Juniper Hollow (La Riots), Beyond All Reason, Showing Tonight.

Bedford Esquires Lev ? 30th March 2007.

As always, Paul Craven’s One For The Underground showcases brings a much needed dose of Metal to Bedford’s music fans; this evening, the last Friday of the month, has in store not only a great mix of local talent in Showing Tonight and Bedford legends Juniper Hollow, but future heroes of metal Beyond All Reason.

SHOWING TONIGHT have obviously brought a crowd with them tonight, as they open with some eerie sounding electronica and wailing guitars, before a dark metal chug breaks loose alongside some gut-wrenching bass. As the Enter Shikari-style hand-clapping kicks in their harsh-but-catchy sound builds to a frantic pounding and smashing. With their mixture of sung and almost vomited lyrics, and an tangible energy to their performance, it’s hard not to find this band’s catchy screamo enjoyable.

York based metallers BEYOND ALL REASON are up next. Tonight they’ve stepped out of the headlining spot in favour of local heroes Juniper Hollow (or should that be LA Riots? More of that later…) but don’t let that fool you, these boys are perfectly capable of holding a crowd and blowing Esquires apart tonight, as there recent press coverage has suggested. Think the accessible metal and soaring choruses of Bullet For My Valentine and Lost Prophets, combined with the screeching power/battle metal of 3 Inches of Blood and you come somewhere near Beyond all Reason’s awe inspiring sound. Beautifully singable, yet bursting with aggression and raw energy, Beyond All Reason produce a near perfect, CD quality performance of precision and power. The press have labelled them the ‘British Trivium’, and watching tonight you can’t help but feel privileged to be seeing them, as it can only be a matter of time before their talent for mainstream metal sees them reaching the heights of other promising British metal bands such as the afore mentioned Bullet For My Valentine, Lost Prophets and other Esquires favourites, Mendeed.

JUNIPER HOLLOW might be unsure about their name (it’s currently in the process of changing to LA Riots) but there is definitely no uncertainty when it comes to the music; their huge fan base has arrived en mass tonight, and although they’re not perhaps as tight and as polished as Beyond All Reason, Juniper Hollow put on a performance of equal excitement and intensity as the York Metallers, with anthems like ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ more than justifying their place at the top of tonight’s bill. With the melodic anthemic emo-tinged songs popularized by Hundred Reasons and abrasive guitars that drown amongst the lead singer’s waves of passionate screams, this performance will surely leave the band on a high as they prepare to enter the studio as LA Riots, under the watchful eye of mentor, manager and Metal promoter extraordinaire, Paul Craven. Watch this space.