Vinnum Sabbathi/Terror Cosmico/Son Of Boar/Void Maw -
Corporation, Sheffield, Tuesday 2nd May 2023
A Tuesday night, especially the day after a bank holiday, was never going to pull in a mass audience, but 100 or so hardy rockers are here at Corporation to witness four interesting bands.
Using the smaller stage at Sheffield’s premier hard rock venue, the first support band of the night is Void Maw. They are a three-piece sludge band from Yorkshire. They only formed a year ago and played their first ever gig in July at Sheffield’s Record Junkee. They have since played a handful of local gigs and released their debut EP – 'The Abandoning'.
As often happens at the start of a night, there are only a few people stood at the front of the stage, and the Singer/Guitarist, Luke Holden scares the hell out of the stragglers, (like me), pointing and shouting at them to get closer.
The band are loud and the singer has a bellowing voice that Bruce Dickinson would envy. At one point in a song he displays the power of his vocal cords by singing without the microphone. He also jumps into the crowd near the end of the set and does some wild head-banging with his long-flowing locks.
It was a strong set to say they are a relatively new band. The songs were nothing special, but competent enough. The band, especially the scary singer, made for a memorable start to the night.
Up next is another Yorkshire band, Bradford to be precise, called Son Of Boar. They have been going since 2018 and all the five guys have played in various other groups. The experience shows.
As soon as they launch into their first song, I can tell they have something good going on. It’s groove-driven metal, similar to Pantera/Down.
The Singer, Luke Oliver, has a deep growling vocal style a la, Philip Anselmo. Like the Pantera vocalist, he can also hold a tune. Playing hard-hitting songs such as 'All In Your Head' and 'Snakes And Daggers' taken from their self-titled debut album.
This is a band worth both seeing live, and sticking on at home after a hard day’s work/education/pub crawl, (circle as applicable...)
The third and final support act is Mexico City’s, Terror Cosmico. They are an instrumental duo (Guitar & Drums) who formed in 2012 and have released four albums – the most recent being 2022’s 'Miasma'. They are given a warm and enthusiastic welcome by the Sheffield crowd.
The accomplished guitar playing by Javier Alejandre and dynamic drumming by Nicolas Detta is both atmospheric and at times heavy and aggressive. Like a soundtrack to a movie, the music takes you on a journey of emotion and imagination. Some in tonight’s crowd seem to be mesmerised by the songs and it is nice to see people dancing and having a fun time.
My only grouch is that the band is given 45 minutes for their set and the night is running behind schedule anyway. Half an hour, like the other two support bands would have been more appropriate.
It only leaves less than an hour for tonight’s headliners Vinnum Sabbathi, all the way from Mexico City via the stratosphere to show us what they can do. This is the first time they have played Sheffield in six years when they were here on the Gravity Works tour and are happy to be back.
It is the third night of the UK leg of this European tour. They have played Bristol and Leeds, and after tonight move on to Hull and then London. It is then onwards to the likes of Germany and Belgium for more shows with Terror Cosmico in support.
The Vinnum guys have been manning the merch stand for most of the night chatting to fans. They make the short journey through the dark space of Corporation to the stage amongst a sea of cheering music lovers.
The band have been dubbed ‘Space Rock’ and their whole premise is Psychedelic Rock Music with song themes about the mysteries and wonders of astronomy. Instrumental tracks such as 'HEX1: The Mastery Of Space', 'Quantum Determinism' & 'The Probe B' are played. It is like science fiction set to music.
The band, formed in 2012 and is made up of Alberto Tamayo (Guitar), Samuel Lopez (Bass), Gerardo Arias (Drums) and Roman Tamayo, (Samples.) The latter band member has a laptop that plays extracts of famous people such as Carl Sagan talking about space travel.
It works well on the band’s recorded songs such as 'In Search Of M-Theory', adding a sense of narration to the music in the absence of a vocalist. Tonight, however, it wasn’t very effective. I don’t know if the samples were not mixed right, but they were not loud enough above the other instruments for the actual words to be heard very clearly.
The band nonetheless are received well and have a sizeable number of genuine fans here tonight. We are treated to a new song called 'Hex Neri Vela' which is about the first Mexican astronaut in Space. He flew aboard a NASA space shuttle in 1985.
It has been a worthwhile excursion to the Corporation and you must give credit for the band, and all those involved, to travel from Mexico to tour in Europe. While Vinnum Sabbathi didn’t blow me away tonight, I will definitely check out their two albums - 2017’s 'Gravity Works' and the 2020 release - 'Of Dimensions and Theories'.
Headphones on in a darkened room, I think it would be a wonderful journey through space and time.
Review By Saul Bennett
Photographs By Alex Holmes