UK’s heavy metallers ASOMVEL, featuring Metal Shock Finland‘s Larry Paterson on drums, will be heading on a 7-date UK tour this March. Check out the shows below:
23.03.15 – Bannermans, Edinburgh
24.03.15 – Bootleggers, Kendal
25.03.15 – Bad Apples, Leeds
26.03.15 – Rebellion, Manchester
27.03.15 – Scruffy’s, Birmingham
28.03.15 – The Firehouse, Southampton
29.03.15 – The Unicorn, London
ASOMVEL have toured with Grand Magus, and supported Carcass, Anvil, and Orange Goblin. A recent line-up change has powered the band forward, and armed with vocalist Ralph, and drummer Larry Paterson, ASOMVEL swiftly released Railroaded, a brand new track and video to showcase this new line-up. View the video here:
The band are currently writing their third album, which will be released on Bad Omen Records in 2015.
“A band louder than Motӧrhead, you say? Step right this way…” (Kerrang!)
“Late nights, loud amps, red eyes, sore ears, and a sea of empty bottles in the morning” (Metal Hammer)
“…pulls off the neat trick of being both utterly authentic and thrillingly relevant. The best heavy metal has plenty of dirt under its fingernails: this lot must never be allowed to work in a food preparation area” (Dom Lawson – The Guardian)
Formed in 1993 by guitarist Lenny Robinson and bassist/vocalist Jay-Jay Winter, ASOMVEL’s first drummer was ex-Cathedral/Acid Reign man Mark Wharton, but “about ten” more came and went before the band recorded their first demo in 2001. After 2007’s Full Moon Dog 10″ the power trio managed to thrash out their raucous debut LP Kamikaze in 2009 to much acclaim, ASOMVEL firmly establishing themselves as underdog cult heroes of the UK HM underground. Barely a year later, however, the band was shaken to its core when Jay-Jay Winter was killed in a road accident.
Although a devastating tragedy, Lenny knew that the band had to continue in tribute to the determined spirit of their founding frontman: “ASOMVEL could’ve died with him, but I was never gonna let that happen,” affirms the axeman. ASOMVEL headlined their own inaugural Full Moon Dog Festival in Bradford in 2011 in honour of their fallen comrade, and have shared the stage with the likes of Carcass, Anvil, Grand Magus, and Orange Goblin. Asked how the band has changed, Lenny is unequivocal: “The band hasn’t changed from the day we started it,” he asserts. “It’s something me and Jay believed in strongly; never change…ever! It’s the downfall of a lotta bands, they think they have to grow musically for some reason, but they just end up out-clevering themselves.”
When Will Palmer started up Bad Omen Records in 2013, his formative ambition was to coax a new album out of ASOMVEL, sending them into the studio with producer James ‘Atko’ Atkinson (Gentlemans Pistols) to record their second album, Knuckle Duster. “We wrote all the stuff really quick, off the cuff,” says Lenny. “All the songs came together very easy, we didn’t have to force anything. I would say it took no longer than 10 minutes to get the basic songs. We didn’t try to jazz ’em up, we purposely kept them very basic, cos we like simplicity and we like it in the groove.” Consequently, Knuckle Duster is a focused and fat-free expression of pissed off, Tanked-up, Venomous Motörized fury, but Atko wraps it up in a first class ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ production job
The band are featured on the DVD Madder Than A Full Moon Dog (a souvenir of their 2012 Full Moon Dog Festival), and have been approached to write the music for a horror film starring Dee Snider, The Calicoon, but right now writing a new album is their priority. “We got a new line-up with Ralph, who was a natural choice given that he is Jay-Jay’s nephew, and Larry Paterson formerly with Blaze Bayley, and we’re coming out ugly”
Bad Omen Records has just taken up the option for a second album of UK’s heavy metallers ASOMVEL, featuring Metal Shock Finland‘s Larry Paterson on drums, following the release of the highly acclaimed ‘Knuckle Duster’ last year. The new album is set to be recorded in early 2015.
