VEXATIONS, WEE RED BAR, EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 25 2025

 A double EP release show. This one's going to be chaos. With any luck.

Line-up:

OCH VEY: Joyous Yiddish folk-punk, keeping the klezmer spirit alive. Seditious, anti-authoritarian and pro-Palestine. And quite right too. Much dancing happens.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/hmM-U5-55N0   https://www.facebook.com/ochveymusic

SHINLIFTER: Another new band for me, in-yer-face post-punk this time, angular and spiky. Attitude by the bucketful, and always teetering on the verge of chaos but never quite falling in. Joined at one point by friendly heckler Colin, cheerfully improvising along to a song whose words he does not know. 

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/lLixPecIp0M    https://www.instagram.com/shinlifter/?hl=en

VEXATIONS: Local 'off-kilter post punk' quartet giving THEIR new EP a run-through. I HAVE seen these folks before - at THE HOME BAR up the road - and they haven't got any less intense since that gig. Fierce,

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/fFwOKf8N6T4   https://www.facebook.com/vexationsedinburgh

BONUS CONTENT!

At the end of VEXATIONS; set, they are joined for a chaotic rendition of THE STOOGES' 'I Wanna be Your Dog'. Bodies everywhere, Enormous fun.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/hmM-U5-55N0

ACID REFLUX, LEGENDS, EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 24 2025

Sludge-metal, sludge-crust, sludge-doom and sludge-jazz. Sludge. Apparently 'The Kurgan' is the bad guy from the 'Highlander' movie. I know that because I looked it up.

Shamefully under-attended gig, despite heavy promotion from Ali at The Kurgan. Those of us who DO show up are treated to some good stuff.

LINE-UP:

AAC TRIO: Their first ever Edinburgh gig. Experimental doomjazz trio featuring Andrew Cairns of Acidsaurus Bong on baritone guitar, a drummer and someone playing an enormous saxophone. I expect some combination of bonk, thud and parp. I might even find out their names.

They are excellent, despite my initial reservations. After all, I like neither jazz nor saxophones. But they're less jazz and more kraut/psych, and that giant sax is more like a weapon of war than a musical instrument.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/DEpDVY9NZO4    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579736272396

FOREVER MACHINE: Glaswegian 'funeral thrash' combo. Seen them before, but not for a wee while. I remember liking them. I still do, although their sound seems to have edged somewhat towards the 'post-metal'. Perhaps they have been listening to a lot of NEUROSIS in the intervening years.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/CeregGyejXU   https://www.facebook.com/forevermachine

A.V.L: Anybody's guess whether we'll get A.V.L sludge or A.V.L drone/noise, because they can do either. Or perhaps both. 

What we get is more like a set of turbo charged sludgegrind, and it's very very good. Not overly fond of our current government..

VIDEO:     https://youtu.be/F0681vZOU3s   https://www.facebook.com/avlband

ACID REFLUX: Somewhat enigmatic Glaswegians. Possibly sludge, possibly doom, possibly stoner. Definitely from Glasgow. Turns out to be tar-thick absolutely filthy sludge. Played by very young people.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/NKAAkb7jB6o   https://www.instagram.com/acid.reflux.band.official/

Well, there you go. Friday night in Edinburgh, a line-up of interesting new(ish) bands, and only a handful of punters show up. Ali is feeling a bit disheartened, as well he might, but the band folks I speak with are philosophical about it. '2 or 200, doesn't matter, ' says the lad from A.V.L, 'If one person leaves having enjoyed the gig, then I'm happy.' Or words to that effect. Fair enough.

WOLFBASTARD, BANSHEE LABYRINTH.EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 17 2025

An evening of Black Metal and very spiky logos, brought to us by those fine people at WULFHERE PRODUCTIONS in, it seems, their first gig in Edinburgh. I have seen, I think, only one of these bands before.

Line-up:

NECROCRACY: 'A system where the dead are recognised as the ruling authority'. Can see how that might be awkward. Bleak, desolate and unsmiling black metal. Quite hard to pronounce. Zero banter.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/6vq-F6n3frI      https://www.facebook.com/NecrocracyOfficial

NEFARIOUS DUSK: Old-school black metal duo, heavily influenced by Norwegian legends DARKTHRONE  Once again, laughs in short supply.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/Zkwzewz1Prc   https://www.facebook.com/nduk666

OLD CORPSE ROAD: Atmospheric/symphonic black metal. Like a black metal soundtrack to a cheesy Hammer Horror movie about witches and pirates and zombies and zombie pirates. OTT and a bit silly, perhaps, but fun.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/McfH6SFUj54   https://www.facebook.com/OldCorpseRoad

WOLFBASTARD: The aforementioned 'one band I've seen before'. Caught them at TEMPLE OF BOOM in Leeds in 2018, and described them as 'ferocious d-beat/black metal'. Have they changed? Let's see.

That'll be a 'no', then. More death/sludge than black metal, perhaps, but still ferocious. And rude. And very entertaining. (Called the singer of ND a 'Teemu Dannii Filth' Cheeky, but not entirely inaccurate)

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/p2GUDawbMkI   https://www.facebook.com/dbeatblackmetal