Under normal circumstances I would avoid watching
a band named Chickenhawk. But when you are a reviewer
you have to throw all of your preconceptions aside,
and open your mind to the often wonderful and
slightly weird concept that we know and love,
as music. I should mention that “Chickenhawk”
is a name given to a political person, or group
that is strongly in favour of war, yet they actively
avoided getting involved with any business of
that sort when they were of age. It isn’t
actually a clucking, bird of prey that could easily
take your eyes out, yet provide you with breakfast
at the same time.
So it was with trepidation that I stood and watched
the aforementioned band. From the offset I didn’t
really know what was going on, there was a lot
of guitar shredding, hard hitting drumming and
screaming. So whilst all the components were there,
it all seemed a bit confused. There are no doubts
that this Leeds foursome are great musicians,
but it would seem that they rely on this too much,
rather than just focusing on the job in hand.
Twin Atlantic were next to take to the stage,
fresh faced and full of energy, they quickly manage
to win the crowd over. Over the course of the
past year Twin Atlantic have gone from strength
to strength, and it’s their new material
taken from the mini-album ‘Vivarium’
that really shows what this band could be in years
to come. Songs such as ‘Old Grey Face (And
The Way Of The Magenta)’ and ‘You’re
Turning Into John Wayne’ sound huge, and
Sam McTrusty and co can leave tonight safe in
the knowledge that they have once again done a
sterling job.
I must confess that before tonight’s gig
I wasn’t overly familiar with the genre
known as ‘mathcore’. But from what
I can gather, The Fall Of Troy are pretty high
up on the mathcore roster. Their sporadic time
signatures, and prog-infused poppy riffs do certainly
make for a very interesting listen, yet at times
I found myself a little confused, and craved simplicity,
rather than technicality, a feeling that I felt
I shared with a proportion of the rest of the
audience. However, The Fall Of Troy did not fault
once, and whilst half of the crowd looked like
they’d rather be at home in front of the
telly with a mug of Ovaltine, one has to commend
their perseverance and their technical ability.
If you were already a fan of the band, this gig
would have been fantastic, yet for the innocent
bystander, it was all a bit mind-boggling and
quite simply baffling.
Chickenhawk 2/5
Twin Atlantic 5/5
The Fall Of Troy 3/5
Review By Ben Connell
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