By David O’Neill
With grassroots venues closing at a rate of knots and local promoters pulling out of the local music scene, it makes a great change to find one of each who are bucking the trend and we at Über Rock try to support both of these when we can, all across the Überverse. After all, without these the future of live music is likely to mean just giant heritage bands playing giant stadia and charging highly inflated prices for the pleasure of their presence. Eventually these will stop touring and the underground music scene will be just that. Anyhow, tonight brought together two of the local promotors and venues that I regularly make the effort to support…
An early start meant that Bridgend quartet Edit The Tide kicked off to a relatively small crowd. Nonetheless, they made an impression on those who were there. A 40-minute set of alt-rock/metal is usually to many of the crowds liking. Having listened to their offerings on your favourite streaming service meant that I was looking forward to the set.
Whilst the band did their best to replicate their recorded sound, I’m afraid the mix for the start of the night left many of the guitar solos and intricacies from the recorded sound were missing. The vocal mix was also a bit muddy and slightly unintelligible. Had it been where it was for the rest of the evening, it would have been much better, I’m sure. Hey ho, maybe next time. With an EP, ‘Reflections In Sound’, due for release next week, I’m sure they will garner some more interest and further gigs.
Next up was a band with a new identity – Victory or Die. Fronted by the very affable Jason Sweeney they kicked off with a typically in your face, balls to the wall rock n roll belter called ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Alive’. Regular chatter from the soft-spoken Scotsman left no one in doubt that we were in for a great set, albeit not yet available on any streaming services – the one track I managed to find a demo of was ‘Hot Rod Nightmare’, which is a great rock track. He also left everyone in no doubt that they would not need any money as he said, “you’ll be glad to hear that we have absolutely NO MERCH at all”, which was a shame as I’m sure they would have sold plenty.
A great time was had by everyone present and Sweeney obviously knew a lot of people (or he did by the end of the night anyway!)
Third band on was the death/black metal doom merchants from London that are The Heretic Order. It was obvious what was coming when the band opened with their backs to the crowd with the lights turned off and just their blood red banner on the rear of stage video screen. Then when they turned around the deep booming basslines and face ripping guitar playing was headed up by the singer El Padre, dressed as a vicar with his face covered in what looked like charcoal.
The searing, face ripping guitar playing from El Padre was equally well driven by Jamie-who looked like a Viking warrior with his flowing blonde hair. Connor (bass) had his face covered by his long black curly hair for most of the set. Meanwhile sat at the back behind a huge array of drums and cymbals was Claudio who didn’t miss a beat despite hammering the kit throughout most of the set.
If doom/occult metal is your thing then you will love these guys. With El Padre having different coloured eyes (his right eye looked positively evil, when it was open), it only added to the macabre images.
Finally up were Fahran from Nottingham. This was only their fifth gig in the last two years as they have been writing and recording their new 14-track album due for release in June. My friend Jon is a huge fan of the band; however, this was only the second time I’ve seen them, and now I know why he is a fan. Musically they are alt-rock/metal and I really like that style of music. So for the next hour I was right in my zone, listening to some of their old tracks and treated to several new ones too.
Whilst the new music was similar to their old music, it had a different vibe to it. It was not as innocent as the original stuff and was more life-worn, especially the track about Jake Grahams’ recent loss of his father. Matt Black has an unusual vocal style, whilst his spoken voice is quite middle of the range his singing voice is in a very high register, and this gives a unique sound to the band. This was well worth the visit, and I will definitely be out to see them again. The crowd absolutely loved it.