Dripback
are the first up tonight, and are pretty much
beset with a problem to one of the guitarists
amp heads, which causes him to miss some of the
set, but gets back into it somewhere near the
end, the sound does get a mishmash at times trying
to identify which genre it's supposed to be, can't
say I'm a fan of the screamed vocals but he's
aggressively delivered like the music, I've never
been a fan of hardcore as it sounds like noise
to me most of the time, I think the point is to
be aggressive as possible within the structure
of a song, I've seen it done well and I've seen
it done shit, this floats somewhere around the
former, one real annoyance is the drum sound,
the Tom seems to pop and sounds more like a bongo,
it grates! But the guitar work is good, the bass
tone is pretty cool and different, and nice to
be able to hear it too, all on all there not bad
but could do with some direction in the set, as
it sounds like a bunch of songs or varying genre,
entertaining though.
Lionheart
are the next band up, their a bit more to my liking
it seems a bit more coherent and palatable more
controlled if you will. The crowd has come alive
and the hardcore dancers are out too, had to dodge
a few kicks even in the toy pit!! The guitar work
isn’t too bad as are the vocals palatable
too, I guess this band follow a more traditional
song structure I guess, the riffs are heavy but
I've no idea what the lyrics are, there's lots
of swearing. And one of the guitarists is really
enthusiastic with ye olde F bomb, it gets tiresome
rather quickly! There an ok band but nothing to
really bang the drum about.
Main
support tonight are Heights, a band like bring
me the horizon, they have youth on their side
to go far, they have some fairly decent songs,
not much of a fan of the vocals, but then what's
new there!! The riffs aren’t too shoddy,
catchy at times, good solid drumming but they
really lose me when they really go flat out boarders
too much on being noise instead of a song. There
does seem to be a few people here just for heights
but the further back you go in the crowd the more
the wrinkles start to show and you see who's here
for biohazard. Not a bad set their a band with
a lot of potential.
Biohazard,
there a band I've been seeing adverts for as long
as I remember but never really ever thought to
give them a try, better late than never I suppose.
I guess there not as extreme as the other bands
on the bill tonight but are clearly the most well
structured and polished of all the bands naturally
with experience on their side as a massive bonus
and a hefty back catalogue to choose from, they
opened there set with, Urban Discipline, What
Makes Us Tick, Chamber Spins Three, there's plenty
of controlled aggression in their set, welcoming
people on stage only for them to a bit of stage
diving which isn't reserved for just the crowd,
I guess live crowd integration is integral to
their set. This is the liveliest crowd I've seen
so far this year. Their a fairly decent band,
they have some solid riffs in their arsenal of
songs with plenty of heaviness and catchiness
thrown in, I can see at times the influence they've
had on other bands I listen to and enjoy, they
blister on with the likes of Reborn, Black and
White and Red All Over, Down for Life, Retribution,
Come Alive. For a band that’s been around
for as long as they have, their a tight unit,
they close out a fairly decent live set with Love
Denied, Punishment and Hold My Own, I can’t
say this has been the best night of music for
me, but it flew by like many a hardcore dancer
before me that I had to dodge.
Dripback 3/5
Lionheart 2/5
Heights 3/5
Biohazard 3.5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
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