Zangryus - News

The album is finally here - the Ninth Circle has been unleashed. Thanks to all who came to the launch gig with Esoterica.

This month, Zangryus feature on the Cover CD of Devolution Magazine (Weakness) and have a live review in the Bermuda Square Effect Magazine, with Nick on the front cover.

The return to the Rising Sun went well, we played for just under 2 hours, doing what we do best, thanks for all who came down and witnessed several songs from the coming album, the Ninth Circle, for the first time. See you all soon - next gig, Newbury, 28th August 2010.

So I spoke to Adam, who took most of the 'non-gallery' photos you see on this site, and he mentioned that the Rising Sun, our old regular venue, was re-opening. so I thought I'd wander on down and see if we can get some stage time to do some of our epic sets that we were known for in Reading about a year ago. The guy who is running the show now is really enthusiastic about bringing the metal home again, and so we have set up a few dates for the remainder of 2010 there. Check out our tour dates and come on down.

Zangryus are in the process of shifting music distribution from isound to the bizmo, as you may see by the changing player on the right of this page. Bear with us while the back-catalogue of music comes online through the new player. While we wait for this, please check out our youtube channel which has videos of the last few gigs for your viewing pleasure.

It has been pretty warm recently in the south of the UK, and Zangryus have been tearing it up with a few gigs throughout the summer, most recently we played the Avenue in Newbury, a first for us, having never played at that venue before. We were on the bill with a few other bands, so we had 40 minutes to do, and as we have been doing for most of this year, we played a tight and hard set, including a few favourites from previous albums (Freedom and Eastern Horizons), to pave the way for a couple of newer songs from the upcoming Ninth Circle, which is currently in mastering/post production, aiming for an autumn.winter launch in 2010. The sound was fantastic here, and the venue was really comfortable to play, with a good atmosphere on stage and off stage. Thanks to everyone who came down, hope you enjoyed having a taster of the Ninth Circle material, see you all soon at the next one.

Another one of our summer dates in the blistering heat, the sun paving the way for blistering solos to be hurled at the crowd in London as we treated the London scene to a taster of the Ninth Circle as part of a goth/metal night in Holloway. As we have been doing for most of 2010, we introduced the crowd to what is in store for the future, by playing tracks from the Ninth Circle, mixed in with favourites from previous albums. Thanks to all for coming down, we had a great time, see you all at the next one..

We took a little drive up the road to see how our neighbours in Coventry would like a little taste of the Ninth Circle. We played a longer set than usual here, and put in about half of the new album, The Ninth Circle, mixed in with many of the favourites from Blood of Angels, all the way to Freedom. A massive gig, with massive support from Coventry's metal militia, a great way to bring in the summer, at a great venue. Thanks to all for coming down, I hope you enjoyed having a taste of some of the epic parts of the forthcoming Ninth Circle, and we hope to see you all throughout the rest of 2010 as we tear up and down the UK, warming up the world of metal with a taste of the Ninth Circle.

It's pretty early in the year, but we plan to spend most of the first half of the year bringing out the tracks from the Ninth Circle at our gigs, introducing the fans to what is in store for them when the album is unleashed. This gig in the Face bar was no exception, and we treated the crowd to a completely different start to the set, mixing Intro to Conception, the first track on the Ninth Circle, replacing Weakness in the set. As we carried on, we played the home crowd the Cruellest Hand of Hypocrisy and Absence of Life, providing a whole-hearted taste of things to come throughout the rest of 2010. It's so good, it's probably fattening...

After a fantastic winter series of gigs around the south of England, we have had a fantastic 2009, and look forward to seeing you all at our gigs in 2010. This year should be a busy one on the Zangryus front, with the imminent release of the Ninth Circle. Watch this space...

Zangryus are playing in the massive Surface Unsigned Festival/Battle of the Bands on the 18th of April 2009, at the Boston Music Rooms at Tufnell Park. London... Please show your support :)

Surface Unsigned Ratings: The Surface Unsigned voting system consists of a ratings structure. Ratings can be gained through audience votes, text vote, musicians' votes and industry votes.

1 text vote = 1 rating
1 audience vote = 5 ratings
1 musicians' vote = 20 ratings
1 industry vote = 30 ratings

At each 1st stage event, the four bands with the highest ratings progress to the next stage of the Festival.

After about a year and a half playing regular marathon sets at the Rising Sun in Reading, Zangryus played their final night there at the end of February. Thanks to everyone who has come down over the last year and a half, and to the various changes in management at the Rising Sun who supported us.

Zangryus will be playing various shows across the south of England for the remainder of 2009 whilst finishing The Ninth Circle. Hope to see you all at a gig soon..

Happy new year to everyone.. We've had a winter season filled with gigs, recording and merriment. After playing many dates throughout 2008, our final date was back at the Rising Sun in Reading, to a great crowd, who danced the night away to our almost 2 hour set. Thanks to everyone for coming down.

