Travels With Nate

We all know that many people in the music industry enjoy a good drink. Rock stars are famed for their overindulgence causing them to throw TVs out of hotel windows, and are sometimes sadly victims of addiction. Over the last couple of years a trend in the UK beer industry has started - musical artists collaborating with breweries to create a beer that relates to their band, more often than not it shares the name with one of their albums or songs. The first I heard of this was that a company called Signature Brew popped up and their whole deal is that they're essentially gypsy brewers (for the uninitiated, this means that they don't have a brewery but instead go to other people's brewery and wreak havoc) -  who solely work with musical artists to specifically create a beer with them. I mean, they've worked with some pretty diverse and high profile artists like rapper Professor Green with whom they created a hoppy pale ale (very delicious), to folk/punk singer Frank ...

I thought it was about time I wrote a generic post about all 3 subjects I've aimed (and sometimes failed) to cover on this blog because, well, I've been thinking. We all have different tastes. I like one thing, you like another. You may have liked something, and dislike it now, and vice versa. I was thinking how our tastes change and want to share with you some of the things I previously hated but now love. Booze: Back when I first got into good beer, I hated stouts. Yup, you heard that right. I'd try stouts but I always found them way too strong for my tastes, especially considering I used to drink really milky coffee. Then about a year and a half ago my boss started only buying UHT milk for the office, which is fucking disgusting, so I decided to start drinking black coffee. I enjoyed it, despite it just being Nescafe or whatever and remembered "Hang on, stouts are like coffee. Maybe I'll like them now" so I started trying more and more, and I fell in...

8 Foot Sativa is a 5 piece heavy metal band from New Zealand and when this album hit my inbox, I thought I knew what to expect as I loved this band years ago. I was expecting pure Nu-Metal, but that's not what I received, and it's definitely not a bad thing. You see, what I've heard from 8 Foot Sativa previously has been quite light. Not exactly chart friendly, lyrically but certainly musically. Again, this is no bad thing. The Shadow Masters brings something new to the table. There's a lot of metalcore in the heaviness of Anatomy of Hate  and Never Abide  with massive crushingness and intense lyrics, yet there are fairly light hearted proggy singalong songs like Shadow Master  and Feeding The Weak . This album is taking a completely different angle, and proving that a band doing something different isn't a bad thing. Lyrically, 8 Foot Sativa were always quite strong and intense but musically and production quality was lacking, and The Shadow Masters  proves j...

Because I could never write anything as awesome as Lisa can, so I'm not even going to tell you about Nekrogoblikon  other that they're from L.A ; I'll let the first part of Lisa's press release do the magic: "Once upon a time there lived a lonely Goblin, confined to a life of solitude and banished by his peers for having a hideous visage. What this goblin wanted more than anything in life was bitches, mountains and mountains of steaming, sweating, thrusting bitches. But that was in a time long passed, when language was more raw and colourful and anyone reading this story in 2013 knows that we can’t say that word, so we’ll proceed onwards by saying the goblin wanted ladies, lots of lovely ladies. One thing the goblin knew, was that to secure the attention of bit…sorry women, he had to become a rock star. Women LOOOOVE rock stars. Having seen that men with similar visages to him such as Rod Stewart, Chad Kroeger, Marilyn Manson and Lars Ulrich could pull so...

The album starts out with a heavy yet groovy stoner rock groove, leading into some soothing yet aggressive vocals. Later on in the song, the music turns quite mesmerising. The Augur is how you start an album correctly. Burdened is up next and starts with vocals leading into melodies that kinda fuck with your head a bit when paired with heavy basslines and almost marching band style drumming. Apparitions is chilled out the whole way through but with the heaviness of the guitars just sticking around in the background. The album continues with this fast and heavy yet slow and melodic progressive stoner groovy ting. It’s great. There’s something for everyone in there! It’s instrumentally skilled, vocally skilled and the lyrics are great. I seriously can’t stop listening to it. The whole album is like if Devin Townsend were to have a three-way with Tool & Mastodon. Contender for album of the year? Hell fucking yes! Sleepers Awake – Transcension is out on 17 th of June, b...

Fuck me. Time flies when you're having fun. It's been just over a year since I started Booze, Beats & Bites. When I first started my blog, I didn't think anyone would read my shit, much less enjoy it. I'm still not sure why the fuck you guys read my blog or enjoy it in all honesty. Answers on the back of a postcard please. Anyway, over this past year I've met some really fucking awesome people, drank some awesome beers, drank some dreadful beers, pissed people off, eaten delicious food and listened to some awesome music. I've decided to mix things up a bit now, however, with regards to my BOOZE and BITES posts. BEATS will pretty much stay the same with interviews and reviews. But let me explain my beery & foodie plans... BOOZE: You would've noticed already that my last few beer reviews have been collaborative weird reviews with my good friend Jay . Well, I'd quite like to continue this theme of not reviewing the same beers as 90% of ...

