Live & Dangerous: VIking Skull, The Mercy House, Lifer, 2 Sick Monkeys

Viking Skull, The Mercy House, Lifer, 2 Sick Monkeys (Bogiez Cardiff)

2 Sick Monkeys

This two piece punk band brings traditional punk noise using just a bass a drum kit and both of their voices. Drummer Fred Nus is the silent partner and provides the cleaner vocals but it is Bassist Pete Tower that is the vocal point as the man is completely mental, spouting funny offensive verbal diarrhoea between the songs and announcing that it was "Dave's birthday, so wish him happy Christmas". As for style well the songs were short, punchy, go-for-the-throat Punk that revolved around lyrics against the rich, the scum and c*nts all around the world. The band then introduced their cover of the most punk band ever (Green Day's American Idiot) and mixed it with a bit of Napalm Death before finishing with their own track lovingly titled Fuck Off! Great fun band with real energy well worth seeing again. 8/10

Lifer

Not to be confused with the American Nu-Metal band of the same name Lifer are a Welsh Groove Metal band that bring the crushing heaviness of Down and Sabbath and mixes in some Thrash. Despite this many of their songs sounded very samey and they relied on aggression rather than songs to hold attention. Well played but not really my cup of tea. 6/10

The Mercy House

A alt/grunge/stoner band The Mercy House are a well drilled, well-oiled machine that play very well with some excellent vocals and reverb drenched guitar playing in the style of Soundgarden. However they did seem to be a band out of place on this bill as a few of their tracks were slow, brooding affairs and the others were stomping alt rock, much of the crowd went out for a break as they played, which was bad form however they were very much on the wrong bill, despite being a good band in general. 7/10

Viking Skull

Riff heavy biker rock is what you get with Viking Skull and that is what their set was filled with. Picking tracks mainly from their last two albums and showcasing some from their new album they played with furore and bluster. Vocalist Roddy Stone roared through the opening with the one-two punch of Crank The Volume and Beers, Drugs And Bitches they immediately got the already partisan crowd onside. New track Five Fingers Of Steel was followed by the blistering Born In Hell (which still has a fantastic riff). The set ended with You Can't Kill Rock And Roll and the classic Skull Heaven. You know what you are going to get with Viking Skull and that is a beer fuelled good time, and that's exactly what they provided in spades. 8/10