After waiting
outside the venue for what seemed like an eternity we were treated
to a sadly shortened 3 song set from young Scottish metallers
Turbyne.
The band made an excellent impression on the growing crowd as they
powered through their Maiden/Dream Theater/Killswitch Engage inspired
tunes, most notably the lengthy instrumental in the middle of the 3
tracks. A band to look out for in future, this 5 piece from
Dumfries got the punters warmed up well for the main event.
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Blaze Bayley and his
band entered the fray shortly afterwards, and with a fantastic
new album 'Promise and Terror' to promote, thundered headlong
into the set with the energetic 'Madness and Sorrow' taken from
that album. Blaze's vocals have never sounded better in
the live setting, and its smaller venues like this where they
sound best. Following up with 'Blackmailer' from previous
album 'The Man Who Would Not Die', the band got into their
stride, Blaze giving his all again with every line he sang, at
times looking like a man possessed!
Special mention must be made to
the band, especially guitarist Nico Bermudez and drummer Larry
Paterson, who make the band sound so thunderously heavy.
Larry also looked absolutely knackered tonight and seemed to be
drawing upon his last reserves of energy! |
The band ploughed
through tracks old and new, and notably played more from their
last album than the new one. From the new CD we got to
hear the crunching '1633', the brilliant 'City of Bones'
and the juddering 'Faceless' (during which Blaze forgot the
words and had to refer to his lyrics folder!), as well as the
autobiographical 'Letting Go of The World', which was incredibly
belted out even heavier that it seems on record.
Older classics such as the monster 'Blood and Belief', the
all-too-brief 'The Launch' and 'The Man Who Would Not Die'
followed, including two tracks back to back from Blaze's Iron
Maiden days - 'Futureal' and the epic 'The Clansman' (which had
your correspondent doing a Scottish jig, no less), each track
sounding as heavy as the last.
It's a mark of the quality of
this band that such terrific tracks as 'Watching The Night Sky',
'Born As A Stranger' and 'Speed of Light', among others, did not
get an airing tonight. |
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Finishing off with the thrashy 'Robot'
and the crowd favourite 'Kill and Destroy', the band proved
tonight that they are on an upward spiral. Hopefully they will get
more credit than they deserve in the rock press after performances like
this. This is the 3rd year in a row I have seen the band in such
an intimate setting, here's to another tour next year!!
Review by: Dan
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