HOUR OF 13

Review of Dublin Doom Day: Hour of 13's live debut: Way back in May with the announcement of HOUR OF 13, the metal underground fairly shat themselves in excitement as they desperately dashed to book flights, buses and hotels. This was certainly evidenced in the wealth of countries represented tonight, from far away as the USA, New Zealand and Canada, doom metallers have came to witness the first gig of one of the hottest bands in the underground.
Despite releasing two modern classics of doom metal, and singer Phil Swanson's regular gig appearances with side band Seamount, the opportunity never arose for him and co-songwriter Chad Smith to get a band together, but thankfully Ireland get to be the lucky recipients of the first ever show.
It's impossible to fully relate the sense of expectation at the minute, friends are standing in groups down the front chattering with anticipation, and even people standing on their own are grinning with speculation of what's to come. And when the band kick off with the incredible 'Call To Satan', it's hard to see anyone in the crowd that isn't singing along to the lyrics, or bellowing THAT line in particular.
People are headbanging in unison along to the music and every now and again a burst of fists get thrown up to certain killer parts; of which Hour Of 13 have frankly loads, despite only having two albums. Also prevalent is a storytelling theme running through the set detailing the 'Missing Girl' of the debut album and her unfortunate fate on the second album.
It's a nice progressing timeline that adds quite a bit of structure to the set. Following the standard-setting opener is a nice mix of tracks off both albums, including 'Grim Reality', ''Possession' and the epic 'Crawlspace'. All too soon, after ten tracks the set is over, and people are simply buzzing with the thrill of it. Expectations have been fulfilled, hopes are high for future HO13 gigs, and the set is already going down as a "were you there?" moment. [DMcB]