The majesty of gothic

WHEN one hears the word gothic in a modern popular culture sense the image comes of a pasty skinned obsessive who spends too much time considering the whys and wherefores of vampiric lore.

But, of course gothic goes well beyond that, in terms of history and literature. But in terms of architecture gothic is always associated with a certain type of building...which brings us to a very, very tortuous way of reminding y'all that Cathedral are playing at The Limelight tomorrow night.

Backed by Church of Misery and The Gates of Slumber, you also need to remember that the door time here is 8pm, and there are a very few tickets left at the reasonable and downright wonderful price of £18.50.

Last time Cathedral's Sabbathy take on dark gothic metal doom (and I mean gothic in terms of literate, aware and ever so slightly 'knowing' wit) brought their rif-laden groove to Belfast was supporting HIM. Then the fairy-winged teens simpy didn't get Cathedral. A small few of us amongst the crowd did 'get' Cathedral including one hilarious moment when a lone metaller scattered kiddies to the wings with an impressive extended circle headbanging flailing away to 'Wytchfynder...'

Cathedral gigs come with a health warning...do not under any circumstances try to match your metal knowledge with Lee Dorrian! A friendly guy, yes, but he does know his rock, punk and metal in almost encyclopaedic depth.

He also, for me sums up an attitude that reflects what metal should be all about. The more journos and ignorant fans try to pigeonhole Cathedral into a genre or sub-genre Dorrian declares "We're a metal band. That's all - a metal band". Not just any metal band though!

Vader, Blaze Bayley, Dan Reed, Cathedral, Deicide etc etc

THANKS to everyone who has posted/sent their views on Machine Head - I'll be amalgamating these for an opinion piece tomorrow, but in the meantime there's Vader tonight, Blaze Bayley on Thursday, Dan Reed on Saturday (still tickets available for the bus from Belfast). Again, as part of the experiement email me details.

And look out for further details about the Cathedral and Deicide gigs and other gig news.

Right off to see if the ringing in my ears has eased any \m/