Thanks for an awesome Pre-Valentine

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Loathe

The Pre-Valentine Massacre 7 has come and gone, and as happens every year, we are humbled and grateful for the great turnout and vibe we had.

This year we hit Gozo with our buddies Knockturn Alley, and regardless of late venue changes and other assorted annoyances, we had a great time playing at the Prekursur Band Club in Xewkija. We drank lots, and if you’re in Knockturn Alley, ran up walls.

Three days later we played at the customary Pre-Valentine venue, Remedy. Thrashers Angelcrypt dropped out due to sudden illness, and we wish the dude a speedy recovery.

The gig was great, with non-stop pits and quite a few of the Gozitans from the weekend returned and moshed along! Truly a great atmosphere, and we can’t thank you enough for it.

Here’s a few photos from both nights. They’re all by Audri, except for the Loathe and Knockturn Alley shot, I don’t who that’s by. But thanks! If you have any more pics, send away!

We also want to thank Eve at Remedy, Steve Lombardo, Matthew Natoli and the guys at Xewkija. Cheers all and we’ll see you at the Shellshock Festival on the 12th of March.

Loathe are playing in the land of Gozo

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Loathe

It may seem odd to you, the humble reader, that even as a touring band, Loathe has never actually played in the second largest land mass of the Maltese archipelago; Gozo.

We carved the letters into the rock for demonstration purposes

Well, that’s going to change as of today month! We have decided to kick 2011 in the nuts very early on!

It is the seventh year running in which we are going to keep our appointment for the Pre Valentine Massacre, but this time, we’ve added another leg to it, a date in Gozo!

The date is the 5th of February, the venue is a cool as hell new club in Rabat called Mirage, across the street from Mc Donalds in Arkadia.

Entrance fee is €6, but get this, if you come to the Gozo gig, you get into the Malta gig 4 days later for free!

That’s right, €6 buys you entrance to both nights!

This is Loathe at the Pre Valentine 6 in 2010. You know not to expect any less.

As is our yearly tradition, we shall be playing with our best buddies Knockturn Alley. We have also recruited DJ Dunk, or Matthew Natoli, the organiser of many metal nights in Gozo to spin some quality tunes for you before we get on stage.

Facebook event for Gozo gig here: http://on.fb.me/pre-val 7_in_gozo

As to the Malta gig, it’s happening at Remedy, and apart from Knockturn Alley, we also have legendary thrash metal band Angelcrypt joining the fray. Price is again €6, or free if you came to the Gozo gig.

Facebook event for the Malta gig here: http://on.fb.me/pre-val 7_in_malta

We’ll have merchandise available on both nights, although if you want something specific, it may be best to get in touch with the band beforehand and let us know, so as to avoid disappointment.

Hope to see loads of you out there!

Despondent By Design release!

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Loathe

We are (finally) going to release our debut full length album, Despondent By Design. We realise it has been a long time coming, but for the most part, what delayed us was completely out of our control.

Now we shall not dilly dally about all that could have been. We release Despondent By Design in summer, on the 23rd of July, a Friday, at one of the coolest places we will have ever played in! The Black Pearl, in Ta’Xbiex is a ship on land, and serves the triple purpose of being a great restaurant, a bar, and an awesome wooden host to our metal!

Details and flyer follow:

Entrance: €6
Entrance + CD: €10
Entrance + CD + T-Shirt: €15

On the night, cheapest possible drinks at the bar:

Local Beer @ €1.20
Foreign Beer @ €1.50
Foreign Wine by the glass @ €1.50
Standard Spirits (with or without mixers) @ €1.90

PS: Whoever had placed a pre-order on the Loathe website will be contacted soon to pick their CD up!

PPS: Don’t forget to visit the event page on Facebook!

The Dark Design Tour-Days 9 and 10

Posted on November 3, 2009 by loathetheband

After the London gig, we went our separate ways, or at least, I, your humble narrator did. We regrouped early in the afternoon and set off on the long drive to Birmingham, fully aware that pretty much the same drive must be repeated in the early hours of next morning.

The drive was as uneventful as all others, so as per usual everyone found their own to break the monotony. We got to Jake’s in Birmingham, discussed plans for the drive back and got set for the gig.

Scruffy’s is exactly as we left it. There’s a good vibe about this place, maybe owing to the fact that everyone here is very much into the metal, and so it should be too, given that this is Birmingham, home of all that is heavy metal.

Morgue Orgy, the first band on tonight are great guys and phenomenal musicians. Observed closely during their soundcheck, and looking forward to their set. They’re also a very humorous bunch, constantly ribbing Slab’s Big Jim with their nickname for him, Barbara.

We face a tough night after this gig. Celebratory drinks will of course be imbibed, but we do have to be out of Jake’s in Birmingham by 5 in the AM tomorrow so as to get to London Heathrow in plenty of time to allow for any shit we’ll get at the check in desk, plenty of which I’m sure will be available.

Update:

The gig went very well. Morgue Orgy are such an amazing band, very talented, and an extremely funny set of people. We’re really glad to have met them, and will keep in touch! Slab went down a storm, as expected, and after post gig drinks at Scruffy’s, here I sit now, at Jake’s with a houseful of people drinking and chatting. And we leave for London in 4 hours. No sleep.

Update 2: (written on an Airbus A 320 somewhere over France)

We dosed off from about 2.30 to 4.30 AM. Not enough. In pitch black darkness we left Birmingham for the last time on this tour, having bid our farewells to the Big Jim, the only Slab member of strong enough constitution to actually wake up. Well, we did have to heave our guitars over the top of his head.

Long drive back to London in darkness, stopping only for 20 minutes when we were an hour away. Massive hassle driving through London in Monday morning rush hour traffic to drop Karl off at a friend’s, and after that, yet another hassle with our kind car rental agency.

Loathe’s tip to traveling: DON’T. Airports and airport staff hate us. I am still boggled at how we left Birmingham with 7 hours to go until the flight leaves, and still, we managed to be the last ones on the plane, and the last ones to check in. Maybe it’s because the look we sport is not suited to international travel. Suffice to say that our hand luggages were taken apart by what was (at least) a very pretty girl.

Now we go home, and tonight we hit the Excelsior Hotel for the extraordinary general meeting of UKAM and PRS. We shall have many tour horror stories to regale to whomever cares to listen, but the vibe we carry down to Malta is, overall, very positive. We’ve met up with good friends, old and new, exposed our music to a lot of new people, exposed our bottoms to a huge number of bathroom stalls, and in general survived in the madness that is the band called Loathe.