The chain gang

Once upon a time there was a mighty Toronto trio called Goat Horn. They liked beer and heavy metal. They garnered a smidgen of underground fame, then sundered just as they were about to finish off another keg (or something like that). Anyway, singer and bassist Jason Decay and drummer Steel Rider soon hooked up with another guitarist, Ian Chains and released a well-received EP. A bit of touring later and they landed on Earache. Their first longplayer, Chained To The Nite has been widely praised (it made my 2009 Top 10) and a good crowd was out to see their headlining gig at Mavericks.

Decay sings!



Ian rocks the hair!



Chris Stephenson, also of Aggressor, rocks yet more hair. As far as I can tell from online interviews and suchlike he is now Cauldron's steady drummer.



Chris prepares to hit!



That's some pair of shoes on Jason.



Bullet-belted action!



More Decay!



The whole shadowy lot!



Chains frets!



Chains sings!



Cauldron work the crowd!



Metal action!



Scary Decay!



And there you go: They're off on another European jaunt with Sweden's Enforcer in May.

• Show reminder: Walnut Kids have a release party for their new disc on Going Gaga at Ritual; as mentioned earlier The Double Pumpers and Knives for Kids are rocking the Clocktower Pub; Growing, Daniel Francis Doyle, Adam Saikaley and We Fled Cairo are at Babylon; The Panama, Kilometres Davis, Geoffrey The Giant and The Blueprint perform at The Cajun Attic; The Woodrunners release their new CD with an assist from Eric Vieweg at the Elmdale House; Uncle Sean and The Shifty Drifters drift into Irene's; The John Henrys have a new CD of their own, they're playing Mavericks with Madison Violet and Brock Zeman Brendan Flynn (sorry, don't know how I got the two confused ...).