Take The Glory: From left to right, Jake, Ryan, Will, Robin, and out of shot is Charlie drumming.

Hi my name's Ed and welcome to the first post of When Will The Forest Speak, over the coming posts I'll be chatting mostly about local bands in the Hampshire area and the local metal scene as well as any gigs that happen, and any gigs coming up. Most recent gig I went to was in fact last night, that's the 20th of August. Venue was Alton Community Centre Lounge Bar. Bands playing were, Take the Glory, Bloodshot Dawn, No Consequence and Trigger The Bloodshed. The Lounge Bar is a great venue although it's rare to have many signed bands play it, but there's always gigs down there on Friday nights, go check their web page for more information. 


First up were Take the Glory, a Hampshire based band consisting of an excellent vocalist, two brutal guitarists a bassist and a drummer. Now I've been to see these guys a number of times and this was a tight set by them, not the best I've ever seen them play, but still good. With the exception of one or two minor slip ups, it was a very enjoyable example of a young death metal band. One gripe I have is that throughout the first song or two, the mix seemed terrible and this became a recurring theme over the course of the night. 


Next up were Bloodshot Dawn, another local death metal band. Now, I have a very changeable relationship with Bloodshot, sometimes I see them live and love every second, and sometimes I see them live and really don't enjoy them. I'm sorry to report that on this particular night, I really didn't rate them. I thought the mix was bad, and it felt to me like the crowd were of the same opinion, everyone was certainly more enthusiastic when they started but by the third song people's enthusiasm had waned and the set began to drag. Don't get me wrong, recorded these guys play some great technical death metal, but at this gig I didn't enjoy them.


Third up were No Consequence, a band who I've heard of but never had the will to look up. Have to say I loved the one note that they played for their entire set. Or rather, the one noise they played their whole set. They seemed like they wanted to be Sikth, with the two distinct vocal styles, whilst playing really technical riffs and solo's, which on paper sounds great, but it didn't work on the night that's for sure. I don't know how much of this you can really blame on the mix, but if there really was a huge technical song behind all the noise, then I sure couldn't hear it.


Last up were headliners Trigger the Bloodshed, this may seem like a shallow excuse but I only got to see half of their set on account of being carried out of the room on a huge wave of metalheads with the objective of expelling and beating some scene kid who was causing trouble. From what I did see, they were easily the best band of the night, and although this level of death metal isn't really my thing (give me All That Remains or Dream Theater any day) I thought they were a very technically talented and sounded good despite the poor mix. One thing which I object to are the band calling the audience faggots and cunts. I don't think it's necessary. But other than that whinge, they were good, not my cup of tea, but nonetheless good.


If you want to check out any of the bands, there are links to their Myspace's / Facebook's at the top of this post. Leave any comments and I might read them and reply or whatever.


Till next time,
Ed \m/