Sabretooth by Robin Bernstein

Beneath the fading lights, in the darkest alleyways, even gutters of the local music scene, an underground movement of quality and aggressive music looms and lingers, as an answer to the trends of more popular musical sub-cultures. Heavy Metal is unfavourably reputed for so many reasons, blatant ignorance being the most common. This is tragic, as the local talent within this sprawling genre is immense yet it resounds in venues that seem like empty halls.

One of the bands spearheading this movement is A Walk with the Wicked. Working with Dean Bailey (Sabretooth, The Horror Cast) and none other than Mr. David Castillo (Katatonia, Bloodbath) on their recently released debut EP entitled Architects of Sadism, this Groove-Death outfit is a welcome change to the silly “brutal” bands that have taken a musical dump so to speak on the heavy music scene over the last few years. A Walk with the Wicked continue to blaze their own trail as one of the tightest and more professional bands playing locally, slaying audiences time and time again with their blistering live sets.

Sabretooth have emerged as a technical yet musically gifted throwback to the glorious debauchery and sometimes cheesy meanderings of the ’80s. Fingers fly across fret boards and keys (not forgetting keys) at a rapid pace, industrial fans blow their hair on stage, and vocals soar as Sabretooth achieves a distinct balance between musical prowess and top-notch songwriting. The band is finishing up the recording sessions of their full-length at Cloud Studios, and the album will see a 2011 release.

A Walk With The Wicked by Werner Ryke

Inspired by seminal Metal giants Opeth and Amon Amarth, Crow Black Sky is a Progressive Blackened Metal band with acoustic and classical elements. Late 2010 saw the release of their first long player entitled Pantheion. The album is being greeted with big and kind words by Metal fans the world over (just have a look at their Facebook page). A follow-up release is now on the cards as the band looks to foreign shores.

Heathens by Janine Megan

Lauded by Angry Metal Guy and Lurkers Path, Heathens rose to prominence in 2010 with their strong work ethic and unique take on their respective genre, playing Rock-inspired Black/Post Metal. The band’s debut album is due in the winter of 2011, and will be mastered by organic wizard Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna, Khoma). There really is no limit for these wilderness dwellers as they churn out their nature-veiled compositions.

Crow Black Sky

With their finger on the pulse of the scene Mercury Live has heeded the call from the depths of the abyss that is local Heavy Metal. Certainly, this steam engine of resistance and non-conformity can only go unnoticed for so long. Whether you like it or not, South African Heavy Metal is headed in an upward and ultimately strong direction. Shun by most and revered by a few, there is no denying the brilliance of some (and I do mean some) of our inter-local (see what I did there?) bands. Yes, great Heavy Metal is on the resurgence in our tenderly small scene, and oh what a relief it is.

Metal returns to Mercury on Saturday, the 21st of May 2011.

one small seed made it to RAMFest 2011 in Cape Town, but barely made it out alive! Check out the footage to see what went down at South Africa’s only REAL Alternative Music festival.

RAMfest – The Cape’s Ultimate Rock Festival – spanned 3 venues this year for the first time, bringing Real Alternative Music (spells RAM, get it?) to South Africa’s metropoles. The main 3-day fest was held once again in the Cape, at the idyllic Nekkies Resort in Worcester, also home to  hippie-fests like Earth Dance. Following that, two more day-long festivals were held at the Wavehouse in Umhlanga in KZN and at Riversands Farm in Fourways in Jozi (who knew there were farms in Johannesburg!).

RAMfest 5 brought music fans more genres to enjoy than ever before, a bigger dancefloor, and hosted three equally awesome stages. There was the main carnivalesque rock stage, a grungy tented metal stage by Metal4Africa and the glowing Electronic Pyramid by Griet Events & Artist Management – all back to back with killer tracks.

The main stage hosted two international headliners: Welsh rock band Funeral for a Friend and American punk rockers Alkaline Trio… who, to be perfectly honest, were a load of shite if you’re not a 12-year-old boy.

But with the host of amazing South African acts to pick from, no one really minded the well-timed beer breaks. Without a doubt, the South African stars on the lineup stole the show, as RAMfest fans witnessed stellar worldclass performances by bands like Die Antwoord, Van Coke Kartel (below), Gazelle, Zebra & Giraffe and more

One of my personal highlights of the festival was a very warmly welcomed return of Pretoria band Not My Dog.

Just prior to RAMfset in early March, Not My Dog reunited with their original vocalist, Hanu de Jong of The Narrow, and have graced the stage together for the first time in around ten years, bringing back their notorious brand of hard rock that South Africans back in the day grew to love. Back when ‘Toxicity’ was at number one, a Black Label cost R5 and you painted your nails black… Well, I did anyway.

Back to RAMfest, Hanu and the gang put on an epic show, and if you happened to miss them, make sure you check them out out and about on their month-or-so-long SA tour.

Other big names on the main stage that can’t not be mentioned were the angel-voiced (and faced, come to think of it) Isochronous, indie band Desmond and the Tutus, the awe-inspiring, internationally acclaimed Blk Jks, Cape Town kids Ashtray Electric, Tumi (of the Volume), Sowetan rockers Ree-Burth (one of whom I got a nice little snap of below) and Cape Town electronic act Mix N Blend.

Artists on the metal stage included Sabretooth, The Dead Will Tell, Enmity, Mind Assault, Contrast The Water, Knave, Haggis & Bong and Juggernaught.

Think electric saws, Slipknot t-shirts, loads of sweaty, greasy headbanging and that move the kids call ‘the windmill’.

Down at the electronic stage were French act Tom Deluxx plus South African favourites Haezer, B-Team, Double Adapter, Niskerone, Toby2Shoes, Jam Jarr, P.H.Fat, Counterstrike, FunaFuji, Sedge Warbler and more. See the pic below for why it was called The Electronic Pyramid.

In addition to the great lineup, festivalgoers had fun in the sun in the river, splashing in the pool, browsing through the market, jamming in the Mercury tent, chilling at the cocktail bar and beer garden, and tripping mildly on space cookies. Plus there was a host of live entertainment in the form of fire spinners, dancers, stilt-walkers and half-naked performance artists all dressed to fit the festival’s really well-designed carnival branding.

(Carnival meets Chinese circus more like it – I’m pretty sure I even saw a fire dragon. If you think I was tripping, see below.)

(That’s totally a fire dragon.)

One thing is for sure, RAMfest5 really outdid itself, bringing South Africans a truly first-rate rock fest. For those who made it out alive, who knows what next year’s festival will hold?