Africa Hotel, Axum, Ethiopia

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, stayed at the Africa Hotel, Axum, for a few days in November 2015. It is pleasant and clean, and the rooms are around a courtyard that could be nice. The restaurant was very large, though always nearly deserted, and the food was variable. This place has potential - perhaps this is why men with power-tools were renovating from 8am to 6 pm, though with a break for lunch, which means I cannot recommend it at the moment. Efram will try to book you on some good though expensive tours to the town and the churches. Axum itself is a dismal, poor town on which some international taxpayer, probably myself, has clearly spent a great deal of money to improve the road and infrastructure, but omitting to replace the people. I do not think that Ethiopians much like strangers and I think this is the only place I have ever abandoned a sightseeing stroll due to incessant "beggars" and "guides", indeed finally preferring the construction at the hotel.

Yeha, Tigray

I visited Yeha, an old temple near Axum, Northern Ethiopia. It is interesting to see a site so much earlier than the others, though since it is covered in scaffolding (of metal rather than the usual wooden variety seen in these parts) the effect is generally spoilt. I rather doubt the assertion of the guide that it had really remained standing since pre-Axumite times. There is a small church nearby with a few unremarkable items which the deacon wanted a payment to look at, and an excavation site from which not much can be made.  My guide picked up some cooking oil in the village, explaining bafflingly "none is available in Axum - because it is such a big town".

Debre Damo Monastery, Ethiopia

I did visit the Debre Damo Monastery in Tigray, Ethiopia, not far from Eritreia. It is necessary to climp up a cliff with a rope to visit this Monastery, which is not at all easy -- in fact probably impossible if you have not done any rope climbing since junior school very many years ago. Coming down is also rather scary as you cannot see where to put your feet. Without the assistance of my guide, who managed to crack his head several times against the cliff trying basically to raise and lower me on his shoulders, I would not have managed this! The monks at the top were kind enough to charge me an extra 50bir (£1.50) in addition to the standard 50bir for a pull on the leather-assisting rope, on the grounds that I was "heavy". Somewhat exhausted, they took pity and gave me a little water from an old can, which my guide assured me was safe to drink. In fact I spent the next half hour coughing up some dustlike substance I had ingested. I asked him again if he was sure the water was alright, and he said "of course, it is holy water, kept in the holes in the rocks. They scrape off the algae before drinking it". There is not much to see at the top, except some illuminated books, indeed I was in no state to look around much. The monks were not, however, beneath hitching a lift with us on to Adigrat.

The Mekele Martyrs' Museum

I did visit the Martyrs' Museum in Mekele, Ethiopia (40bir). It is quite a large complex, with a Soviet helicopter, jet fighter and library. The museum is filled mainly with photos and artefacts (guns, radios) of the Tigray Front's fight against the Derge (Mengistu's regime). Although some signs were in English, I did not find the historical succession of exhibits easy to follow. There were some pleasant coffee places near the assembly hall.

Witchsorrow

This sorrow

Brule blesses

I did watch Brule, Sea Bastard, and Witchsorrow at the Black Heart in Camden, London, on 14 August 2015. Brule played a very pleasant if unremarkable mid-tempo doom with high vocals. It would be delightful to see them again as a support act. Sea Basterds had some amplifier problems but when they got going played a extreme slow doom with rough vocals, a bit like Moss but with more form. 

Witchsorrow delivered not unlike a stripped down Electric Wizard. Though suffering in range a little from being a three piece, they certainly deserved an audience larger than the few dozen present.

Les Hameaux de Pomette, Cazals

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being a man of wealth and taste, did stay at Les Hameaux de Pomette, a collection of chalets half a kilometre outside Cazals, in July 2015. One can park beside one's chalet - these are on a slope a few dozen metres from one another, each with a fine shaded patio to sit and read, with plastic chairs and a table. Ours was quite clean, though one evening a column of ants launched an offensive on the kitchen. Cazals is a pleasant small country town, with a supermarket, two restaurants and a bar, though a long drive from the autoroute to Toulouse or Paris. Plenty of charming medieval villages lie within an hour or two, but I could not really recommend this area to someone without a car, unless a dedicated touring cyclist.  Wifi was available down in the reception, or by sitting fairly closely outside it in the evening, where there were also a few toys and games.  The pool was unshaded and a bit short of sunbeds. The "child lock" on the gate defeated not only children. Most guests were French. In principle I would not mind staying here again, had I not already stayed here.

