National Capital Rock: On the wing

Thursday, September 17, 2015

On the wing

Things were pretty heavy last week as Ottawa went through one of its frequent "there's a festival happening somewhere else, so bands are playing a show here as well" phases. In this case Bytown was the beneficiary of Montreal's Wings of Metal. Englan'ds Amulet were playing there on the Friday, so the day before they rolled through town with Manacle and Barrow Wight. Various members of Amulet, Manacle and Calgary's Gatekrashor also played a set as Metal Hell SOS, but I arrived too late at Targ to catch that - Manacle was in mid-set when I arrived. I've seen them before at a Gladstone Ave. house show; since then the combo has switched up its lineup a bit, with Phil moving to bass and Inti focussing on guitar while Kevin sings.

Guitar action!

Phil is really going above the call of duty with his authentic 1980s getup.

Extra Phil!

Extra Kevin and Inti!

Unfortunately I completely failed to get any photos of their new drummer Struan; on to Barrow Wight (who I also saw at that Gladstone basement show). They've got an album in the works, Kings In Sauron's Service, out imminently.

Akiva frets!

Jo hits!

Andy sings!

Fretboard action!

Jo takes a stand.

On to England's Amulet; these guys like their metal in the style of the old school as it was just shading into NWOBHM, and look the part. Here's singer Jamie Elton.