We’re delighted to confirm that MARNIE STERN will be performing at this years Supersonic Festival in July – New York native Marnie is described as a Guitar Hero showdown between Don Caballero, Hella and … Van Halen www.myspace.com/marniestern1
Confirmed line up: Friday: Army Of Flying Robots / Atomized / Drum Eyes / Kylie Minoise / PCM / Scorn / Taint / Venetian Snares
Saturday: Bobby Previte / Corrupted / Diaganol / Flower/Corsano Duo / Growing / Iron Lung / Kim Hiorthoy / Light Trap / Marnie Stern / Master Musicians Of Bukkake / Monotonix / Nisenenmondai / Remember Remember / Rose Kemp / Skullflower / Tartufi / The Accused / Thought Forms / Thorr’s Hammer / Tweak Bird / Zu
Sunday: 65 Days Of Static / Arbouretum / Caribou / Chris Herbert / Earthless / Goblin / Head Of David / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / Pram / Pre / Theo / The Memory Band / ZzZ
Thorr’s Hammer, the cult doom outfit featuring Sunn0))) duo Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, have reformed for a very special performance at this year’s Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, UK. The band, active for a total of 6 weeks in 1994/1995, produced an EP and a demo, and disbanded once vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter aka Ozma, returned to her native Norway, ensuring their cult status and remaining the stuff of legend – until now. Runhild fills us in on underground metal’s unlikeliest comebacks.
How did this reunion happen?
We have talked about doing a reunion on and off for the last 10 years. Earlier I was negative, as I didn’t like new versions of bands who did ‘reunions’ years after. Sometimes the imaginary, epic memory of an old band can be disturbed by waking it back up to life – and the once handsome musicians are now old and wrinkly. But I am older now, and a bit more flexible in my thinking, and perhaps more nostalgic. Last year, Stephen brought up the reunion idea and all of us felt it was a good idea, that it, most of all, would be fun to play together again. Stephen really likes Supersonic festival and approached them about it. So it’s not like we had offers to play for big money or anything. Actually, I would like to point out that we are making no money on this.
It’s almost the same line-up: yourself, Stephen, Greg, Jamie Sykes and Guy Pinhas. What happened to original bassist James Hale?
Frankly, I don’t know. I lost touch with him when I left the states.
Why, do you think, given such a short lifespan and hardly any recordings, did the band go on to be such cult favourites amongst the extreme metal underground?
Four things. One: the music is quite good, if I may say so. Our stuff was different from other metal bands then and I can’t think of another band with the same sound since. I don’t believe we would be cult today if people didn’t enjoy the music. Two: a small teenage girl with very long blonde hair growling like a man is very noticeable amongst the bands composed of dudes in black t-shirts. Three: being in the right place at the right time. TH is a child of its time, and a cross-cultural band. We made a new mix of different genres: grungy doom, which was born in Seattle at the time by bands like Earth and Tad, together with Norwegian vocals about Vikings, which was used by the Norwegian black metal bands. To sum it up, we were into Norwegian black metal, from all parts of the world, and lived in Seattle when grunge and doom were born. Four: Steve and Greg went on to become big rock stars with Sunn0))), so people started looking into their other projects. That being said, the surprising thing for me is that the record has sold evenly through all these years. It hasn’t sold a lot, but we keep selling copies after 15 years, without any promotion or touring, which I think is quite rare. I am very grateful to the people who like our music and have kept the word of mouth of TH alive for all these years.
Are you planning to do anything more after Supersonic? Any new music maybe?
We might make some new music, I don’t know yet. TH is friends having fun; we’ll do whatever we like. But we will never be a tight band doing tours. Our jobs and other projects don’t allow it, and TH is and always will be old school and low key. I like that we are cult, it makes me proud.