Richard II at the Globe

I did see "Richard II" at The Globe, London, in July 2015, and received an e-mail from the theatre asking me to share my opinion on their "facebook". Well, it is a pleasant venue which I had not visited before. Although for the full experience one would have to stand in the pit, from around the side at the top I could see well and was pretty comfortable. The play is about a not terribly effective king who has to deal with some rebels. I thought the Presence of the king quite fine, and did not find the usurpers as charismatic. Indeed, I am surprised more did not rally to the king. There were many memorable lines, though I would have preferred more rhyming, and the dialogue was too often marred by silly puns and wordplay. As for the plot, it was all easy to follow, but for dramatic tension could be reworked a bit. It started with rather a lengthy scene with two usurpers arguing, and I thought this would set up the stage for the rest, but one of them just disappeared from the plot until someone came in towards the end and said he had been killed in a crusade. People also seemed to speak warmly about England at random points for no very obvious reason. Several mildly amusing bits went on for rather a long time. I was expecting a fine oration at the end, of the victor over the vanquished, but instead it all ended quite abruptly. But I would certainly like to see the next play in the series!

Electric Wizard at the Roundhouse

I did see Electric Wizard, etc., at the Camden Roundhouse on 15 May, 2015. This venue is rather overspecified as a metal dive, though a bit short of toilets once the frontloaders arrived, having missed

A wondrous ponder

Moss, for example, who confessedly are an acquired taste (that I have not yet acquired), though the resolute refusal of their sole guitarist to play any riffs may be something to be admired. Indeed, almost all rock guitarists play slightly ahead of the beat to generate a sense of pace, but he plays either on or slightly behind, generating an overwhelming sense of ponder, and wonder - though only in the sense of "what chord will he try next?".

Stars

Following them Purson were relatively normal, with some new material moving away from a quixotic indulgence to a more driving heavy rock in the direction of the Grateful Dead... though I could not hear the synthesizer or the rhythm guitar. I understand that after an EP they are working on a second album; perhaps their third will be the masterpiece.

Cosmic plugs

Now, a synthesizer I could hear well, even too well in the shrieking bits, was the retro contraption of the Cosmic Dead, their first number a rather fast jam on Interstellar Overdrive, their second an orthodox mass in a monastery of monks battering their heads against gold-backed prayer books. How to dance to this? Yes! One must turn one's head from side to side, if not entirely round and round, like the whirling dervishes of old! This also allowed us to flummox the common moshers. Their third Sign was a glorious swirling construction of great weight, and then speed, marrying to the Floyd a Stockhausen. Well this was extraordinary stuff, though not something I could really imagine listening to at home.

Could Electric Wizard match this? Another of their curious one-off performances, bludgeoning on its way, in surprisingly coherent sound, with lurid film projections compensating for static stagecraft, weak bass and unexceptional volume. I gathered many of their acolytes wished to get high before they die. They deserve to cancel as many of their Black Masses as they like, say I!

Incineration Fest 2015

Heil Endstille

I did attend the "Incineration fest" in Camden on 9 May 2015. First up were Jotnarr at the Black Heart, a couple of men in white with good rhythm which would be the base of a good band, but need of development. Otagos over at the Underworld sounded remarkably like Behemoth, and looking the part played to a largely passive crowd but not for want of trying, with many gloriously anthemic numbers featuring guitar leads though subdued in the mix. The big advantage of the Camden festivals is that one can nip for cans of Special Brew from Sainsbury's in the breaks (or, as I did, Coke Zero). But those preferring a little Prostitute Disfigurement would have found a sound quite similar to Cannibal Corpse but without the mighty windmilling Corpsegrinder. I cannot imagine what they were singing about.

Finnish Nazarene

I caught the end of a storming set from the Keep of Kalessin, and will have to look into them some more. Then to Endstille with a more mellow metalcore compared to the Impaled Nazarene who were not unlike Napalm Death.

I also saw Funeral Throne but could not make much of them. Shining managed a superb mixture of the somewhat brutal with the epic, though the endless spitting of Jack Daniels at the crowd seemed a waste (unless it was the honey flavoured sort). Godseed were curiously static and uninvolved.

Last time I saw Alcest they sounded worryingly murky, and I was surprised they were headlining this rather heavy assemblage. But here they were much less dopey, moulding Celtic-style harmonies that would not be out of place in a Lord of the Rings soundtrack with crushing and epic climaxes, and even neat lighting effects to make a super end to the day!