Emmure and Caliban join forces for a UK jaunt known as the Hard Knock Life Tour. Both a brutal, gritty perception of the heavier end of musical awareness, the name lives up to the bands. Break out the boxing gloves…

The Eyes Of A Traitor start the night off… Actually, sorry to break the fourth wall here, but who am I kidding? The band play to about twelve people, in what is an absolute shambles of a turnout. It’s a real shame because the four-piece sound like a band that should be drawing at least ten times that themselves. Their gritty and relentless tact for metal-tinged hardcore sounds clearly impressive, even with the punishing vocals being somewhat drowned out, and it’s a literal kick in the hind quarters to see frontman Jack Delany urging the “crowd” to move forward between each song, only to see nobody in the front half of the room. The polite applause that greets the band after their round is well and truly a scandal; deserving of a lot more, TEOAT still put in a gutsy performance to open well.

Minneapolis mob After The Burial get a chance to play to more of a crowd, a chance they relish. Their longer, more structured metalcore sound is impressive; full of kick drums, aggression and style. Many seem to agree, hardcore dancing and general twatting about taking pride of place on the floor and finally making this look more like a gig and less like a soundcheck. Though their sound, like arguably every other band on the bill tonight, gets samey and a bit tedious after a while, it’s the power with which it’s driven, which is arguably it’s best quality. More of the same, please.

German metalcore merchants Caliban finally draw a respectable gathering, and positively kick the living shit out of it. Those daring to venture to the barrier find themselves victim to a barraging vocal onslaught from frontman Andreas Dörner. Songs from new record Say Hello To Tragedy are a frequent appearance tonight, No One Is Safe and the bruising 24 Years sound genuinely terrifying. It’s a pity clean vocalist/guitarist Denis Schmidt can not be heard from a nat’s pubic hair away; the riffage killing off any chance of hearing any singing tonight. Tight as they are, Caliban were never the most original of bands, and while some songs may sound repetitive and stale to the untrained ear, finisher It’s Our Burden To Bleed tears up the room as best it can, given the circumstances, (though some may find the masses of goose-stepping and Nazi salutes a tad offensive, no matter how hilarious they are in person) and cements a powerful, fast and brilliant set. Roll on next year; they’re set to return for more of the same.

For an established band from across the pond, the fact that there is little over 40 people turning out to see Emmure is a shambles. Not that they seem to care; the five-piece show relentless chugga-chug and tear the room a new hole, encouraging punches, arms swinging, and all matter of hardcore dancing. For a band that can be seen as nothing more than a piss-take, they’re incredibly tight tonight. Frontman Frankie Palmeri clearly seems comfortable in these settings, and between asking his audience for assorted drugs, shows off his beastly growl. Tracks from new album Felony like Sunday Bacon and the title track itself prove to be particular highlights; there’s nothing more than brute force behind the band, but it’s all that’s needed to prove to be an enjoyable set. It’s somewhat of a pity it’s limited to circa 35-minutes, but giving a local the microphone to display his vocal skills proves to be a great if not unorthodox ending to the set, especially with said local announcing them offstage. Short set, criminal turnout, great gig.

- George Cannings.

An interview with Emmure frontman Frankie Palmeri is to be posted soon!

Amig@s, después de una ausencia de más de una semana acá andamos de nuevo, ya saben, la chamba es la chamba y hay que juntar algo de lana, pero estamos de nuevo aquí. Ahora les traigo una banda relativamente nueva, muchos de los seguidores del deathcore y ese tipo de ritmos metaleros tal vez ya los hayan escuchado, se trata de los ingleses The Eyes Of A Traitor, quienes en este 2009 han lanzado al mercado su material A Clear Perception.

No me considero experto en temas del deathcore y esos ritmos más noveles, me gustan pocos, tal vez porque no me he clavado mucho en ello, sin embargo, puedo decir que TEOAT no me suenan mucho a otros grupos que se desenvuelven en los mismos terrenos, explico el punto: acá se nota un nivel de influencia progresiva más fuerte, los ritmos, aunque complicados, son más lentos, el beat de la mayoría de las canciones está bajado de velocidad pero sigue sonando intenso y poderoso.

Además las referencias en muchos de los riffs de guitarras son más tomados de bandas como Messhugah o Lamb of God, los solos son melódicos y en ocasiones me remiten a algunos de los pasajes sonoros del genial James Murphy (uno de los cuates que integró la melodía plena al death metal a principios de los 90).

Las voces van desde el gutural intenso hasta el grito más “harsh” clásico de estos grupos, y las vocalizaciones más claras se combinan de buena forma en pasajes auditivos que complacen y no saturan de inmediato.

De entrada puedo decir que Decorus es una gran canción con una intro de piano y un “crescendo” de las guitarras y el ritmo principal de la canción muy bueno, me transmite una gran angustia bien canalizada, y qué decir de la abridora Under Siege, el poder de Misconceptions con sus estructuras progresivas plenas o la tranquilidad de A Clear Perception, es un disco de bueno a muy bueno.

Acá está el link, van que es un material recomendable.

Carpe diem.

The Eyes of a Traitor + Inbred + As My World Burns

Conciertos en Madrid

As My World Burns. As My World Burns es un grupo de la sierra de Madrid con un sonido influenciado por el death, metal, hardcore y estilos relacionados con estos mismos. Han compartido escenario con Evolved, Inbred, Dellamorte Dellamore y otros tantos en la comunidad de madrid como fuera de ella.

