Formed in Glasgow by Russell McEwan as a solo, sample-based project inspired by Scorn, later recruiting guitarist Kevin Hare and the addition of bass guitarist Graeme Leggate, they became the bastard offspring of early Swans meets Khanate. Utterly brutal doom with dual vocals and heavily repetitive riffs that just shatter your skull.
www.myspace.com/legionofblacksun 

The beauty of Supersonic is that for every riff monger lurking on stage, there are always a number of hidden gems to discover that you would normally just pass on. Cath & Phil are just one of these fantastic finds. Avant folk with a nod to the more traditional folk scene, this is the kind of music that you would find at old American carnie performances while a parade of freaks dance in front of you. Sweet music with lyrics so disturbing even Slayer can’t touch em and in short an absolute treat.
www.myspace.com/cptyl

A ten-piece band that uses a myriad of instruments to create a wholly original sound you can listen to on record all day long but never get a sense of how magical they are live. It’s chamber music but not as you know it. It’s upbeat and full of life with a sense of hope and optimism.
www.myspace.com/efterklang

This band have single handedly ushered in a new era of noise that is harsh but melodic with a danceable edge that still manages to be as disturbing as it is beautiful.
www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons

This is the soundtrack to some bizarre, Italian Giallo as played by intense young men with a history of playing in metal bands. They are really in a league of their own, this is very dark, brooding, avant metal that is hypnotic and intense yet full of melody, beautifully played and utterly mesmerising.
www.myspace.com/guapoband

Original to the point of being unclassifiable Harvey Milk are straight-up, riff-rock tour-de-force replete with huge hooks, whiskey-and-cigarette vocals, whacked out guitar solos, and all the swagger and conviction a true rock record should have. Supersonic are very proud to have finally managed to bring these guys over to Europe, a nod of gratitude goes to Henry of Chunklet fame for making it all possible.
www.myspace.com/harveymilk

Wild, intense without pretense and fun without dumbing down. The freedom
and adventure of infinite possibilities and playing loud not just as a powertrip.
Members of a million bands including Trencher, Esquilax, Leopard Leg,
Drumize/Baka/Scotch Egg band, Doom Patrol, Polly Shang Kuan Band,
Gravepaintings, Queen Of Swords, Dream Dreams The Dreamer, Vard Ov Adv,
Universal Orders, Bloodlust and more.

What do shards of glass sound like if they are amplified using a piano transducer signal processors and the human voice? Well it is actually pretty hard to explain, but this is tonal noise that manages to be strangely melodic in between bursts of ear shredding terror. Sure to be a highlight, it has to be seen to be believed and once you believe, you’ll be amazed.
www.myspace.com/justiceyeldham

Flirt with standard song structures whilst keeping a heavy psychedelic rhythm and melancholy noise that transform them into spinning webs of texture.  Vigorous beats, wayward sounds and vocals are heavy with reverb while space echo treated flourishes combine to make them an enlightened, beautiful and captivating live experience.
www.myspace.com/magnetophone

Norwegian dirge with nods to Ruins, Swans, and the odd touch of black metal. Although heavy they have a deftness of touch most bands playing this style of music lack. There is subtleness at work during their long song workouts and an almost jazz perspective to some of their low-end rumblings which means they are never less than exciting to hear.
www.myspace.com/noxagt

A composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, which he manages to transform (with the help of a few Fx pedals and samplers) into a virtually unrecognizable instrument. Layers of spatial sound combine to create a beautiful haunting soundtrack that manages to be hypnotic, experimental and yet strangely melodic.
www.orenambarchi.com

Intensive, confrontational, raw and uncompromising: four words I think of when someone mentions Eugene and the boys to me. Amazing jazz infused, Birthday Party style noise, they produce a live show where you never know what might happen, an element which is as exciting as it is scary. Eugene is unpredictable and unsettling as he prowls the stage looking for unsuspecting victims to terrify and pours his soul into the microphone creating something that is undeniably powerful.
www.myspace.com/theoxbow

A heady mix of Beefheart, Birthday Party and The Fall this band are amazingly shambolic yet highly accomplished.  When you see them live you are transfixed by their demented, howling lead singer as he strides across the stage like a preacher gone insane. Lesser musicians would be overshadowed by such a figure but each member gives their all to create a chaotic, groggy blues style, cathartic din.
www.myspace.com/thecourtesygroup