Our live set now includes 4 songs from the Ninth Circle, which is almost complete. We have an EP coming out soon which will be the fore-runner for the Ninth Circle. Watch this space.

After a hard summer of gigging and recording, it's been pretty hard to find the time to write something here, but there has been a lot going on, that's for sure. I've been maintaining a video diary of the Ninth Circle, as well as the gigs that we have been playing along the way, so watch this space for more...

We played a gig last night in the Rising Sun which was, as usual, great fun. The Sun crowd was, as usual, really into it, which always makes the night more special for us. From the Freedom album, we played "Innocence" for the first time live, which was a really good warm-up for my fingers...

Thanks to everyone who made it last night, and I hope we'll see you all soon at one of our Winter 2008 dates.

Hey everyone.. we won our heat in the Face Bar BOTB 2008, but unfortunately the promoters have decided that they will not be going ahead with the rest of the competition. Thanks to all who came down to support us, and witness the debut of "Conception" from the coming album, The Ninth Circle.

An evening to remember indeed - the first "evening with Ash" with both Sacred Divide and Zangryus playing a prog/shredfest double header to make your ears bleed. Oh, by the way, for the fans who think we are on the loud side, ear plugs are usually available from our merchandise stall, along with CDs etc.. so don't be shy..

Anyway, Zangryus were up first, with the melodic brutality that is rapidly becoming notorious on the circuit, followed by Sacred Divide, playing five of the tracks from the upcoming debut release. An intimate and relaxing evening of earth-shattering drumming virtuosity, finger-blistering fretwork and precision vocal melodies provided an enthusiastic start to March 2008.

Back at 'The Sun' for another energetic performance of the best of Zangryus. The evening started well, with DJ Nick Rock warming up the crowd with a mixture of Dream Theater and Slayer, and after everyone was suitably pumped with Overture 1928, Zangryus blasted onto the stage with Intro.

We played a combination set, trying to combine our two usual sets into one longer set, much to the delight of the moshers in the crowd.

On a cold thursday night, Valentine's Day for most people, the hardcore metal militia of Oxford were humbly gathered in the most hallowed of progressive ground for the celebration of the 21st Birthday of Marc from Sacred Divide. The gift he had requested from Ash was that Zangryus play a few songs.

Since Zangryus love to shred so much, a few songs just didn't feel like it would be enough, so we ploughed through an hour and a half of material to the delight of everyone there.

Our 4th gig was at Hampshire’s premier bastion of live metal – quarantine at the tumbledown in Farborough, where we were playing with the burgeoning talent of Tainted Grace and the seasoned grooves of instill.

As the room slowly filled with the metal militia of Hampshire, the stage was soon taken by Tainted Grace, who started off the evening with a mellow vibe with cover versions ranging from Megadeth to Natalie Imbruglia.

We started with the thunderous explosion that is Intro, hurtling straight into Weakness like an express train. With only a moment for the audience to catch their breath, we hurled the crushing virtuosity of Freedom into the masses, tore through Rapture and blasted into another emerging fan favourite, Give in to Me. We then allowed a brief respite, by playing the rhythmic, lilting, hypnotic eastern favourite, Fall from Grace. Insomnia’s insane time changes came next, and were followed by one of my favourites, Ages and we ended with a cymbal crashing, bass pounding, guitar shredding thrash of Twilight.

When we went back into the crowd to wait for the last band to come on we were met by very encouraging comments, “Ash’s guitar playing is awesome” “Wow you guys were really good”, and “I’d expect to see a band like you at Wembley”

Instill had a funky, crunchy metal feel to their music which I quite enjoyed and their front man was very crowd pleasing. They played a good set including original material and covers from bands such as Limp Bizkit.

I personally really enjoyed the night, the atmosphere was really friendly and we felt welcome. A really, big thank you to everyone who turned up to see us. We really appreciate the support you give us.

Thank you to Dave for organising the night. We are looking forward to seeing you all again soon.

The third gig in Zangryus’ new incarnation saw us playing alongside three other bands at Reading’s Face Bar, at the first of the two Bukandskit Xmas events there. The crowd slowly grew during the first band’s performance (an punky/indie three-piece of school kids – Kill The Killers - who did a decent job, with a good cover of that We Are Scientists track), and soon there was a reasonable sized crowd, as Zangryus took the stage.

After a quick line check, the familiar stereo crunching of ‘Intro’ began, and gathered momentum as we tore through Weakness, Freedom and my set favourite, Rapture. Our ‘bursting at the seams of our timeslot’ setlist permitted no time for such frivolities as audience interaction, and instead continued the assault with Give In To Me, finally slowing it down to unleash the haunting strains of what is quickly becoming a fan favourite, Fall From Grace – I’ve had many people say to me that “the one with the twangy eastern bit at the start is brilliant” (or some variation thereof) – and then on next to one of my favourites to play, the convention defying Insomnia, before finally unleashing the head-banging big guns of Ages to cap off the set.

