Photo by Bruce Cowie for Beardrock
After having missed Conan on 3 previous occasions when they were up in Scotland, I sure didn’t want to miss them again and so I made my way over to the 13th Note in Glasgow to finally witness one of my favourite sludge/doom bands. This gig was organised by our good colleagues at Beard Rock, in particular by local beard wearing rocker Darkwülf.
First band on was an unknown band to me called Skullwizard. After some initial problems with the guitar speaker head, they kicked off with a very long track of heavy doom sludge and some wild guitar playing. Their set consisted of just this one track and left a good feeling for the rest of the night with me.
Second band was local psychedelic doom three piece Headless Kross. These guys just released their second EP ‘Demises’ and they sure grooved through their set with a heavy mix of doom metal combined with psychedelic stoner rock elements all with the brutal vocals of the bass player/singer. Headless Kross got a good crowd response as well with lots of encouragements after another song was finished.
But the majority of the by now good-sized crowd came here for just one thing: a wall of extreme heavy loud doom sludge metal created by genre favourites Conan. This Liverpool trio has been building a massive reputation over the last couple of years with the help of some fantastic releases and some of the loudest gigs ever witnessed. And tonight was no different. The fact that guitarist/singer Jon Paul Davis uses 2 double guitar cabs in a small venue such as the 13th Note can only mean extreme loudness. And extreme loud it was, quite possibly the loudest gig ever played at the 13th Note.
Conan played for just under an hour, giving the enthusiastic crowd a mix of songs from their first album ‘Horseback Battle Hammer’ and this year released album ‘Monnos’.
These guys are absolutely phenomenal and completely blew me away. They actually literally blew me away as the deep and heavy distorted guitar and bass just vibrate though your guts and bowels. In my opinion Conan is at the absolute top in the heavy doom/sludge metal genre and they are a bunch of nice lads as well. I’ve been told that a new album is in the pipeline and I simply cannot wait. Thanks Beard Rock for organizing this great night!
Posted by Sander van den Driesche.
