Was this really 2011, time flies but this somewhat incendiary set is still fresh in the memory as is the oft mentioned backdrop of the time when it took place, just after England was in the grip of completely misdirected civil unrest. At the time of reviewing the show I said that October File had played one of the best sets of the festival full of vitriolic hate and energy. Watching this now it is easy to stand by my comments.
This nicely packaged dual CD and DVD presentation is a limited edition release of 1000 and is one that is the perfect stopgap whilst we wait for new material. We do actually get a bit of a taster for this too in the form of the first airing of new track ‘I Fuck The Day’ a number with a hefty spiralling guitar intensity driving it along with the hoary indignant raw sounding yells of vocalist Ben Hollyer riding roughshod over the top.
The group have just about broken my opinionated rule that a band should not release a live album until they are ten years into their career but the 40 minute show is testament to the power that they have coursing through their veins over the excellent albums ‘Holy Armour From The Jaws Of God’ 2007 and ‘Our Souls To You’ 2010, material from which this comprises. Songs like ‘Crawl’ and ‘Falter’ are anthem etched hate fests and ‘Dredge’ and the battering intense ‘Isolation’ round this short sharp 40 minute live show off in a fashion that left me thinking well I might as well go and see Devin Townsend now but follow that seriously….
The DVD is really well shot and the lighting of the show was particularly impressive as is shown here. I at first bunged the CD on but whilst it is great getting the option to do so the necessary atmosphere is only really going to be found by going for the visual aspects of this. Displayed in a nice thick, hard book style package the two discs have a neat booklet with striking artwork and stark black and white photos from the set backing them up. Perhaps trying to outdo other bands on the same label in the preposterous title stakes (Meads Of Asphodel and Voices take a bow) the new album entitled The Application Of Loneliness, Ignorance, Misery, Love and Despair – An Introspective Of The Human Condition’ is scheduled to have us all saying “you what” when it drops in the Spring.
(Pete Woods)
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