Thorr’s Hammer play Supersonic Festivalon Saturday 25th of July alongside Corrupted, The Accused, Iron Lung, Monotonix, Skullflower and many more
Tickets:https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk 24 hr order line – 0844 870 0000 – Calls cost max 5p per min from BT landline
We are delighted to add a few more extraordinary acts to perform at this years Supersonic Festival, including Japanese all girl band NISSENMONDAI, a 10 piece collaborative project in the form of DRUMIZE (feat. DJ SCOTCH EGG + ex members of the BOREDOMS + TRENCHER), TWEAK BIRD a brother duo who produce heavy experimental prog and psych-infused rock (a definite one for fans of the MELVINS), LIGHT TRAP which is the latest project of Nicholas Bullen (original member of Napalm Death + Scorn) in collaboration with none other than Johnny Doom and the drummer from Una Corda.
Full line up: Head Of David (first show in 23 years) / 65 Days of Static / The Accused / Arbouretum / Atomized/ Bobby Previte / Caribou / Corrupted / Chris Herbert / Diagonal /Drumize / Earthless /Flower Corsano Duo / Goblin / Growing / Iron Lung / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Kim Hiorthøy / Kylie Minoise / Light Trap / Master Musicians Of Bukkake/ Monotonix / Nancy Wallace / Nissenmondai / Pontiak / Pram / PRE / Remember Remember/ Rose Kemp/ Scorn / Skullflower/ Taint / Theo / Thorr‚s Hammer / Tweak Bird / Venetian Snares / Zu / ZzZ
The Paragon Hotel has already sold out over the weekend of Supersonic, as such we have just negotiated an additional deal with Nite Nite hotel, which is conviently located in Birmingham city centre and in walking distance or short cab ride away from the Custard Factory. We suggest booking this asap as they only have a limited number of rooms available.
Nite Nite (20 mins walk from the Custard Factory, It’s just a 5 minute walk from New Street Station)
Quote ‘super09’ for room – Tel: 08458 90 90 99
rate £39.95 per night (Double room only) with WIFI
offer available until 19/07/09
For a really cheap deal we recommend the ETAP HOTEL ETAP BIRMINGHAM CENTRE
1 Great Colmore Street, Birmingham, B15 2AP T : +44 (0) 121 622 7575
1.5 mi – about 30 mins walk
£38/45 per room per night – includes 1 single bed & 1 double bed in each room 1-3 people per room – BARGAIN!!! works out £13 each per night. Rooms book up very quickly! £2.95 for a continental breakfast. Approx 150 rooms available.
They have free parking if you’re driving to Birmingham.
We have now released a limited number of day tickets for Supersonic Festival 2009 and put up a basic timetable of whom is playing on which day (please note there are still bands & artists to add to these timetables).
We are delighted to have confirmed some more amazing additions to this years Supersonic Festival line up, which include the unruly trio MONOTONIX, the enchanting ROSE KEMP and the latest Rock Action signing REMEMBER REMEMBER as well as the multi talented Norwegian electronic musician, graphic designer, illustrator & filmmaker KIM HIORTHøY (Kim will be both performing and showing some of his films at this years festival).
Monotonix
Monotonix are a punk trio from Tel Aviv, They formed in November 2005, set up on the floor of the club with the audience, and the party began. But the party usually got too
wild, the power got cut, the cops were called and Monotonix were banned from playing again almost everywhere. Before long, they were looking for good places to play outside of Israel — and they were delighted to find that there are more rock and roll party places outside of Israel than inside! Who knows what antics might occur with these guys at Supersonic!
Rose Kemp
Part of folk-rock heritage, Rose is the daughter of Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp from seminal, Pioneering British band Steeleye Span. Rose’s unique powerful vocal is sometimes operatic, sometimes fierce but equally haunting, her musical style is extremely difficult to categorize, folk-esque /heavy rock has previously been cited but doesn’t really sum up this exceptional artist. Lyrically her songs are compelling and their content somewhat mysterious but backed up with heavy rock guitars, oversized drums, old synths and organs, they are infectious and thought provoking. Rose’s influences are numerous but include the classic rock of Black Sabbath, alternative rock legends The Melvins and drone artists such as Earth and Om. She is also influenced by classic Black Metal, Doom and 70’s prog right through to timeless songwriters including Kate Bush and Tom Waits, amongst many others.
Remember Remember (AKA multi-instrumentalist Graeme Ronald), is the newest signing to Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, A kaleidoscope of sonic textures taking in Krautrock, drone, modern classical, found sound collage, primitive techno, gushing melodies and free noise, the debut album met with glowing praise from such disparate sources as experimental music blogs and the NME.
