Forward into Battle

REIGN OF FURY UPDATE

Late 2016 - August 2017

Through 2016 we'd had a few set backs. Our bass player Paul Bielby left the band due to health reasons. Then just as we replace him with Chris Musgrove, our guitarist Lenny left us and joined Abhorrent Decimation. So that meant we were back to finding another guitarist.

We as a band were now in a bit of a dilema and decided to ask our original guitarist Ed if he'd be up for getting involved again. Afterall, we were supposed to be writing a new album and the thought of searching for another guitarist, jamming with him for a while to see if we clicked and got along with each other and even whether we could write songs together was something we weren't really up for at that moment in time. We had a chat and decided we should ask Ed if he wanted to be involved.
With Ed we knew it was a team that worked. We'd already done two albums and an EP together, we didn't have a guitarist at that time so fuck it, lets do a 3rd album together and make it the best it can be.

I had a meeting with Ed and great news, he was up for it. However, he wasn't up for doing gigs. As Lenny left the band he suggested a guy called Joey Jaycock from "From Eden to Exile" and assured us he was the man to replace him. So I rang Joey and explained the situation to him:
"We need to write an album, Ed will be helping us with that but we do need a guitarist to play his parts live".
Joey was up for it.
We gave him the set to learn and we got on with writing new material with Ed.

After a couple of rehearsals and gigs with Joey and a few months of writing stuff with Ed, another obsticle was thrown in our path. Jon rang me and told me he had Testicular Cancer. So that was that. I told our booking agent not to book anything. We already had Amplified Festival and a show with Death Angel in Wolverhampton booked but they were a few months away yet and I didn't want us to commit to anymore gigs while Jon was dealing with Cancer.
Luckily, Jon caught it quickly, had the operation and to my surprise was back to his usual self in no time.

Then Ed said he wasn't feeling the vibe and decided to leave again, so I rang Joey and offered him the slot. He accepted and it was game on!
Chris and Jon got together that week and wrote a new tune and Joey got to work on some new riffs.
We're now back at full strength with five permanent members and the mood is good.
We just had two gigs to get through and then we knuckle down and get this album finished.

Rof early 2016. Two days later it all started to change again

RoF July 2017-Present. With Chris Musgrove and Joey Jaycock

AMPLIFIED FESTIVAL 2017
July 21st, 22nd, 23rd

Not much can be said about this weekend that hasn't been said already. It fucking pissed it down with rain for almost the whole weekend!! Some bands/acts got cancelled and some bands still played. Some team members worked their arses off to keep the festival going while some didn't. Some punters had a great time while others not so much. The reviews on the facebook page have been mixed, some saying it was awesome and some were left wanting more for their money. What I did see though was the stage crew working their arses off to keep things running as smoothly as possible dispite the shittiest weather any festival could have to deal with. Olly from the Frog n Fiddle in Cheltenham was running the Shoot Your Hoops stage as smoothly as he could and Gary (the organiser) running around the whole site trying to keep people happy.

Missy shows her support for "Rain" of Fury.

I was only there for a few hours on the Saturday. Our slot was on the main stage at 18:15 for 45 mins. Luckily for us the people who were there came out of the dry and willingly moshed their hearts out in the pissing rain infront of us.
We'd also opted to where Hawiian shirts for this show too, which turned out to be a great idea although very ironic.
The new song "Haunt The Murderer" got a great response as did the rest of the set and we managed to get our usual "Born to Die" stage invasion too with serial merch buyer John Mathews taking centre stage along side serial crazy fucker Jag Bahra.

Pic By Topher O'Meagher

Musgrove. Wasted.

Jon conducts the "Born to Die" stage invasion. Pic by Critical Mass Photography.

This was Joey's first show as an official permanent member of RoF too and the crowd welcomed him warmly. He was enjoying himself so much that instead of pressing the lead boost on his amp for the "World Detonation" solo, he managed to switch the distortion off completely giving us a flamenco sound for a very crucial part of the song. All good though as it makes my blogs slightly interesting.

Someone needs to tell Joey he's in a metal band and should be frowning not smiling!!

After the show, I packed up my stuff, met a few guys and headed home a couple of hours later. The others stayed. Chris was wasted and in no fit state to drive. Jon was part of the stage crew for the weekend so he still had the rest of the night and the next day to go yet. I spent the night in my nice warm bed not thinking of the others.


WOLVERHAMPTON, Slade Rooms

AUGUST 8th 2017

This was our last planned show of the year. It's only August but we NEED to finish writing our 3rd album. If we keep accepting gigs it'll be another year before we finish writing it.

Today we were supporting Death Angel with Eradikator and Warbringer on the bill too. We're on first too, with only 30 mins to play. It's very hard to get what we're all about accross to the crowd with only half an hour. Most of our songs are quite long so we have to choose the shorter thrashier songs for these sets and leave out the longer dramatic songs. We could fill 30 mins with 2 songs. But that wouldn't really be fair on the guys who've bought tickets to see us.

Every band got a sound check...except for us. In fact this is the first time I've ever played on a drum kit where I haven't hit it at least once before our set started. We were that short on time! Personally I think if there is no time you should only soundcheck the 1st band. Anyway, we've been doing this shit for years so we know how to handle it.
Doors were 7pm, stage time was 7:15pm. We played 5 of our fastest, shortest songs and tried to make the best impression we could. The crowds response was great and it sounded awesome.
The new tune is getting good reactions too.

Has nobody told Joey to start frowning yet?!!

See Joey, this is how you frown. It makes you look older too.

How could you resist?

As quickly as we started, we finished. I packed up my stuff and joined my wife Missy on merch for the rest of the night. Eradikator went on did their thing and finished 10 mins early!!!
Warbringer were on after them followed by Death Angel. At one stage Death Angel took between 10 & 15 mins to introduce the band members with the singer for some strange reason insisting on introducing each member twice!!

Anyway, we packed up the merch after their set. Missy had made friends with Warbringer's merch girl (the singers wife) and exchanged details. They're from L.A. and we have a holiday booked out there later in the year so hopefully we can meet up and swap tour/war stories

No more shows now for Reign of Fury. Time to write this bloody album!!!

These are our "work faces"

In the meantime though, I've also rejoined 4ft Fingers again and we will be doing a reunion show on new year's eve at The Frog n Fiddle in Cheltenham. That is gunna be mental. It'll be the first time we've played a set as the "classic" line up for about 12 years!!
Support comes from Whippasnappa, The Splash and The White Crosses.

One crazy mixed up night of punk rock, nostalgia and booze! What could possibly go wrong.
More details on that another time. Visit our facebook and instagram though.
www.facebook.com/4ftfingers