 First up were confined within, local-ish, being
from Stafford, they are a metal band, they had
some good riffs and looked well happy just being
there on a fairly big stage, the music that they
played was fairly fast and some times heavy, but
the vocals weren't very good, when they tried
to sing melodically, it sounded dreadful, thankfully
they didn't do that too often, overall tho, there
an average metal band, with not much going for
them, some decent solos maybe, but lacking in
a killer edge or catchy-ness.
Next up was a recommended band by not only skindred
themselves who they also hand picked i might add
but was recommended by the pr person i spoke to
earlier in the day, and could quite possibly be
the next big thing, Karnivool, i have never seen
such a reception for a support band before after
the fist song, there what i can describe as slightly
prog rock/metal, the only bad thing i can say
about them is that there songs sometimes went
on for a while, and waned a bit here and there
but other than that they could quite possibly
upstage many headline acts as i could have quite
happily left after seeing them knowing id seen
an awesome band and got my moneys worth (well
i would have if id paid for the ticket!), there
was one song in the middle of the set that blew
me away so i will be buying there material asap
just to find that song again.
Main support acts were Dead by April , another
metal band, they had good stage presence, but
there material was somewhat lacking, it was heavy
but not really driving and the songs kinda sounded
the same, so they got a tad boring really, but
the drumming was decent and there were some decent
riffs every now and again, but i wasnt really
that impressed by them, plus after following Karnivool,
it was pretty much downhill after them, a pretty
hard act to follow really, again there was nothing
that exciting about them, no killer songs the
ingredients are there for sure but i wasn't convinced
by what them ingredients made.
 Well the last time i saw Skindred was in 2006
at download, and i have to say of what i can remember
is they weren't that good, up until that point
all id heard was 'pressure' probably there most
well known track, and it was a bit of a surprise
when they played that song 4 songs in, the song
had to be started about 3 times, due to various
reasons, probably just Benji messing about really
teasing the crowd, when it finally got stated
properly the crowd went mental, its a good song
but its not as good as i remember it being, one
song i did like was there recent cover of 'Electric
avenue', and now my favorite version of the song,
other songs they played were 'nobody' and new
song and hopeful future favorite, Invincible.
One thing that threw me slightly was that alot
of there songs sounded the same, there a good
band but the first 3 songs there wasn't much variation
in them, and through out the set i got a tad board
as the songs didn't really grab me much, benji
got the crowd involved but i felt board, an off
day for me maybe, i like the band but live im
not sure, i think id rather listen to them on
a cd as its a cleaner sound, i did like the new
songs they played but there older stuff seemed
tired.
Confined 3/5
Karnivool 5/5
Dead By April 3/5
Skindred 4/5
Review By Robert Lawrence |