This band is loud, heavy and amazing. A rare live appearance from these Bristolian riff-mongers, this is true blues rock and roll that takes no prisoners. Think Iggy, MC5, Hawkwind and Motorhead and you’re somewhere on the right track.
www.myspace.com/theheadsrock

The Owl Service formed through a mutual love of British films and television of the 1960s and 70s, the great outdoors and {of course} the sound of the English folk revival. No retro obsessives, The Owl Service simply believe that music production peaked around 1969 and they merely seek to perfectly encapsulate the influence of the greatest albums and artists of that time. Beautiful music, simply arranged, exquisitely executed and captured on tape with authentic warmth – prepare to be enchanted by The Owl Service.
http://www.myspace.com/theowlservice

What can you say about Mr. Joe Preston? Legend. If you have listened to any music that is considered heavy in the last 15 years then you have heard Joe howl, previous outfits include Melvins, Whip, Earth, Sunn o)))  and High On Fire, but none of them could prepare you for the stench that is Thrones.  The sound is intense, mixing heavily distorted vocals, bass heavier than any before it, ridiculously fucked up, raw programmed drums, samples and keyboards. In lesser hands this would be a disaster but Preston IS the sum of his parts, verging from a din inducing sludge racket to beautiful lulls of quiet sweetness, weird and wonderful, this rare UK performance promises to be very special indeed
http://www.myspace.com/thronestour 

“More of what we love, a relentless, never-ending blown out fuzzy groove, all warm whirring organ, fuzz guitar, and throbbing bass, the drums a super solid motorik framework, the vocals sort of sung / spoken, reverb and delay EVERYWHERE, the strangest addition is the haunting horns on the A side, that drift and moan ghost like over the fuzz jam below. One song spread out over two sides, by side 2, the band have locked it in and sound like they are never gonna stop. A looped cyclical minimal fuzzrock jam that sounds almost like some crazy crossbreeding of the Doors and Spacemen 3, which should appeal to Circle, Salvatore and Magyar Posse fans as much as all the druggy psychrock dronesters out there.” -Aquarius Records
http://www.woodenshjips.com

Cutting Pink With Knives
I put last year’s album in my top ten at work and cause I’m lazy this is what I said: ‘I am officially too old to listen to this record. It reminds me of hanging out in Red House Park as a kid, drinking MD 2020, smoking and generally being a bit of a nuisance. Musically it’s total spazzy Blood Brothers casio core. Snotty, noisy and with nursery rhyme vocals. Also some of it sounds like you played Killdozer at 45 rpm. We’re honored that this will be their final UK show before an amicable split.
www.myspace.com/cuttingpinkwithknives

Dälek
These guys make the densest hip hop using it as a starting point to mash up as many genres as they feel appropriate incorporating jazz noise and every thing in between. Live they are astounding, and this is a welcome return to Supersonic for them.
www.myspace.com/dalek

DJ /rupture feat. Jah dan Blakkamoore
An awesome sound clash, an MC driven turntable bass end party set. A groundbreaking collaboration, combining the ‘singjay’ style practiced by Jah Dan with the kind of bashment via dubstep via inflected beats Rupture is laying down in his re-styled sets. Rupture is not a DJ to rest on previous highs, but who looks for new ones. This is a USA / Caribbean response to the sound taking over the basements and re-jigged, fattened up and dexterous.
www.myspace.com/deejayrupture

feat. DJ Scotch Egg /Bogulta /Ove Naxx/ Maruosa/ Dokkebi Q/ Drumize

An extraordinary group of artists from Osaka, Japan, are about to invade Birmingham!

The notorious DJ Scotch Egg, who’s about to release an album on Load Records will spearhead the invasion with his unique gameboy madness. Joining him will be Ove-Naxx, also playing live. His fucked up breakcore jungle set is unforgetable to those who have seen him before. Headbanging never looked so good! Marousa will be thrashing his long black hair at you as well as his demented grindcore metal breakcore sounds. And last but definetly not least, and playing outside Japan for the first time, Bogulta, insane Osaka new wave party punk.

www.myspace.com/djscotchegg
www.myspace.com/ovenaxx
www.myspace.com/bogulta
www.myspace.com/maruosa
www.myspace.com/kikihitomi

5.15pm Saturday 12th July
Theatre Space

For too long Birmingham and the West Midlands have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of “Heavy Metal”. 2008 is the 40th anniversary of when the phrase “Heavy Metal” was first coined by journalist Lester Bangs. To follow on from last year’s series of talks and round table discussion we continue the exploration with a pair of presentations from experts in the field:

Mark Pilkington 

‘From Heretics To Headbangers: Occultism, Rock and Pop Music in the UK’

Exploring the roots of contemporary British occultism and considering its baleful influence on 20th century popular music.