A Remember Remember live show can be Graeme alone with a loopstation, a guitar and a box of toys, an eleven piece quasi-classical ensemble and various permutations in between. Expect layers of echoing guitars, bubblewrap bio-rhythms, chamber-pop flourishes and perhaps a musical shark.
Kim Hiorthoy
A Norwegian electronic musician, graphic designer, illustrator, filmmaker and writer. Hiorthøy’s musical style is difficult to classify; the Smalltown Supersound website offers the following description: “On his records Kim Hiorthøy combines weird beats, lo-fi/leftfield electronics, field recordings, electro-acoustic sounds and samples, resulting in a sound all his own.” His live sets, however, differ from his recordings, with louder, faster beats and a techno undertone.
They join: Head Of David (first show in 23 years) / 65 Days of Static / The Accused / Arbouretum / Atomized/ Berg Sans Nipple / Caribou / Corrupted / Chris Herbert / Diagonal / Earthless /Flower & Corsano Duo / Goblin/ Growing / Iron Lung / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Kim Hiorthøy / Kylie Minoise / Master Musicians Of Bukkake/ Monotonix / Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / Pram / PRE / Remember Remember/ Rose Kemp/ Scorn / Skullflower/ Taint / Theo / Thorr’s Hammer / Venetian Snares / Zu / ZzZ
Weekend Tickets from: www.theticketsellers.co.uk 24 hr hotline 0844 870 0000
Polar Bear + Swordfish – Birmingham
Rough Trade East – London
Plugd Records – Cork
SUPERSONIC have confirmed very exciting news that Italian legends, GOBLIN will be part of this year’s line-up, their first show in the UK in 20 years they join the likes of Corrupted, Head Of David, Thorr’s Hammer…
Throughout their career which spans from the early ‘70’s, Goblin have soundtracked around 20 films, with ‘Profondo Rosso’, ‘Suspiria’ (a film that became the benchmark in 70’s gore flicks) and ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ that really form the basis of their legendary reputation as they perfectly showcased their vast stylistic repertoire from the prog-flavoured rock they’re best known for, through tribal rhythms, electronics, orchestration which seamlessly fitted and added to the impact of the on-screen action.
Recent years have seen a huge resurgence of interest in the band’s work, particularly amongst the alternative rock, goth and horror film communities, with very well received reissues of their classic soundtracks and DVDs of the films they worked on, plus the compilation cd ‘The Fantastic Voyage Of Goblin – The Sweet Sound Of Hell’. 2005 also saw the publication of the book “Goblin – La musica la paura il fenomeno”, written by Giovanni Aloisio, and there is even a band in the US made up of Goblin fanatics and calling themselves Zombi.
“The legacy of Goblin is vast and full of surprises, and they’ve had a great influence on how rock music can be used in film scores. And, as such, Goblin can claim to be not only one of the most important of Italian rock bands, but also creators of some of the finest Italian film soundtracks alongside the redoubtable Ennio Morricone!” Alan Freeman
CONFIRMED LINE UP: Head Of David (first show in 23 years) / 65 Days of Static / The Accused / Arbouretum / Atomized/ Berg Sans Nipple / Caribou / Corrupted / Chris Herbert / Diagonal / Earthless /Flower & Corsano Duo / Goblin/ Growing / Iron Lung / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Kim Hiorthøy Kylie Minoise / Master Musicians Of Bukkake/ Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / Pram / PRE / Scorn / Skullflower/ Taint / Theo / Thorr’s Hammer / Venetian Snares / Zu / ZzZ
Weekend Tickets: http://www.theticketsellers.co.uk
Rough Trade East – London / Polar Bear – Kings Heath / Swordfish -Birmingham / Plugd Records – Cork City
THORR’S HAMMER + THE ACCUSED + CORRUPTED will all be performing at this years Supersonic Festival, we are over the moon with the news that we’ve finally got this confirmed and can announce these guys to join the line up for what we are sure will be our best festival yet…whoopee!!! Tickets go on sale on Thursday 2nd of April no April Fools, I tell you:)
Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley presents their maiden voyage into darkeness: the cult recordings by the black doom act THORR”S HAMMER. Thorr’s Hammer is raw nihilistic doom featuring the unbelievable vocals of Norwegian goddess Runhild Gammelsæter. Presented in her native Norwegian tongue, Runhild Gammelsæter’ gutteral dark vocals are contrasted by beautiful singing creating a huanting atmosphere. Funeral dirge is provided by the collaberation of Stephen O’Malley (ex-Burning Witch/SUNN0)))) and Greg Anderson (ex-Engine Kid/SUNN0)))/Goatsnake). Jamie Sykes (ex-Burning WitchWardrums, ex-CODENAME F.A.D.G.E.) and Guy Pinhas (Beaver, The Obsessed, Goatsnake, Melvins, etc) (Subharmonics). This union is raw, low and heavy as fuck, reminiscent of elder gods HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST,SABBATH, AND VENOM. The material contains the original three demo tracks (from 1995) and a recently unearthed live recording (“Mellom Galgene”) all originally created in the stoned winter of 1994-1995….. grim melancholy. http://www.myspace.com/thorr39shammer
Corrupted from Osaka Japan THE absolute reference in terms of monolithic and experimental funeral doom.
The band has become legendary: consistently refusing interviews and photo shoots, the band has only been seen in Europe during a discreet tour in 2000 and a couple of appearances last year, this will be their first show in the UK.
Corrupted’s music is bleak, monumental and slow as a pachyderm… Extraordinary brutal riffs-drones played in a very low guitar/bass duo, as well as a drummer who maintains a brontosaurus like striking force on improbable slow tempos serve as a morbid box for a singer with an inimitable tone: guttural and abysmal at will, he declaims apocalyptic texts in Spanish (!!!). The band sometime uses long instrumental, melancholic breaks that admirably contrast with the force of their sound. http://www.dxmxtx.com/corrupted/
Formed in 1981 in Oak Harbor, Washington by bassist Chibon ‘Chewy’ Batterman, Dana Collins and guitarist Tom Niemeyer. John Dahlin was the vocalist from 1982-1984. The addition of Blaine Cook (frontman of Seattle hardcore punk group The Fartz) fit nicely into the group’s migration towards a more heavy metal-based sound. In 1984, The band dubbed their style “splatter rock,” in homage to their favorite genre of horror films. Their hybrid musical formula was distinguishable by Blaine’s unusual choking-sound vocals, Niemeyer’s muted, choppy, buzzsaw guitars, dark metallic riffs, and rapid-fire drumming. The band are also responsible for creating the wild, zombie mascot Martha Splatterhead, whose likeness (created by Niemeyer) adorns most of their albums and many of their promotional items. The Accused recorded five albums, three EPs, and over 100 songs between their 1981 inception and 1990s hiatus.
The current line-up consists of Brad Mowen (also a member of Master Musicians of Bukakke and former member of Burning Witch and Asva), Dorando Hodous (also a member of Lesbian), Mike Peterson and Niemeyer. http://www.myspace.com/kingsofsplatter
Line up for Supersonic Festival 2009:
Head Of David (first show in 23 years) / 65 Days of Static / The Accused / Arbouretum / Atomized/ Berg Sans Nipple / Caribou / Corrupted / Chris Herbert / Diagonal / Earthless /Flower & Corsano Duo / Growing / Iron Lung / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Kim Hiorthøy Kylie Minoise / Master Musicians Of Bukkake/ Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / Pram / PRE / Scorn / Skullflower/ Taint / Theo / Thorr’s Hammer Venetian Snares / Zu / ZzZ
We are delighted to add a few more extraordinary acts to perform at this years Supersonic Festival, including Japanese all girl band NISSENMONDAI, a 10 piece collaborative project in the form of 
THORR’S HAMMER + THE ACCUSED + CORRUPTED will all be performing at this years Supersonic Festival, we are over the moon with the news that we’ve finally got this confirmed and can announce these guys to join the line up for what we are sure will be our best festival yet…whoopee!!! Tickets go on sale on Thursday 2nd of April no April Fools, I tell you:)
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