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Another charity festival takes us back on
the road South to the Midlands and once again we find ourselves returning
to The Asylum, which is turning out to be a bit of a regular haunt for us
at the moment and I have to say, this made for purpose made venue really
is a great place to put bands on.
With a trip down the night before for a
well-earned rest before the days proceedings set us up for the batch of
the finest female fronted young bands around.
As with most events these days, the
festival was plagued with misfortune when the original headliners dropped
out just weeks before the festival, although they were soon replaced by
Finland’s Amberlain Dawn, so all seemed bright and rosy once more.
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But as fate is an evil bedfellow, due to
the bands flight over to the UK being cancelled at the very last minute, Amberlain Dawn could no longer make it over, so the running order had to
be changed somewhat but this never tainted the day for anyone, except
perhaps those who had particularly ventured out to see Amberlain Dawn in
action.
Opening up these events is always a
pressure point for any band as the rest of the day is laid down on their
foundations, but Tainted Grace were well up to the task as they got the
day going in great style with their own brand of Gothic Metal.
The band led by Trissy Norris really made
their mark on this reviewer as Trissy came across a shy type but with a
vocal might that more than made up for her lack of interaction with the
crowd. This I’m sure will be remedied with more live dates and I
look forward to catching the band in action again. Along with Anthony
Quinn’s soulful guitars and Scott Collins wondrous keyboards, they are
definitely a band to look out for in the future.
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Stand out tracks of the set had to be the
opener ‘Catatonic’, which made everyone put down their beers and look at
the stage, the excellent ‘The Rapture’ and the superb ‘My Nemesis’, all
real high points of what was in fact a flawless opening set.
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Next up were Keltic Jihad, a band that as
it turned out had problems of their own as their singer Holly Bolus wasn’t
making an appearance. This left it to the rest of the band to show
their metal credentials with a rather short but equally impressive set of
only four instrumentals. Attending members Kev McCarthy, Tom Clarke,
Damien Lee, Rod Boston and Adam Jones showed what high calibre musicians
they are with four pounding metal anthems.
It wasn’t until I started the research
into each band on the day when I got home that it was announced the Bolus
had indeed left the band, so any female vocalists out there looking to
star in a pounding Dark Metal band them check out the guys website, I’m
sure auditions will be starting shortly!
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Now to the next band, the all female
quintet of Severed Heaven. A band that I’m afraid I have never seen
before and never heard anything by them, so today they were very much an
unknown quantity.
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As the band were sound checking we were
given a little sample of what was to come as vocalist Satanica tested the
mike. This quietly spoken, butter wouldn’t melt voice was shattered
as she growled like a rabid tiger and nearly blew the sound guy into the
back of the venue and even made me take a step back.
So we now knew what to expect, hardcore
driven black art metal ...
With Satanica at the helm powering through tracks
like 'Earth Delayed', 'Soul Desecretation'
and 'Whore', the metalheads in the crowd head-banged away to the bands
awesome power, with guitarists Leanne and Vanessa ripping it up in a way
that most male guitar players would envy and Charlotte on bass and Anna on
drums forming the solid backbone to the bands black dark tones.
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This is not my usual cup of tea but the
band did what they did and did it with style and angst that the genre
insists, and with them playing on the Meltdown festival at this venue
later this year, they are sure to go down a storm with the fans there.
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Next it was back to a more sedate sound
as Symphonic Metallers Apparition hit the stage complete with violinist
and cellist.
Now this band were more my style.
Led by the tall figure of Fiona Creaby the band set about bringing their
set to life from the off with ‘Frozen Roses’, with the tall figure of
Creaby dominating the stage.
The band wasted no time getting into the
swing of things as they went straight into the impressive ‘Echo’ before
introducing new guitarist John Yates. Then it was on with the show as
the band gave us a touch of Symphonic Metal class with 'Forever Guilty'
and the monstrous tones of ‘Salvation’, both really classy songs with Clearby showing us her vocal prowess on both.
The band were really going all out to
impress and they did it so stylishly with as their set continued with ‘The
Depths Of My Mind’ and the astounding ‘The Dream Were I Can Go’.
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The band showed off their soulful side
with the haunting melodies in ‘Innocent Blood’ before rounding off the set
of the day so far with the excellent ‘I Don’t Know’. These like
Tainted Grace before them, showed the immense talent Britain has to offer
the Power and Symphonic Metal genres, so keep and eye out for both these
bands in the future!
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Now to Pythia, I had high hopes for this
band with Medieval Babe "Emily Alice" on vocals but due to a cold Emily’s
vocals suffered tonight, plus I suspect the cocktail of cold remedies and
red wine Emily had consumed prior to hitting the stage assisted with her
not quite being up to par tonight.
But give her her due, she never gave up
and carried on regardless, sometimes to comic effect as she fell about the
stage giving those stage front a show as those
frilly white knickers she was wearing, which clearly went on show on
numerous occasions throughout the set.
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Again give the band their due, they was
the consummate professional as she carried on through the set of the likes
of 'Sweet Cantation’, ‘Sarah Bury Her’ and 'Army of The Damned’, although
without Alice in full flow, the songs were sadly a little lost.
However, I’ve heard enough good things
about this band and I’m sure on another day they would have really
impressed so I will give them another chance and try to catch up with them
on a better day.
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Well what can I say about Tomera? I
first heard them when they were support for Dream Theater last year and to
say the least, I wasn’t very impressed with them, so much so that I went
to the bar downstairs, as did many of the others present that particular
night.
However, I was willing to give the band
the benefit of the doubt today and would give the band a chance to shine.
Well to be honest they didn’t.
Their sound was a little too mixed up to make any
sense and there were too many individual solos that didn’t quite gel
together. Added that each band member seemed to be on a
different plain, which is a shame because they are all outstanding
musicians and Julie has a great voice, but this is not taken to its
full potential.
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I even went into the middle of the venue
to see if where I was standing was affecting my hearing, but this wasn’t
the case, it was just too much, too intense and too complicated to sit
though in the live arena.
After Tomera I was really looking forward
to Birmingham’s own Hanging Doll, a band that impressed me so much when I
caught them at Rock of Ages Festival a few week earlier, they became the
main reason for travelling down to Birmingham today, so we could check
them out once more.
With Amberlain Dawn dropping out at the
last minute it was up to Sally Holliday and the rest of the band to fill
the headline slot, which they did in superb style.
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Because of the curfew the band had only a
short set, but they rounded it off in great style with ‘Twist Of Diety’
and the superb ‘Forlorn’.
After the intro the band took the stage
and got things going with ‘Sweet Retribution’ and emphatically the band
had saved the day, as not only Sally but Daniel Leddy, Aryan Amoli, Alex
Cooper and Kev Wilson whipped up a veritable Power Metal storm.
The band really went all out tonight as
they continued with the superb ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ and majestic tones
of ‘Iniquity’. After a quick salute to Matt's birthday it was heads
down once more for 'Echo’s Of Sorrow’ and the grandiose spectacle that is
‘Blood Ridden Skies’.
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This band really are meant for great
things as they have it all, the songs, the looks, the drive to go
all the way and they put on a great live show. To those going to
catch Power Quest at Birmingham then get there early because this band is
one to see and they really topped another great day at The Asylum.
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