Rise
To Remain
Adept, Malefice, Cytota
Birmingham, Academy 2
7th March 2012
 Cytota
wore their nerves on the sleeves from the minute
they stepped onto the stage to the minute they
left it. They supported Rise To Remain on their
last UK tour also but in much smaller rooms, I
think the larger room has rendered these young
lads scared. It affected some members more than
others, I feel that the rhythm guitarist and vocalist
were hit the hardest as the lead guitarist and
bassist after the first song began rocking out
and the drummer was on fire. I’m going to
say the nerves affected the vocals because if
they always sound like that then I have little
faith in the music, even the way the lead vocalist
would address the audience was messy and shaky.
Even though this wasn’t a great set I can
see the drummer just exploding with raw talent,
these guys will make it big one day even if it
isn’t together as a band they will all get
there one way or another I’m very confidant.
 Malefice
fell victim to ridiculous amounts of technical
difficulties which always put a downer on the
set, but this time not only did it do that in
almost completely killed the performance entirely.
The band emerged met by a huge reaction only to
kick into “Delirium” with nothing
coming out of the speakers apart from drums and
low vocals, then the guitars finally came in and
the vocals went, then the rest of the night was
victim to guitars and vocals coming and going
at random intervals, not sure what was going in
but it made enjoying the performance extremely
difficult. I’m not taking anything away
from the bands ability to perform though as its
clear as day everything’s wicked in the
monitors and they’re rocking it out as confidant
and dominant as they always are, from what I heard
of the crowd interaction from the vocalist it
was as provocative and energising as ever, you
know when it was actually audible.
 Adept
have come over to play on this tour from Sweden,
I was checking their CD’s out for a couple
days before attending and I was expecting some
breakdowns and heavy sections but always combated
with a decent amount of clean vocals, however
I don’t know if it was because they thought
they were on a really heavy tour or what but there
was less of the clean stuff involved than you’d
have thought. I get that band’s sometimes
do different vocals live to give it a bit of an
edge, Rise To Remain for example sometimes swap
the odd screaming vocal for a clean and it works,
but I mean Adept seemed to try to swap everything
for a screaming vocal, input a lot of sub drops
breakdowns as well. You had to enjoy the atmosphere
more than the and because finally after 2 acts
that were less than satisfactory the audience
have finally let loose and started enjoying themselves
which is always a bonus, and the band performed
really well it’s just I enjoyed their music
more before hearing it live, and that’s
backwards to how it normally is.
 Rise
to Remain tonight perform the 8th performance
that I have been in attendance at and if you compared
what I’ve just witnessed to the first time
I ever saw them they’ve exploded leaps and
bounds in regards to both their live show and
their writing style. The set though marks the
first time new bassist Josh has actually ever
performed a concert, but had he not told me this
before the show I’d never have guessed because
he was really into it jumping off the stage and
bouncing around, both he and new drummer Adam
performed tremendously alongside the others like
they all truly belong together on stage. Everything
was wicked to be honest even if Austin did miss
a few of his queues you can almost  forgive
the crazy little bastard because he was climbing
and bouncing off everything providing much entertainment,
he and guitarist Ben Tovey are the most confident
in what they do having a laugh and a joke whenever
they get chance. Blasting through an epic 13 song
set including tracks from their EP; “Purify”,
“Salvation” and “Illusive Existence”
alongside a hefty chunk of their debut album,
most memorable include “Talking in Whispers”,
“The Serpent”, “Power Through
Fear” and the set ender “Bridges Will
Burn”. With a slot on the main stage at
this year’s Download Festival and worldwide
touring ahead they can only progress further!
Cytota – 2.5/5
Malefice – 3.5/5
Adept – 3.5/5
Rise To Remain – 4/5
Review By James Webb
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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