Ritmo y Compás Madrid Conde De Vilches, 2

A selection of phone pictures from last Saturday’s MetalFest 3 at Camden Underworld. (Not high res).

Tides of Virtue get things going early on.

The Eyes of a Traitor.

Sylosis’ Josh shreds it up.

Sylosis

Half the crowd join Sylosis on stage.

Sylosis’ Jamie and shiny-headed fan.

Thanks to GmcB for taking the pics, there are lots of professional ones on MetalFest’s Facebook page.

Review of (parts of) the All-Dayer at Camden Underworld on 8th August 2009:

Tides of Virtue were one of the early bands on the bill who had to play a ridiculously short set. Their gurning guitarist, and ‘mosh’ sign taped onto the back of other guitar did their best to encourage some movement from the crowd, but only a few kids flailed their arms crazily to the heavy, passionate, hardcore/metalcore riffage.

Rinoa’s sound was a perfect reflection of everything on their recording output, screaming vocals and slow guitars. Really not to my taste, but a fine performance if that’s your bag.

Not to be confused with the musical of the same name, Evita played a set full of big soundscapes with heavy bits and attempting-to-be-catchy singing. Not the most original stuff ever.

Denver, Colorado’s It Prevails, on their first ever UK tour, seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the pretty modest reaction they received from the crowd. They clearly put their all into the performance though, mixing heaviness and light to good effect as they belted out songs from Capture and Embrace in fine form.

The Eyes of a Traitor’s heavy yet goove-laden mayhem went down quite well, although wasn’t the most memorable set of the day. But that was probably due to it preceding the headline act, the band that virtually everyone was looking forward to the most – Sylosis. And the Reading-troupe didn’t disappoint at all, sending the crowd wild with their selection of tracks from Conclusion of an Age. Having hung around the venue throughout the day and coming across as quiet and unassuming, the band didn’t appear overwhelmed by their heroes welcome, but then having recently played to massive crowds at Sonisphere and Download, they are probably getting used to it. A stage invasion during closer-track Teras didn’t even put the band off of their tight-as-a-nun’s performance, even though half the band were completely obscured from those who remained in the pit. I hope the stage invaders savoured their moment, because Sylosis won’t be playing venues as small as the Underworld for much longer.

Overall not a bad festival, closed in great style by a great band, although parts were dogged by the usual poor quality sound that is often a feature of the Underworld. According to the organisers it had sold out by the end, although it never seemed particularly busy, especially in front of the stage which didn’t get that crowded at all, even during the headliners’ set. Perhaps that was something to do with people being able to go in and out all the time, although I don’t think it particularly lessened anyone’s enjoyment. See you in the pit next year.

Were you at MetalFest 3? What did you think of the day? Leave your comments below.

Sylosis bring their intrepid brand of awesome metal to the Camden Underworld on Saturday 8th August.

They will be joined at the venue by the cream of the UK underground, as well as the It Prevails from the US. Unfortunately Tesseract pulled out due to their singer leaving and them working on a new album with a mystery replacement, but the bill still boasts the likes of Herfordshire’s heavy yet bouncy The Eyes of a Traitor, Scots hardcore troupe Azriel and Essex screamers Rinoa.

The event is all ages and tickets are available on the door. It runs from 2 til 10.30 and tickets cost £14. It’s in the same venue at the same start time that the all ages club Subverse used to be in back in the day. Here’s hoping that it will attract a somewhat older crowd than that used to.

Either way, Squatney Steel will be there covering the event and letting you know what it was like. Provided the hysterical predictions about every other person catching swine flu in August don’t come true that is.

For more info see: http://www.myspace.com/metalfestuk or search for Metalfest on Facebook.

Genre: Metal / Progressive / Hardcore
Country: UK
Website: http://myspace.com/theeyesofatraitor

Tracklist:
01) Under Siege
02) Like Clockwork
03) With Different Eyes
04) Escape These Walls
05) Decorus
06) Misconceptions
07) Echoes
08) Hands of Time
09) The Impact of Two Hearts
10) A Clear Perception

THE FIGHTING COCKS, KINGSTON-on-THAMES

19TH DECEMBER 2008

THE 2009 ADPONTES-STAINES GIG GUIDE

WE ARE NOW preparing our 2009 AD PONTES STAINES LIVE MUSIC GIG GUIDE and Jan, Feb and March 2009 are already up!

If you are a band, frequent a venue, or you are a friend/fan of an artist or just know of a forthcoming hot gig in your area, then why not let us know so we can ADD YOUR GIG for FREE in  our whats on guide.

ADDING YOUR GIG IS FREE, FREE, FREE, FREE, FREE

There are no hidden charges – we just want to support live music in our area and help YOU to succeed!

We cover the STAINES and SPELTHORNE area – but anywhere that is within about 30 minutes easy travelling time from STAINES…. we will ADD FREE to our guide.

We are currently averaging 780 HITS A DAY on our main site…so that’s an amazing 22,000 hits per month…. can you miss out on that kind of coverage and potential for success?

We are ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW BANDS & ARTISTS to cover in our STAINES magazine- so if you would like us to arrange a FREE photoshoot and/or story for publicity for your band YOU ONLY HAVE TO ASK….. LET US KNOW.

If we don’t know that you are out there, then how can we help you get where you want to be?

CONTACT US NOW