Karma to Burn

There’s a sparse crowd for Sons of Alpha Centauri, and on this performance, they’re not likely to garner a lot more interest. They are very heavy, albeit with a faintly Floydian sound about them and for about ten minutes they are quite interesting, but it soon becomes a chore. We already have Earthless for this type of thing.

The solid, if unspectacular stoner rock of Year Long Disaster was next. They had a bit of slow, unsteady, start, but got into as they went on. They were the only band on tonight with a singer and Daniel Davies’s Ozzyesque voice, sounded a bit weedy and lost within the overall sound.

After a seven year break, and with a new album out, maybe they felt they had something to prove, because Karma to Burn just ripped the place up. They pulverised us with dirty, great juggernaut guitar riffs, lead heavy basslines and an astonishing, manic performance from drummer Rob Oswald. Instrumental bands can lapse into jam mode and self-indulge for hours, but there was no risk of KtB going ELP. No, they just kept it lean and very mean.

It was a journey through their back catalogue, but also some stuff from the new album, which it isn’t going to disappoint anyone. If there was a weak point it was the cover of Never Say Die. It's not the strongest song Black Sabbath have ever come up with, and sung by Daniel Davies, his and the song's frailties were cruelly exposed. It fitted into the set as snugly as a BNP stall would at the WOMAD festival. That aside the band were triumphant tonight and it’s great to have them back.