Gig Review

Emmure
Caliban, After The Burial
Birmingham, Academy 2
15th November 2009
    
          
Emmure         Caliban                After The Burial     
             
Photo Of Caliban © Copyright Robert LawrenceWell what was there to say about getting to the academy 2 tonight, try to get in and was told there is no guest list, luckily it was just the promoter forgetting to give the guest list to the box office, D'OH! I also missed Doctor Who for this as well!

Totally Missed the first band on, by the time i got in for the second band, they were about to start, when After the Burial got underway, the look on there faces, they did not look they could be bothered to be there, that pissed me off, seeing as some people there were there to see them, it doesn't make for a good vibe. The venue wasn't even a 3rd full tonight, but no excuse for not having fun, the front man/singer seemed game enough though. The music was very repetitive, the lead guitarist was good, but the music on a whole seemed very generic, the scream/squealed vocals, wasn't really working for me tonight, they can be hit an miss, tonight was miss. The rest of the band finally got into it near the end of the set, but starting off, looking pissed, wasnt on for me!

Next up were Caliban, a band i heard many hear had came to see, so i was hoping they'd be good and prove the que hype! Well i was happy to see the band were up for it after the previous band, but the music it was ok, the vocals were more screamo stuff, but i could barely hear the drums over the drone of the guitars and bass. There were some decent heavy melodic moments, but they were few and far between. One thing i noticed was that the first few rows were really into Caliban, then there was a gap where a half arsed pit opened up, then what looked like statues, the majority of the crowd just stood there and looked on, apparently they just weren't all that, but they put on a good spectacle at least.

Photo Of Emmure © Copyright Robert LawrenceHeadliners were Emmure, just another band like the ones that preceded them, im pretty sure you could have just changed there set list around and no one would be the wiser. A cheesy line the singer said was, this is for all the decepticons out there, before launching into Soundwave Superior. There set sounded pretty much similar throughout, id tell you you more of the songs they played but i could hear the vocals too well, the lyrics couldn't make them out really! They put on a good visual performance, the frontman constantly moving, occasional looking like a rapper, spitting his verses throwing his arms out there. But on whole, the performance seemed average, nothing really setting them a part from any other of the bands that played, they all could have headlined as the musicians all seem competent enough to do such a job, basically tonight, there were 4 bands that sounded very much alike, i think anyone normally would like some variation, to break things up a little, but tonight it was all very samey!

After The Burial – 2/5
Caliban 3/5
Emmure 3/5

Review By Robert Lawrence

 Emmure


Frankie Palmeri
Jesse Ketive
Mark Davis
Mike Mulholland
Michael Kaabe

 Caliban


Andreas Dörner
Denis Schmidt
Marc Görtz
Marco Schaller
Patrick Grün

 After The Burial


Justin Lowe (Guitars)
Lee Foral (Bass)
Anthony Notarmaso (Vocals)
Dan Carle (Drums)
Trent Hafdahl (Guitar)

 Band Related Links
Emmure Myspace
Caliban Myspace
After The Burial Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?