straight up merging of the two classic bands' sounds here without adding much else to proceedings. Clearly, this was more of a personal taste thing rather than the band not being up to scratch though. The crowd seemed well on board with the nostalgia that was being garnered onstage, and the band were clearly giving their all to a technically strong and enthusiastic performance. Other than the sound being slightly off with the double bass drum heavy sound overpowering sections of the lead guitar and bass lines, I can't really say anything negative about the actual performance of the band. The sound of what was being played just didn't really resonate with me particularly.

Guest appearances from Nocturne Wulf's lead guitarist Chris Horne, and (from who I think was) the son of the rhythm guitarist Stewart Kennedy on bass proved to be the most interesting parts of the set for myself, and helped keep me engaged more than I otherwise may have been. It was certainly cool to see all the bands on the bill here helping each other out and the sense of cooperation was palpable onstage. Overall, Victorius weren't so much my bag musically, but this was still an impressive band. Selfishly speaking, I would like to see the band add something a little bit different to their sound. Judging by the response of the crowd around me, the band really don't need to do that much else to get people revelling in that good old heavy metal nostalgic pleasure though. Fair play to them. 

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Continuing that theme of nostalgia were the headline act of the evening, Nocturne Wulf. Despite the Glasgow band only forming three years ago, Nocturne Wulf have been playing shows quite relentlessly across the city, and have garnered a bit of a buzz around their music. With their recent first album NW under their belt, the band also now have plenty of material to play for audiences. And that's exactly what they did during this 45 minute set. 

Like the band before them, Nocturne Wulf take huge cues from classic heavy metal, with Metallica being the primary sonic influence to their songs. As the band launched into their set, it quickly became clear that this was a harder edged take on this style of metal though, as the booming and chunky thrash riffing battered out of the speakers. There was more than a few instance where some serious Judas Priest and Slayer influences filtered through in the more raucous riffing and punchy vocal delivery from vocalist Bob McDougall. Particular shout out to the frontman here for clearly pushing his voice as far as possible to hit some Halford-esque squeals (particularly found in 'Necrodancer'). Throwing in some melodic clean singing amongst this, I couldn't help but be impressed by the scope of the vocals here. 

Perhaps more impressive was the band's ability to write a good hook here. Although I don't have the setlist to hand, songs like 'Gunslinger', 'Barbarian' and 'Troll Hunter' stick in my head because of the memorable singalong sections. The standout moment though was when the band played 'The Druid' , a more melodic epic track that reminds me of Metallica's 'Fade To Black' and some of the more recent Idle Hands material. Songs like this one suggest that there is scope for this band to reach big heights in the future, and I look forward to seeing how they build on this in the future. Unfortunately, I didn't get to catch the end of their set as I had to leave early, but I've heard post-gig that the band ended their set with a saxophone performance and a cover of Motorhead's 'Overkill'  alongside members of Victorius. Wish I'd stayed a little longer to catch that one. 

Overall, this was an impressive performance from a band whose album showed some potential for me upon first listen. I thought the band were even better in the live environment. Although the room had emptied slightly after the band before, Nocturne Wulf still played like the room was packed, and the sound was huge for a band of this size. With some pretty big tunes, a great energy and impressive performance onstage, alongside an increasingly rowdy crowd as the set went on, I really enjoyed the set here. I will definitely need to watch this band again when they are no doubt playing another show in town in the near future. If they keep building on their songs and live show, big things could definitely be ahead for Nocturne Wulf.  

And this brought together this night of celebration for Glasgow's local metal scene to a great conclusion. Although I enjoyed some bands more than others, I had an awesome time overall, and will be keeping an eye out on what comes next for these stylistically distinct bands in the near future.  Overall, this was a great night out which showcased the variety and talent within Glasgow's metal scene, as well as the success the Doomsday Report has had in the last year. 

Here's to next year, and beyond! 

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