THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS
Return to The Mountains of Madness.
Ah, metal. The genre so many love to hate, I've often wondered what all the fuss was about. I'm not sure I believe in musical genres anymore. A bold statement perhaps, but humor me for a second.
Sure, Nirvana sounds heavier than Alt-J. The Black Keys are groovier than, well everyone at the moment. Howlin' Wolf is the king of the blues and The Stones are his illegitimate sons. It's all about the invisible line that divides one style from the next. "This is pop", "this is rock", "this is blues", "this is Metallica fuck you."
What if that doesn't matter?
Return to the Mountains of Madness, the second installment in The League of Doom's riff worshipping debaucherous night of unholiness™, made me reconsider how I catagorise the music I listen to. I am by no means an expert on metal, although I do hold a special spot for it in my heart, (my younger self blasting Iron Maiden over my gran's screeches of "DIS DIE DUIWEL SE MUSIEK" springs to mind.)
Metal is a unique beast with a lot of very different faces. The truly unique part of it however, is it's ability to overlap the boundaries of genre other styles of music lazily conform to. For example, The Rolling Stones made primarily blues rock, The Ramones made punk, Johnny Cash even made Country bearable. All of them unique, all of them incredibly gifted musicians, all of them with a million counterparts that do exactly what they do just slightly different.
So what makes a band like Electric Wizard, Truckfighters, Kyuss, or even Black Sabbath different? They don't give a fuck what you label them.
"Ah", you say, "but this is doom metal, this is grindcore, this is Norwegian Death Metal." and yeah, you're right, but you're missing the point. Genre is a malleable concept. Play certain chords in a predetermined order and speed and you get Surf Rock, or 12 bar Blues, etc. That's it, you change the key or progression and all you get is a variation of that same style. Play an Electric Wizard song, (go on, you know you want to,) and you find each one is different from the other in a very unique way. Each song is more than just a progression, or a style, it's more akin to comparing different emotions rather than different songs. It's raw, unapologetic, indifferent and yet totally invested, and that is what makes it so special, so indefinable, so unique, and so impossibly diverse.
Fuck, this is a review, better get on to the show.
I've known Ruff Majik for a while now, I've gone from discovering them online, to fanboy, to that dude that's always in the front row, to becoming really good friends somewhere along the way. So given the opportunity to tag along with them to Cape Town this past weekend, I jumped at the chance.
First things first. Mercury is a venue unlike anything Gauteng has to offer. It has a slightly smaller premises than The Good Luck Bar, with a style most comparable to the old Arcade Empire, Psych Night events. The sound quality and production of the shows were on par with international standards. 5 stars.
Psykasm opened the night. From what I heard about these dudes they haven't played a lot of shows before, but I wouldn't have guessed it from the show itself. Excellent onstage chemistry, well written original material, and a spanking cover of White Rabbit to top it all off. It could be said that a shorter set trumps more covers, and I tend to agree, but given more time these dudes have a lot to get excited for. For anther thing, Psykasm really lived up to their name. It is a rare phenomenon seeing psychedelic music integrated into metal sounds, and it's about twice as difficult to pull off as it is rare. As a lover of Psych Rock first and foremost, I dig it. A lot.
Call it 3.5/5 stars. Come to Gauteng my dudes.
The second Cape Town based act is a curious beast. MA-AT (I think that's a star wars reference?) are a trio of dudes hell bent on bursting ear drums, seriously they're up there with some of the heaviest live acts I've seen in SA. Really well crafted set, the drums stood out as being particularly excellent, along with some serious riffage on guitar and a few gnarly bass lines and solos that we only realised halfway through were being played upside down by a lefty. These guys took part in the Cape Town leg of the Wacken Battle, and Saturday's set definitely lived up to that standard.
Solid 4/5 stars and again, a name to remember, especially if they ever take the drive north.
Mad God were part of the fellowship crammed into a van for a 16 hour road trip, and man I've met few people so interesting, endearing and just plain fucking hilarious in my time following local bands. So shout out to them. (Side note. Pat, if you're reading this, Evert loves you.)
The set they played was in typical form for Mad God. They're sound is as familiar and engaging as it is unique and technically brilliant. Carefully crafted to the point of near flawlessness, and massively entertaining to see. Highlights include I Created God getting stuck in my head for days after seeing it, Tim on guitar's soloing masterclass and Jack Black esque power stance (check my Instagram highlights for reference) and the smile on Evert's face as they melted every face in the crowd song by song. If you haven't seen these guys live yet, or God forbid haven't heard the new album, thank me later.
5 stars well earned.
