Shipwreck Fest Gig Review - Preston

Shipwrecked Festival-Friday 21/05 Taken from Spineofgodreviews.

Providing an outright feast of metal was The Ship's Shipwrecked festival. Openers Nitronein warmed up the punters with some aggressive traditional metal. Frenzied galloping riffs dominated Nitronein's set which brought to mind classic bands such as Iron Maiden.

Subject 7 followed and lured the gathered metallers out of the beer garden and into the now boiling pub. Formed out of the ashes of Hockeymask Heroes, Subject 7 proved a much heavier prospect. They played a tight and enjoyable set which included a storming tribute to Dio with a cover of 'Holy Diver.'

Up next were By Any Means. The band managed to pack in a dizzying amount of memorable riffs into their short set. This got large amounts of the crowd moving, with the passion the band displayed leaving a clear impression on the audience. By Any Means crossed a large amount of metal genres which gave a well balanced and entertaining set.

Giving some modern hardcore were followers Sa-Da-Ko. Sa-Da-Ko drilled intensity into the mind of the audience with each song. The band were clearly into what they were doing, moshing in unison to the primitive beats. The suit and tie combos worn by the band were definitely deceiving as they proved themselves the heaviest band of the night.

If we're going to talk festival lingo then the special guests of the night were the fantastic Stormcorporation. Stormcorporation balanced prog and traditional metal in a way that you can appreciate the technicality but indulge in some headbanging. Some great guitar solos were on display and the band proved why they were that high up the lineup.

Headliners of the evening came in the form of You Will Fail. Brutality and melody collided together in You Will Fail's set with explosive results. The performance was littered with highlights such as the anthemic 'Punch Your Friend' which got the crowd going bezerk. You Will Fail ended their set with a catchy and technical instrumental which was a great reminder of why they are top of Preston's metal ladder.

Recording Metal Tips and Tricks

Recording your own material is hard, not because of the techniques or work involved but because of how critical you become of your own work.

When we recorded “zer01” I remember we spend one evening discussing EQ’s and moving one fader up and down by millimetres over the space of about 6 hours during a mix down.

Now that the albums all done and it looks like we’ll have it available all over the top download sites in the coming months, we’ve started to discuss the possibility of a second album and it means I get to look over my old recording notes, reference material and start prepping, while doing so I stumbled across some great resources and thought I would publish it on the blog. It’s easy to forget the recording process and the creative side of being in a band while promoting and treating it like a business so rather than doing one of our band marketing hints & tips blog I thought I would start to give some serious hints and tips about the recording side of things.

For our first one here are some hints and tips from a couple of my recording heroes explaining how they do things.

You can also check out some of our own recorded material on the Sa-da-ko myspace or by checking out our Sa-da-ko Reverbnation Tune pack here, let us know what you thing and we not share some of your own production tips on the blogs comments bit.

Sa-da-ko's Zer01 Reviewed by Metalasfuck.net

Thought id publish this review of our album zer01by the chaps at www.metalasfuck.net, to hear tracks click on our tag line

sickass metal from the UK. Madman has done us proud here with his views on our album to see other reviews and shananagans he gets up to why not follow his blog, you can find it on our link list

You probably haven't heard of Sa-da-kO. This unsigned quintet from North East England, whilst establishing themselves as a solid fixture on the regional touring circuit, have yet to create too much fuss around the country. But with recent radio interviews and airplay and the release of 01, it's only a matter of time until you do.

The most impressive thing about this album is the combination of musical versatility, concepts and quality production. Sa-da-kO, as I understand it, is a Japanese female name - you remember in The Ring when that scary girl crawls out of the telly and makes you shit your kidneys? It's her name. That sense of discomfort and edginess is continued with vocalist Jim, who constantly sounds on the cusp of vocal prolapse but never lets up. Single Red is the obvious choice for radio play as it has the clean breaks that allow Sa-da-kO access to a much broader fan base; think early Atreyu on steroids. But it's a fucking fool who listens to this song alone and dismisses the band as trying to cash in on a popular musical style.

Smother is without doubt one of the most uncomfortable 1min 30secs of my life. The Japanese horror theme continues as this quiet, tinkering interlude does nothing overt, but suggests pure evil. It's Takashi Miike's Audition to Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. But out of the subtle, suggestive unpleasentness comes frontman Jim on Ju On to prove that if you want gore, you'll get gore.

Ju On shows off Sa-dakO's thrash leanings with chunky chords from sIMo and Deano and a solid pace from skinsman Gregzilla (yes, Gregzilla) and bassist Rob, but there is a spark missing as the album starts to come to an end. Thankfully, final number Name Your God pulls it right back with an Opeth-esque slant to the vocals, and is a genuinely compelling listen.

Sa-da-kO are not going to appeal to everyone; very few bands do. The lack of vocal range from front man Jim may put some people off (not that I've heard George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher hitting any high-Cs recently) and adding a clean vocal to some tracks could limit the appeal to those metallers more set in their ways. But 01 shows such promise that it would be absolutely criminal to ignore it.

It's heavy as fuck, makes you bang your head, and parts of it will scare the shit out of you.

I should have some news and reviews of our own shortly, its been a wwhile since ive been able to get near a computer so hopefully ill update you all soon.

till next time....