The Browning really impressed me with
their debut album “Burn This World”,
it was the perfect combination of electronic dance
and death metal and I do believe in my review
I was excited to see them live due to the party
I assumed I would be a part of. That dream was
quickly shattered as the gig this early on in
the night is severely poor in attendance and the
ones that are there are all motion and expressionless.
The band played their hearts out and did constantly
attempt to get something going, not giving up
right till the very last note; “Ashamed”,
“Bloodlust”, “Time Will Tell”
and my own personal favourite “Standing
On The Edge” all of which I am adamant in
a better environment could force a fierce party
which would take something extreme to match. Whilst
I was ecstatic I finally got to see them and loved
the show but they were restricted by the minimal
attendance, maybe next time lads.
At The Skylines are quite frankly shameful, not
musically as they pretty much hit every note spot
on even though due to lack of backing vocals half
of the fucking songs are missing lines out because
the singer alone hasn’t got enough breathe
to sing everything on his own, which poses the
question why the hell did you overlay the album
if you cannot bring it to the live show? Regardless
of that annoyance they had the same problem as
The Browning in regards to the attendance, however
they take a different approach to dealing with
it which is by to look miserable and shake their
heads at us, not only that but then a member of
the opening band At Dawn We Rage I think came
out onstage and started purposefully smashing
into people and hitting them to try and get them
to do what the band asked, as members of the band
look on and laugh finding it hilarious. Well here’s
a message to you assholes some of us were not
fucking impressed. There’s more than music
to a live show there is a certain bond needed
between the audience and the band which was completely
severed after that due to their unprofessionalism,
think you need to rethink your strategy because
people aren’t going to warm up to a band
displaying that kind of attitude.
Obey The Brave found the best way to handle the
situation and that was to come out from the word
go energised with a positive mindset, it really
comes across. Frontman Alex Erian got on with
it and made the best of the situation giving positive
reinforcement to the ones dedicated enough to
turn up to the show injecting a dose of aggression
and for the first time to night this is actually
a proper concert. It did amuse me that he reminded
me of Roy from The IT Crowd (Chris O’Dowd)
but imagine his extremely angry skinhead twin
brother, its epic. They fly around the stage and
you can plainly see that they want to be here
and love what they do, the music as well I was
extremely surprised by as I found myself loving
every second of their set. Nothing fancy, no bullshit,
just a bunch of lads from Canada keeping it simple
and powerful, we need more bands like this.
For The Fallen Dreams went off without a hitch
if you ignore the 1 tiny problem they had with
the guitar in the last song, the pits for this
band are actually quite formidable compared to
all of the previous acts before them, very demanding
act who didn’t let up for the entire set
trying to get more and more from the crowd. I
did really enjoy watching them play and maybe
I would have had more of a lasting impression
of them if I wasn’t still feeling the adrenaline
off the band of Obey The Brave because whilst
they were brilliant they lacked that natural onstage
dominance and onstage attitude the Canadian lads
had, it was slightly more mechanical in all fairness
but hey there were a band with some pretty decent
songs who put on a great show, you can’t
ask them for much more than that.
Stick To Your Guns break down the walls of every
negative stereotype ever made about metal and
hardcore music, they are an aggressive band with
a positive outlook which reflects through their
material, rather than express feelings of hatred
and anger they give a message of letting it go
and living up to becoming stronger, caring human
beings by giving us a means to unleash all of
life’s frustrations in a room filled with
people going through the same things. They energy
in the put and the volume of people screaming
the lyrics back at the band was just unsurpassed
tonight, the room is at the peak of its capacity
which isn’t full but it’s definitely
filled up by a ridiculous amount. One fan even
managed to get on the stage, attempt a stage dive,
land on his face and get promptly thrown out,
that alongside vocalist Jesse Barnett’s
extraordinarily passionate speeches about society
and how hardcore music saved his life have truly
made this set a special experience that I shall
not be forgetting anytime soon. True professionals
too all looked at home on the stage, well apart
from that one song that Barnett actually got into
the audience with his mic to perform a song.
Blessthefall come out to the unfortunate sight
of a room that was full 20 minutes previous to
a room now even less filled than when the night
began, don’t quite understand why so many
people have actually left as when I saw the band
headline the same venue 12 months ago they packed
the room out. Nonetheless they get on with it,
definitely more of a younger persons band this
is with the fact that lead vocalist Beau Bokan
keeps the language clean and less aggressive than
the other acts, where the others have had to stay
away from asking for pits, stage diving and crowd
surfing, Blessthefall flat out ignored that and
did it anyway. Beau leans on the speakers and
stands on the barrier but it all just seems a
little too predictable as it was like watching
exactly the same set again.
We Came As Romans drew the short straw which is
weird to say about a headline act as they are
victim to the least amount of people left for
them to play to as by this point nearly everyone
has left, they tried to salvage a good show with
who they had left and for a while it seemed to
be working as there was pits still, people were
bouncing and singing along. Bit by bit however
this started to slow down to a standstill and
even though the band was fighting with all that
they had trying not to focus on the large empty
space eventually you could see it written across
their faces that they were extremely disappointed
with the turnout. They had a few sound problems
with the guitars and mic’s but all of which
got ironed out relatively quickly and the band
was back on the offensive, like I said about Blessthefall
it’s just one of those nights tonight and
maybe they will have better look next time, just
come out with some less popular support acts as
I think Stick To Your Guns loyal following is
what killed it for tonight’s headliners.
The Browning – 3.5/5
At The Skylines – 2/5
Obey The Brave – 4.5/5
For The Fallen Dreams – 4/5
Stick To Your Guns – 5/5
Blessthefall – 3.5/5
We Came As Romans – 3.5/5
Review By James Webb
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