One of my favorite things about Ruff Majik isn't the music, the stage antics, or even the off stage antics, but the look on Ben's face at the news that they are headlining and have to postpone getting fubared an extra hour. Fucking. Hysterical.
The dudes are on the cusp of releasing yet another album and debuted another single off their newest album Tårn and the album art (as usual by the inimitable Anni Buchner of Ale & Cake Illustration) on the same day as the event. Go check it out if you haven't already, and if you miss them at That 70's Fest for their last show before moving on overseas you only have yourself to blame.
Now about that genre thing, Ruff Majik's gig is the whole reason I started off with that. At first glance, they seem oddly out of place on a doom metal line-up, to some people surely? Their style is heavy and sludgy of course but maybe you hate metal and love them? Seeing them live is the ultimate exemplification of my point.
They fit in seemlessly. They were as heavy as MA-AT, as psychedelic as Psykasm, as technically brilliant as Mad God, and on top of it all they added all the on stage chemistry, dirty riffage, and effortless, fluent style of their own that so many of us know and love.
5 stars. Call it Majik I guess.
I'm sad that Ruff Majik are leaving SA, (well, I'm sad that they have to, to make a successful living) I'm sad that my friends are leaving, that another of SA's best and brightest stars have to move on, and yet, I'm fucking ecstatic to see them thrive in Europe, to do SA proud and open doors for local bands that don't even know those doors exist yet. Most of all I'm excited for one last party. One last gig, at least for a while, with these crazy motherfuckers. If you're at That 70's Fest on Saturday, and you feel the way I do, find me in the crowd. I'll buy you a beer and we'll make the last Majik gig better than anything Europe's crowds are gonna ever pull off.
Thanks for reading my rants, as always, follow me on Instagram if for some reason you want more, and remember to support your favorite local muso this week, wherever you are.
References and Links
All Photos By Dark Wolf Photo Art:
Website
Facebook
Mad God: Instagram
Bandcamp
Spotify
Ruff Majik: Instagram
Bandcamp
Spotify
Gloom and Tomb (latest single)
MA-AT: Instagram
Bandcamp
Psykasm: Instagram
The League Of Doom:
Facebook
Mercury Live:
Facebook
Ale and Cake Illustrations:
Instagram
Facebook
 |
| Ruff Majik on stage, Mercury Live. |
Ah, metal. The genre so many love to hate, I've often wondered what all the fuss was about. I'm not sure I believe in musical genres anymore. A bold statement perhaps, but humor me for a second.
Sure, Nirvana sounds heavier than Alt-J. The Black Keys are groovier than, well everyone at the moment. Howlin' Wolf is the king of the blues and The Stones are his illegitimate sons. It's all about the invisible line that divides one style from the next. "This is pop", "this is rock", "this is blues", "this is Metallica fuck you."
What if that doesn't matter?
Return to the Mountains of Madness, the second installment in The League of Doom's riff worshipping debaucherous night of unholiness™, made me reconsider how I catagorise the music I listen to. I am by no means an expert on metal, although I do hold a special spot for it in my heart, (my younger self blasting Iron Maiden over my gran's screeches of "DIS DIE DUIWEL SE MUSIEK" springs to mind.)
Metal is a unique beast with a lot of very different faces. The truly unique part of it however, is it's ability to overlap the boundaries of genre other styles of music lazily conform to. For example, The Rolling Stones made primarily blues rock, The Ramones made punk, Johnny Cash even made Country bearable. All of them unique, all of them incredibly gifted musicians, all of them with a million counterparts that do exactly what they do just slightly different.
So what makes a band like Electric Wizard, Truckfighters, Kyuss, or even Black Sabbath different? They don't give a fuck what you label them.
"Ah", you say, "but this is doom metal, this is grindcore, this is Norwegian Death Metal." and yeah, you're right, but you're missing the point. Genre is a malleable concept. Play certain chords in a predetermined order and speed and you get Surf Rock, or 12 bar Blues, etc. That's it, you change the key or progression and all you get is a variation of that same style. Play an Electric Wizard song, (go on, you know you want to,) and you find each one is different from the other in a very unique way. Each song is more than just a progression, or a style, it's more akin to comparing different emotions rather than different songs. It's raw, unapologetic, indifferent and yet totally invested, and that is what makes it so special, so indefinable, so unique, and so impossibly diverse.
 |
| Psykasm |
Fuck, this is a review, better get on to the show.
I've known Ruff Majik for a while now, I've gone from discovering them online, to fanboy, to that dude that's always in the front row, to becoming really good friends somewhere along the way. So given the opportunity to tag along with them to Cape Town this past weekend, I jumped at the chance.
