Artist: Maylene and the Sons of disaster

Venue:  Manchester Academy, Manchester

Date:   2 December 2009

Even though it’s still early, the venue is pretty full by the time Taste of Chaos openers Maylene and the Sons of Disaster take the stage. Having only been over to these shores a few times before, the majority of the crowd are somewhat unfamiliar with their material but thankfully don’t take too long to get into the groove as the band win them over fairly quickly with their ‘down-on-the-bayou’ brand of hard rock that sees a good proportion of the audience banging their heads and shaking their asses. 

The most noticeable thing though is the absence of regular (but by no means ever-present) frontman Dallas Taylor. The band have become a bit of a southern-rock Travelling Wilburys of late anyway with band members often being replaced when on tour so it doesn’t really come as a surprise when no real explanation is given in regards to the former Underoath vocalist’s whereabouts. Thankfully though, his shoes are amply filled on this tour by He Is Legend frontman Schuylar Croom, who comes across like a hard-rock Jim Morrison, flailing his body around the stage, oozing southern charm and sex appeal and having the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand within the first few songs, a là the Lizard King himself. 

The result of this is that Croom has added a new dimension to the band tonight and given Maylene’s recent shift in styles somewhat to a more Southern-rock and groove-metal sound, (with no disrespect to Dallas Taylor) it may not be such a bad idea if Croom was to stick around for a little longer than this just this one tour.

 Hopefully, no matter who is playing in Maylene down the line, based on tonight’s performance, they will be back for a full headlining tour in 2010. 

Review by: Adam G

 

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