Machina Shogunate.

Hosting its afterparty half way through the weekends proceedings, NemaCon presented Machina Shogunate and Alice Moving Under Skies; two bands who couldn’t be more different but between them maintain a melodic goth vibe at the core of their vocals. First up was the Steampunk influenced Alice Moving Under Skies with vague ethnic sounds of the old orient playing through on their backing track before the first song of their performance truly kicked in with deep roaring bass set against a Siouxsie style vocal that peaks and grunts. Singer Penny Dreadful was spectacularly versatile, showing great vocal range and great staying power behind her strong sound and well held notes. As the set played on with an airy mystic keyboard vibe behind the guitar fronted goth sound of Alice Moving Under Skies there was a feeling that the band not only capitalised on the tribal flavours of these sounds but performed in the vein of the old Victorian ‘Grand Tour’, representing all corners of a kind of Steampunk British Empire. Male vocalist and guitarist, Mark Dreizehn, complemented Penny’s soaring voice well with his trad goth drawl. Dedicating one of their songs, Bloodmyer to a lolita of the same name in attendance the band rounds up a set that has had almost all in attendance bopping and swaying to the music. Stepping out from behind his bass Rob ‘The Magician’ Webley performs a few tricks before performing final track Dear Faith that has an appropriate air of drama, neatly wrapping up the whole Alice Moving Under Skies experience.

Machina Shogunate describe themselves as a band inspired by the Japanese “Visual Kei” genre, a style that draws on a wide range of sounds while holding on to a dark, gothic aesthetic and perspective. Machina Shogunate in practice are a blend of brooding female goth vocals, heavy aggressive guitars, all led by a symphonic backing. A number of songs feature spoken elements which act as a harsh and dramatic contrast to the usual subtle melodies of vocalist V-Zhon.
In the song “Glimmer”, heavy high speed guitars rise and fall in the background ebbing like a tide and possessing just as much force while  ”Wings Of Fate” is a poignant mix of harsh and heavy with orchestral back drop. With such a complex overpowering variety of sounds making up the Machina Shogunate experience the vocals occasionally drop out or become indistinct. The bands choice to use a radio amp means the sonic punch of the guitars is also a tad intermittent but the whole thing builds up a bit more vigor towards the second half of the performance.
V-Zhon took the opportunity to introduce “Ouroboros”, the first song Machina Shogunate ever wrote before guitarist J and bassist Az launch into a storm of spiraling guitar riffs,atop a backing track of maddening strings. The radio amp also came into its own when the pair strode off down the centre stage to take their solos into the crowd making for a satisfying display of rock and roll stage presence in a track that stands out on the strength if its cyclical rolling bass and drums. “Beauty And Broken” is much more fragile and melancholic setting the tone with its music box intro. “Beauty And Broken” was a personal highlight of the set as it seemed the closest match Machina Shogunate had made to a Visual Kei sound in the vein of Malice Mizers baroque metal. From there on out Machina Shogunate seemed to finally find their feet, performing a song entitled “Enshoku No Moroha” that stood apart due to its speedy perky sound, giving off some sort of a surf rock vibe. Its chunky bass riffs kept it in line with what seemed to be the Machina Shogunate sound, but it was nevertheless an unexpected choice. The band debuted a bleak, devastating, floor shaker of a track so new it had no name until a considerate con-goer decided to offer up “Dave” or “Nemacon Dave” as a title. No matter what you call it, this fresh slab of metal made leaps and bounds instrumentally with it coarse, savage guitars against the softer vocals of V-Zhon. Followed by the epic Parasitic Intent and its pulsing heavy riff, before the fierce, almost vampiric, encore “To Kill A Demon”, a performance I felt was at the peak of their entire set.
Both bands were well received by the crowd and were in the spirit of the Nemacon weekend. Despite a sizeable difference in style, by the end of the evening everyone in the house was toe tapping, moshing, swaying and rocking out. Both bands were an unexpectedly compatible mix of sounds, not only with each other but with the anime fans who had an immensely entertaining evening and, most likely, discovered a new favourite band in the process.

Shortly after the event’s opening ceremony the well respected Akemi Solloway, who was also one of last year’s highlights, provided the first of three talks about Japanese culture and tradition. The weekend also featured a wealth of classes with a view to sharing tips and tricks as well as inspiring attendees to have a go themselves. These were as diverse as panels like cosplay on a budget, how to start a web comic and leather working, to presentations from guest artists on how to produce your own manga inspired work. Graphic artist Destiny Blue presented a lively and informative panel on digital illustration which made for an entertaining presentation. Other event highlights included a number of well rehearsed and performed skits beyond the calibre of last years participants including an energetic Dr Who cosplayer who repeatedly took to the stage for 2 acoustic sing-alongs and a paraphrased speech from the series, all of which received genuine and widespread applause.
NemaCon 2011 kept much of the same framework but was a far more coherent and organised production this year. 2011′s event proves that NemaCon can stand on it’s own two feet as a convention but its true test lies in the coming years where it will have to continue to expand to hold the interest of its attendees. The sheer quantity and quality of cosplay at the convention has stepped up significantly since last year with bolder attempts at more outlandish characters with some being down right impressive purely on the basis of the tenacity and obscurity of their character and costume choice. Browse our gallery of photos from the event below.

Trigun - Badlands Rumble.

This weekend, the trailer for the newly revived Trigun anime was released online. Entitled ‘Trigun: Badlands Rumble’ the trailer is now available to watch via Quicktime.com Due for an American release on 27 September on DVD and Blu-ray through Funimation, the anime seems to be hotly anticipated, with all manner of twitter-buzz on the #Trigun hashtag over the past weekend.
Badlands scramble sees Vash The Stampede’s past resurfacing after 20 years when a man named Gasback strolls into town looking to cause a little trouble. As it turns out Gasback has something of a beef with the town’s mayor, who’s paying dozens of bounty hunters to protect his turf. Things start to get a bit more complicated when you consider one of those hired guns is a beautiful woman with a vendetta against Gasback, whose only shot at revenge means getting through Gasback’s bodyguard Wolfwood. And what’s vash got to do with this mess? Not much, except for the fact that he personally set off the entire chain of events two decades ago.

Badlands scramble is the first new Trigun animation in over a decade, not that the wait has diminished Vash’s appeal. The anime film was first screened in Japan in the spring of 2010 but Madhouse’s plans for the film go all the way back to 2005. The film will be screening at London’s Barbican Centre from 7 July.