First things first. Mercury is a venue unlike anything Gauteng has to offer. It has a slightly smaller premises than The Good Luck Bar, with a style most comparable to the old Arcade Empire, Psych Night events. The sound quality and production of the shows were on par with international standards. 5 stars.
Psykasm opened the night. From what I heard about these dudes they haven't played a lot of shows before, but I wouldn't have guessed it from the show itself. Excellent onstage chemistry, well written original material, and a spanking cover of White Rabbit to top it all off. It could be said that a shorter set trumps more covers, and I tend to agree, but given more time these dudes have a lot to get excited for. For anther thing, Psykasm really lived up to their name. It is a rare phenomenon seeing psychedelic music integrated into metal sounds, and it's about twice as difficult to pull off as it is rare. As a lover of Psych Rock first and foremost, I dig it. A lot.
Call it 3.5/5 stars. Come to Gauteng my dudes.
The second Cape Town based act is a curious beast. MA-AT (I think that's a star wars reference?) are a trio of dudes hell bent on bursting ear drums, seriously they're up there with some of the heaviest live acts I've seen in SA. Really well crafted set, the drums stood out as being particularly excellent, along with some serious riffage on guitar and a few gnarly bass lines and solos that we only realised halfway through were being played upside down by a lefty. These guys took part in the Cape Town leg of the Wacken Battle, and Saturday's set definitely lived up to that standard.
 |
| MA-AT |
Solid 4/5 stars and again, a name to remember, especially if they ever take the drive north.
 |
| MA-AT |
Mad God were part of the fellowship crammed into a van for a 16 hour road trip, and man I've met few people so interesting, endearing and just plain fucking hilarious in my time following local bands. So shout out to them. (Side note. Pat, if you're reading this, Evert loves you.)
The set they played was in typical form for Mad God. They're sound is as familiar and engaging as it is unique and technically brilliant. Carefully crafted to the point of near flawlessness, and massively entertaining to see. Highlights include I Created God getting stuck in my head for days after seeing it, Tim on guitar's soloing masterclass and Jack Black esque power stance (check my Instagram highlights for reference) and the smile on Evert's face as they melted every face in the crowd song by song. If you haven't seen these guys live yet, or God forbid haven't heard the new album, thank me later.
5 stars well earned.
 |
| Mad God Riff Worship |
One of my favorite things about Ruff Majik isn't the music, the stage antics, or even the off stage antics, but the look on Ben's face at the news that they are headlining and have to postpone getting fubared an extra hour. Fucking. Hysterical.
The dudes are on the cusp of releasing yet another album and debuted another single off their newest album Tårn and the album art (as usual by the inimitable Anni Buchner of Ale & Cake Illustration) on the same day as the event. Go check it out if you haven't already, and if you miss them at That 70's Fest for their last show before moving on overseas you only have yourself to blame.
Now about that genre thing, Ruff Majik's gig is the whole reason I started off with that. At first glance, they seem oddly out of place on a doom metal line-up, to some people surely? Their style is heavy and sludgy of course but maybe you hate metal and love them? Seeing them live is the ultimate exemplification of my point.
They fit in seemlessly. They were as heavy as MA-AT, as psychedelic as Psykasm, as technically brilliant as Mad God, and on top of it all they added all the on stage chemistry, dirty riffage, and effortless, fluent style of their own that so many of us know and love.
5 stars. Call it Majik I guess.
 |
| Ruff Majik |
I'm sad that Ruff Majik are leaving SA, (well, I'm sad that they have to, to make a successful living) I'm sad that my friends are leaving, that another of SA's best and brightest stars have to move on, and yet, I'm fucking ecstatic to see them thrive in Europe, to do SA proud and open doors for local bands that don't even know those doors exist yet. Most of all I'm excited for one last party. One last gig, at least for a while, with these crazy motherfuckers. If you're at That 70's Fest on Saturday, and you feel the way I do, find me in the crowd. I'll buy you a beer and we'll make the last Majik gig better than anything Europe's crowds are gonna ever pull off.
Thanks for reading my rants, as always, follow me on Instagram if for some reason you want more, and remember to support your favorite local muso this week, wherever you are.
References and Links
All Photos By Dark Wolf Photo Art:
Website
Mad God: Instagram
Bandcamp
Spotify
Ruff Majik: Instagram
Bandcamp
Spotify
Gloom and Tomb (latest single)
MA-AT: Instagram
Bandcamp
Psykasm: Instagram
The League Of Doom:
Mercury Live:
Ale and Cake Illustrations:
 |
| Evert's expression, as promised Mad God |
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