From the perspective of the audience we were ‘very tight’, ‘amazing’, Ash’s guitar work in particular wowing two guitarists whom I have played in bands with, along with I’m sure everybody else in the room.

After the technical discipline of our set, the next band, On Trial, were again a strong contrast, with a masked, face painted, crazed front man running about in the audience while the band ground out some dirty-sounding punk. There were some rather bemused faces in the audience, but the punkers clearly loved it, so there you go…their set ended with some legally questionable nudity, and it was time for the final band, who pounded out some good ol’ rock with a passion, and possibly the lowest hung bass I have ever seen (keeping his knees warm maybe…?)

Thank you to those who came out for us, we are extremely grateful for your support, and thanks to the rest of the audience, the other bands, and of course Bukandskit Promotions. Next up for us is The Tumbledown in Hampshire for their ‘Quarantine’ rock night, on the 24th January, and back to the Rising Sun for ‘our’ night on 16th Feb.

The return to The Rising Sun in Reading, with a faster, longer, harder set. So much longer that we had intermission and a dinner break.

As before, the set began at 100mph with Weakness with full power intro and Freedom. Working through a selection of tracks including reaching back into the archives for Betrayal and Broken Dreams with its lightning guitar intro to piss off anyone playing Guitar Hero. Followed by Never Ending Tears off the forthcoming album The Ninth Circle with the sort of schizophrenic time changes and three-second attention span that has become such an integral part of the Zangryus Experience to the delight of our legions of fans. The first half was rounded off as it began, at 100mph with Stay.

Turning the cooker temporarily down to simmer, the second half began with Savage Mountain's Awakening, before being turned right back up with Rapture, Give In To Me, Again, and Fall From Grace, all of which sounded great from where I was sitting (at the back of the stage!), even when a stick went flying off into the abyss during a drum solo. As normal the set rounded off with an ode to technical metal in the forms of Insomnia and Twilight.

Reaction was overwhelmingly good. A combination of better sound levels, and fewer nerves contributed to a set that was primarily fun despite the technical difficulties. Most notably my hi-hat being broken and stuck on splash for the entire first set. I want to play again, immediately, which must be a good sign. Next stop, Wembley!

Set 1

Intro
Weakness
Freedom
Betrayal
End of days part 1
End of days part 2
Broken dreams
Never Ending Tears
Secrets
Stay

Set 2

Awakening
Rapture
Give in to me
Again
Fall from grace
Unreal
Ages
Insomnia
Twilight

We had our debut gig with Nick and Damien within our hallowed ranks on Saturday the 22nd, and both of the guys got off to an excellent start. The room started to fill with an expectant audience from an hour before Zangryus were due to start. Damien's energetic pounding and eloquent drum solo had several drummers in the crowd standing in awe, and Nick's monstrously visceral bass shook the foundations of Reading's premier biker venue. Smana returned to true form by amazing the crowd with the power, subtlety, range and versatility of her voice, and Ash retaliated by hurling out blistering solos and bone crunching riffs from his massive rig and nimble fingers.

The set opened with Intro - pleasing many of the crowd who had come to witness the strange off-beat riffs, meter changes and scale runs that have become part of the Zangryus experience. After battering the crowd with "Weakness", "Freedom", "Rapture" and "Give in to Me", the set returned to the days of "Blood of Angels", for the harmonized riffs and solos of "Betrayal". During the mellow middle section of the set, the crowd were moved by the eastern melodies of "Fall from Grace" and the atmospheric and beautiful "End of Days Part 1" before being thrown right into the deepest pit of skull-crushing riffology of "End of Days Part 2". Following another foray into the shredfest of "Broken Dreams", the set moved to a more headbanging pace with "Ages" and "Secrets" before returning to the odd times and crunching riffs of "Insomnia". After over an hour of melodic brutality, "Twilight" closed the day.

Comments from members of the audience later told us that we were "amazing", "really loud", "like a heavy version of Dream Theater" and that we "sounded exactly like our CDs".

Thanks to the Rising Sun for putting the show on, and thanks to everyone who showed up to see us. We will return soon..

April 2007 - Ash has begun work on the next album from Zangryus, called The Ninth Circle. The inspiration for the title track comes from Dante's divine comedy, where the Ninth Circle is the centre-most segregation of damnation, and inspires the progressive epic which is also the title track to the album. The first eight parts of the album describe the transition from conception to death, which paves the way for the afterlife.

After months of auditions for the new bassist for Zangryus, we can announce Nick as the latest addition to Zangryus. Check him out here..

After a long hunt for the new drummer for Zangryus, we are pleased to announce Damien as the latest addition to the hallowed ranks of Zangryus. Check him out here..

Check out the "new-look" page on Myspace. Thanks to a lot of work from Smana the page is now alive and kicking. Don't forget to "add" us, and join the mailing list at the top of this page.

Zangryus have chosen isound for their portable player and mp3 hosting. There is now a player on the right of this page (and all pages on the site) through which you can listen to and download tunes.