I know I’ve already done my golden pints and golden records but I thought I’d use this post to sum up some things that weren’t included. I ended 2011 at my mate Ben’s house and my first beer of 2012 was Estrella Damm. I love Estrella. This year has been a weird one. There have been highs and lows. I’ve made some awesome new friends and pissed some people off. I’ve had some awesome beers and I’ve had some truly dreadful ones. I started this blog in March and didn’t think anyone would bother reading it but 9 months on, I’ve clocked up over 31,000 views and have 1000 followers on twitter. I honestly don’t know how I’ve built up such a following, considering I’m one of the angriest and most offensive motherfuckers you’re ever likely to encounter. I really couldn’t have done it without the bands, record labels, PR companies, breweries, bars, pubs, other bloggers and above all, you bastards. My readers. You’re fucking awesome. Thank you. Here’s to an even more awesom...

2012 is almost over so I figured I should do a blog post about my favourite musical type things of the year. Most of them have been easy decisions which was quite nice.

I've been struggling lately. Struggling with life and struggling to write. I've been doing loads of thinking and overthinking and I'm not sure what the fuck is happening. However, today is Sunday. Sunday is the one day I can sit back and not give a fuck. I am really hungover. Last night I drank way too much bourbon and passed out on someone else' sofa whilst watching Ghostbusters. I'm quite fond of this person but that's irrelevant because today I have stopped giving a fuck. Picture this scene. It's Sunday. It's cold. I'm at my computer. I'm smoking lots of cigarettes and tweeting shit. I want a beer, I'm hungry and I'm listening to music.

On 17th September, if you remember, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonny Davy from Job For A Cowboy . Afterwards, I thought it would be rude to not go and see them live. They were supporting Dying Fetus, along with Revocation and Cerebral Bore. I first saw Job For A Cowboy live in 2007 I think. They were supporting Megadeth at the UEA in Norwich which is a fucking big score for quite a young band. In that case, they had a massive stage to work with and managed to pull it off brilliantly. I was quite excited to see them again, to be honest. Just to see how their live performance has progressed over 5 years. I'll start off by saying, they were playing in The Studio at The Waterfront which is pretty small. The stage is absolutely tiny. It was my first ever gig up there; I'd only previously been there for Wraith club nights before, all other gigs I've seen at The Waterfront had been in the main Auditorium. Job For A Cowboy managed to work with a small stage incred...

Anuryzm are a 5 piece progressive metal band from the sandy deserts of Dubai. Yes, you read that correctly; a metal band from Dubai. Originally self-released in their homelands of the Middle East in October 2011, Anuryzm teamed up with Melodic Revolution Records in order to get their debut album Worm’s Eye View more widely distributed. Worm’s Eye View was re-released in July 2012 and has already had a mushroom cloud of success. So, what of the album?

Foreign Beggars are a critically acclaimed hip-hop group that is comprised of Orifice Vulgartron, Metropolis and DJ Nonames. I want to start off with saying right off the bat that they are my all time favourite hip-hop group. I’m not going to lie. Ever since I first heard Stray Point Agenda a few years ago, I have loved them. What enhanced my love and respect for them is that they’re massive heavy metal fans, especially Napalm Death. Foreign Beggars are a rare example of a hip-hop group that doesn’t do the same thing on every album. They are constantly progressing and trying new things. Is there such a thing as progressive hip-hop? I don’t know but that’s what Foreign Beggars are. Over the years they’ve gone from pure U.K. hip-hop vibes, changing again and again to keep themselves and their fans interested. If you’ve been following them lately, you would’ve seen them do collaborations with some major electronic and dubstep artists such as Skrillex & Flux Pavilion....

Last Thursday I had the opportunity of interviewing Chris & Elliot from the fearsome pirate metal Alestorm. See below for a laugh...

To many people, Devin Townsend is regarded as the king of progressive metal music and I can't disagree with them. He has been making progressive metal both as solo projects like this one and with bands like Strapping Young Lad for almost two decades. Whenever Devin's name is credited to an album the immediate thought for fans is "What is this crazy bastard gonna do next?"

It’s been a while but last night I had the opportunity to speak with Jonny Davy from a death metal band called Job For A Cowboy. This is the first face to face interview I’ve done in my own format since I’ve had Booze, Beats & Bites! Enjoy... BOOZE: What are you currently drinking? Whiskey. Jameson. What was your first ever alcoholic drink? How'd that go for you? My uncle gave me a taste of peppermint schnapps when I was a kid because I was curious to try it. It was disgusting! One beer. One Spirit. One Non-Alcoholic drink. Go: Blue moon; Yeah, I know it’s a pretty standard answer but it’s really refreshing and the slice of orange on the edge of the glass is a nice touch. Whiskey, Jameson. Water is pretty much it. What's the most absurd thing you've done while drunk? We were on tour with Behemoth, and I was sleeping above their guitar tech. Woke up, blacked out and started peeing on his curtain. He was asleep, woke up, opened...