Winter Rocks -
Corporation, Sheffield, Friday 2nd December 2022
Now if you want the darker, sinister sides of your mind or someone else's mind come to life on a stage then look no further than Ward XVI who do exactly that. The scarier parts of your thoughts or maybe a reality asleep or otherwise. An emotional or mental issue becomes something that is illustrated into a Rock & Metal Show in a surreal and theatrical way that is both scary, macabre and overall downright disturbing.
A seven song set ensues that is packed with well-orchestrated choreography that to me almost comes across like a twisted modern day adaption of Alice Cooper's 'Welcome To My Nightmare' with props &extras alongside a spooky and uneasy ambience of unruly aesthetics.
They open up with the bedtime story of 'Mister Babadook' that begins as a spoken word that turns into doomy gothic Metal; the evil demonics of 'Burn The Witch' with it's fabulous vocal soaring and exquisite guitar soloing or 'Cry Of The Siren' with it's pummeling drum work.
They take us into the tales of loving bodies in bags and eating internal organs while finishing with a large giant of a human looking creature drinking its chosen alcoholic beverage during the French accordion styled 'Toybox' who parades around and dances with members of the audience. To say they are extremely memorable would be somewhat of an understatement.
Now the headliners tonight have gone from strength to strength in the last year or two and appearing to be featured at every other festival over the past few months and then some. I first clocked them in one the tents at Bloodstock in 2021 in the afternoon, with myself and Steve Cooper looking at each other and thinking that these guys could get big if they have the right hook-ups and contacts. Now look where we are...
It's glam-with-a-punk-attitude brilliance from Bournemouth that many of us may just think as one of those seaside towns and nothing more. South Of Salem have certainly put the place on the Heavy Metal Map. They take their tongue-in-cheek horror sounds and sock them to us good and proud in a hard-edged musical and lyrical way that prevents them from coming across too cheesey and instead forever always relevant, in-your-face with plenty of pzazz to fill the room.
They mean business and 'Let Us Prey' from the get-go and then go on to entertain us with cuts like the bouncing 'Severely Yours'; 'No Plague Like Home# about being trapped at home in Lockdown, the tragic love story that is 'Dead Hearts Don't Break' or the more commercially sounding 'Pretty Little Nightmare'.
We are treated to the angsty but harmonious number 'Cold Day In Hell' before exposing everyone to a new song which turns out to be the last tune of the night. The boys certainly made some new fans and friends in Sheffield will be back in March on the 18th to be precise in this very venue for 'Roadrage'.
By Glenn Milligan