Top Bands Show How It's Done
A quiet and next to lifeless town called Minehead that settles just by the seaside is the one I referred to in a previous review as a dud. The picturesque atmosphere proved it, but tonight that was changed as the quiet little town was woken up by three bands - the first who have a liking of "Creamy mons", the second with a drummer who generally just likes to strip and the last with the odd habit of fisting badgers. This quiet little town were going to experience something they weren't likely to forget.
First up were the rising stars of Minehead - melodic metal band Zoltar Speaks who set the night off with a bang. With front woman Louise Body belting away with a magnificent vocal delivery and being sided by rhythm guitarist Jason Coles - who, if you were to see for the first time in your life would seem to have a strange personality disorder of pulling various yet amusing faces frequently - to the sound of Oli Smith's guitar that resonated beautifully before the ferocious breakdowns with the teamwork of drummer Ben Dean and bassist Shane Yard, with the definitive highlight being 'See You in Another Life Brother' that was, in a sense, a badass mashup between 'A Metaphor' and 'This War', before ending the set with the beautiful ballad of "Treatment" - 5/5
Devonshire based band Cambion can't be allocated within a certain genre, providing a broad range between melodic metal with clean vocals, to experimental sounds with essences of sci-fi progressions emerging from song from their EP such as "Quantum concept" to the epic storyline of "Virus part II". But one thing for sure is that they managed to rip shit up from the brutality of "Death March" and the infectious jumpy anthem of "Jester". The exchanging lead roles between guitarists Elliott Alderman-Broom and Liam Neary proved to be extremely effective with the powerful bass riffs from Colin Beale and the relentless technical drumming from Frank Dennis proved the answer of why this band were voted as the 'Breakthrough Band of 2011' - 5/5
Headlining band Mad Hatter 2.0 came on for the final set of tonight, with high expectations to be met after the last two bands. They certainly met that expectation - along with the promise of a firm fisting and vocalist Marc Cleave wandering about with his wireless microphone. From the dark riffs of "Save Me" the infectious moshing grooves of "This is a War" and the Groove Metal anthem of "EMT". The roaring crunch of the guitar from Paul Vyse was rivalled from a guest appearance from Cambion's own Elliot who performed one of the solos on "Considering This" off the Mad Hatter 2.0's latest EP was a spectacle in its own right, with the lovely combination of Hayden de Nooijer on bass and Kurt Johnson on drums that remained consistent throughout the whole set that made the night one that Minehead was not likely to forget -5/5
First up were the rising stars of Minehead - melodic metal band Zoltar Speaks who set the night off with a bang. With front woman Louise Body belting away with a magnificent vocal delivery and being sided by rhythm guitarist Jason Coles - who, if you were to see for the first time in your life would seem to have a strange personality disorder of pulling various yet amusing faces frequently - to the sound of Oli Smith's guitar that resonated beautifully before the ferocious breakdowns with the teamwork of drummer Ben Dean and bassist Shane Yard, with the definitive highlight being 'See You in Another Life Brother' that was, in a sense, a badass mashup between 'A Metaphor' and 'This War', before ending the set with the beautiful ballad of "Treatment" - 5/5
Devonshire based band Cambion can't be allocated within a certain genre, providing a broad range between melodic metal with clean vocals, to experimental sounds with essences of sci-fi progressions emerging from song from their EP such as "Quantum concept" to the epic storyline of "Virus part II". But one thing for sure is that they managed to rip shit up from the brutality of "Death March" and the infectious jumpy anthem of "Jester". The exchanging lead roles between guitarists Elliott Alderman-Broom and Liam Neary proved to be extremely effective with the powerful bass riffs from Colin Beale and the relentless technical drumming from Frank Dennis proved the answer of why this band were voted as the 'Breakthrough Band of 2011' - 5/5
Headlining band Mad Hatter 2.0 came on for the final set of tonight, with high expectations to be met after the last two bands. They certainly met that expectation - along with the promise of a firm fisting and vocalist Marc Cleave wandering about with his wireless microphone. From the dark riffs of "Save Me" the infectious moshing grooves of "This is a War" and the Groove Metal anthem of "EMT". The roaring crunch of the guitar from Paul Vyse was rivalled from a guest appearance from Cambion's own Elliot who performed one of the solos on "Considering This" off the Mad Hatter 2.0's latest EP was a spectacle in its own right, with the lovely combination of Hayden de Nooijer on bass and Kurt Johnson on drums that remained consistent throughout the whole set that made the night one that Minehead was not likely to forget -5/5