The new line-up can be seen exclusively on the video for Railroaded which can be found below:
ASOMVEL are:
Ralph – Bass/Vocals
Lenny Robinson – Guitar
Larry Paterson – Drums
Artist: ASOMVEL Album: Knuckle Duster Label: Bad Omen Records Release Date: 7 October 2013
Tracklist:
1. Dead Set On Livin’ 2. Cash Whore 3. Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing 4. Trash Talker 5. Waster 6. Shoot Ya Down 7. Wrecking Ball 8. Knuckle Duster 9. Final Hour 10. Stranglehold 11. Hangman’s Rope
ASOMVEL. What does it mean? Whatever you want it to. Named years ago by a highly inebriated bass playing lead vocalist – the late Jay Jay Winter – ASOMVEL are indeed, as they say, ‘a dream to some…a nightmare to others’. A three piece heavy metal band from Yorkshire, they have been blitzing there way forward since 1993 when the aforementioned Jay Jay Winter and guitarist Lenny Robinson teamed up with ex-Acid Reign drummer Mark Wharton. Since then the band have had a long list of drummers come and go but the Winter-Robinson duo remained intact and admirably durable as they released the 10” ‘Full Moon Dog’ in 2007 and their debut full-length album ‘Kamikaze’ in 2009. However, on 18 October 2010 the unthinkable happened and Jay Jay was killed in a road accident. For many bands that would mean the end of everything; either splitting up or lapsing into a perhaps understandable – but destructive – backwards looking attitude that would also spell the end of the band as an ongoing unit. However, I am pleased to report, that is clearly not the fate of ASOMVEL.
Due for release in October 2013 ‘Knuckle Duster’ sees them still destroying speakers the way they started twenty years ago. The first thing that is apparent with ASOMVEL is that they are indeed familiar with the mighty Motörhead, something in the past that may have seen some people accuse them of being mere clones. Do they sound like them? Yes…and no. There is no doubt that they wear their affection for the ultimate heavy metal/rock and roll trio on their sleeves but what has always saved ASOMVEL from being a copy is that the similarity is based on pure honesty. Lenny Robinson is clearly influenced by the same rock and roll that pushed Lemmy and Fast Eddie to make some of the (in my opinion) greatest music of the 70s (yes…I speak as a HUGE Motörhead fan), so rather than copying Motörhead they share the same inspiration both musically and lyrically. Throw in Jay Jay’s Venom fixation and a desire to be a non-contrived, head-cracking metal band and you had the template ASOMVEL sound.
So that’s enough of the band’s history…how does the album sound? Well, I love it! In a way it’s exactly what I was expecting, but somehow bigger and better. The addition of Jason Hope on drums has kicked the music squarely in the ass and he does a great job of hammering his kit with just the right amount of finesse and balls. New vocalist/bassist Conan’s delivery and playing is eerily similar to Jay Jay, which actually works perfectly for ASOMVEL. It must be a difficult line to walk: paying homage to his predecessor, keeping the ASOMVEL vibe, while also stamping your own mark on a band. Thankfully, he walked the line perfectly.
The album is solid from beginning to end and if your taste in metal is for heads-down, headbanging and bruising, non-pretentious, no-bullshit tunage delivered as if the band were playing in your living room, then this is one for you. There are highlights aplenty: opener ‘Dead Set On Livin’’ has that annoying ability to stick in your head all day; ‘Trash Talker’ oozes the kind of attitude that will make it a perfect live song; ‘Hangman’s Rope’ swaggers its way to the album’s end. ‘Waster’ may well be my standout favourite, a slow bluesy cruise that smells of Special Brew and bourbon.
ASOMVEL have provided the antidote for the disease many bands seem to suffer from: an obsession for click tracks and autotune to polish everything until it is as bland as a slab of marble. Instead you have a tight band playing a style they clearly love and have also clearly mastered. ASOMVEL are what they are, and they fly in the face of whatever trend happens to be floating through the UK metal scene. I have a feeling they will always be a band people either love or hate, but to paraphrase Winston Churchill, at least that means they’ve stood up for something. Long may they continue to do so.
Album Rating 9/10
Band Members: Conan – Bass/Vocals Lenny Robinson – Guitar Jason Hope – Drums
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