Mark Pilkington publishes and edits Strange Attractor Journal, an irregular anthology of cultural marginalia and ethnographic esoterica, and curates events under the Strange Attractor banner. His writing has appeared in The Guardian/ Fortean Times/ Arthur/ The Wire and Plan B amongst others.

Nicholas Bullen

‘The Aesthetics of Grindcore’
Nicholas (b/1968) is a musician and sound artist whose work explores approaches at the extremes of sound. In his twenty-five year history as a musician (as a founder member of Napalm Death – creators of the ‘Grindcore’ genre – and Scorn), he has appeared on numerous recordings and performed extensively across the globe. He maintains a number of ongoing musical projects including the electronic group Black Galaxy and the Monium label.

Home Of Metal

www.homeofmetal.com
Home Of Metal began in 2007 with a Metal Symposium held at New Art Gallery Walsall and continues with the development of an online archive mapping the regions heritage, Metal memorabilia, collections and oral histories will be collated through a series of 3 public open days held at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and New Art Gallery Walsall.

Capsule invited the following six artists to create illustrations in response to this years festival theme ‘Creatures Of The Night’ the title of the 1982 album from U.S. band Kiss and continuing our exploration of Birmingham and the Black Country as ‘Home of Metal’. These works will be exhibited within the Custard Factory.

Justin Bartlett

www.wearetherobots.com
Black ink warlock from the grim and frostbitten raven realm of Southern California. He enjoys thee grimm riffs, vberkvlt metals, and other dark musick, times of solitude, skulls, and scotch. Inspired by religious and theological conflicts, environmental decay, and man’s inhumanity, the pen-wielder spends hours and hours obsessing on every last detail. He has worked with many including SUNN O))), Gravetemple and Norway’s Gorgoroth, Apoptygma Berzerk, tons of underground bands.

Karen Constance

www.myspace.com/smackmusic7
Born in Scotland’s hellhole central belt & escaped down south to Brighton in 1997, she is influenced by encyclopedias, diagrams and schoolgirls.

Steve Ingram

www.forhumourandhope.com
Aka Forhumourandhope is just 24 years old and hails from Birmingham, UK. He designed the artwork and packaging for the Capsule Beestung Lips release amongst other things.

Conny Prantera

www.myspace.com/connywithloveandsqualor
A painter and illustrator and one of the artists promoted by street-ware label Silas and Maria. Conny’s work reaches back from her training as a portrait artist in the torn political background of the Italian “anni di piombo” to today’s London underground culture, mixing the mirage of aesthetic beauty with a morbid obsession with decay.

James Quigley

www.gunsho.com
Gunsho is an art moniker for James Quigley. Somewhere between nursing on goat’s milk as a baby and his teenage summers spent sifting through flea market arcana, James began to find fascination in the strange and magical vastness of the marginal fringe. A regard for the toxic forces that transform humans into monsters shaped his early drawings and set him on a path into a surreal artistic thicket of beasts, demons, and mutants. He sees the scores of odd creatures he creates today not as being pulled from thin air or simple imagination, but from a continuum of mythology, or of ancient currents that have persisted into modernity.

Francesca “Bunny” Williams

www.wonderleague.co.uk
Also known as Bunny Bissoux, is an artist, illustrator, collector, fanatic, musician and aspiring wrestling valet. Bunny makes fanzines, costumes, plush toys and cupcakes and runs an online store and weekly market stall. She has previously produced CONQUISTADOR fanzine and a poster size “Map of Hair Metal” painstakingly charting the movement of band members between groups across the genre. Bunny enjoys drawing naked ladies, rock stars, wrestlers and her never-ending supply of imaginary friends.

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Supersonic just wouldn’t be the same without PCM  performing on Friday night, they are the dark lords of Drum n Bass. PCM were formed in 1990 by Neil Harvey and Nik Wells in Birmingham,UK Starting life as PCM Soundsystem, they began hosting parties in warehouses and empty buildings in the B’ham area and travelling to free festivals and outdoor parties with their sound. Playing an eclectic range of music from acid to hardcore to early jungle and often performing their own material live, they soon built up a large following in the emerging underground dance scene in the Midlands.
www.myspace.com/p_c_m