BEDFORD METAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS 07

 

The Bedford Athletic Rugby Club (The Ath.) Bedford. Friday 30th November 2007.

Slave To Nature, Ex-Nihilo, Streetsleeper, Minimal Damage.

Grand Final. Winners - 1st Minimal Damage 2nd Streetsleeper.

Photos courtesy - James - http://www.myspace.com/phothography

The Grand Final

3 Days in a London recording studio, 100 music centre vouchers, Sid Stock and River Festival 2008 gig slots, other venue gig placings, award shields, T-shirts and badges, were some of the items on offer to aim for on both winning and getting as far as this years Grand Final.
30 bands, 6 heats, two semis, a new bands final and a grand final made up the Bedford Metal Battle Of The Bands 2007 held over 3 months at two venues (Civic Theatre and The Beds Ath.)

A lot of faffin to begin with but wanting to put on a show, conscientious and caring very much about their performances SLAVE TO NATURE displayed a blinding opening act.
Their Drummer started off in an orange boiler suit and boil he did. Needless to say it wasn't worn throughout the set.
The vocals sounded at first as if he was breaking them in and not delivering a perfectly tuned pitch to start with, but got decidedly better as they went on and found their ground. The melodic parts of the singing is so good, I think heavy growling like most other bands would spoil and compromise their individual sound. They all have a mic. and screams are thrown in to the vocal mix also. The tunes and guitar work were as good as ever and their bassist always takes up the area well, jumping from both levels on the stage. Unfortunately for Slave To Nature, I can not find anything I don't like about the band, so can't recommend anything to improve them. They also had a great crowd reaction and interaction with the audience which makes for a great set on this first-rate opener.

This is turning in to a bit of a 'Johnny Guns' fest, with the unmistakable guitarist appearing in this band as well as the previous. I first came across EX-NIHILO at the Metal City in Leagrave when they first approached me with their new C.D. at the time and had their previous lead singer - (a noisy bugger who makes loads of noise when your trying to make a phone call!) who had came down special to see them. You couldn't fault the new singer's style though, both heavy and melodic where it needs to be. Their bassist blew me away with some amazingly powerful singing also.
They put on a dramatic opening, advancing in singular entrance to the stage before delivering a tight, well practiced, smoothly run, flowing set, keeping the bench mark just as high at this stage of the night.

No Johnny Guns this time, even though there are only three making up STREETSLEEPER who are really cool guys from Hearts, with a great attitude and a sound that's more rock than Blackpool, playing a pure classic traditional brand of rock. They took a while tuning in but worth it when they finally got started.
Their Keith Flint (of the Prodigy) haired singer throws out some powerful highly professional vocals to their tight sound, which overall sounds quite classy, but tends to sound the same standard fare, in that although the guitar work is extremely good, it doesn't seem to have any outstanding guitar riffs or bursts of intricacy and just rolls along at a standard but likeable pace. It was great to see that the younger members of the crowd were moving about to this older band who added to the two way positive rapport between band and crowd and give the impression that they are experienced enough to look as though they gig every day.

The last act of the night and indeed the whole battle of the bands, partied out with a ska punk band MINIMAL DAMMAGE first coming to the scene during Bedford Metal's two day Bed-Rock festival. They have a happy, boppy, erm. Ska re sound, with a really good brass section adding a great dimention to the band.
I don't care much for the non variable, rap style hard man vocals and as with most ska sounds, their set started to sound all too samey as the set went on. Their set didn't seem brilliantly organised, as though they were winging it as they went along. I also thought there would be more movement from the audience, but being the only ska band on a predominantly rock/metal band line-up, they were apart from the front row, unable to get everyone skanking along, as though they had been tutored by the totally unoriginal guide to motivation - extra generic edition.
Although this gig seemed a tad rough round the edges, their brass section though appears highly skilled and ads a sound more colourful than if Jackson Pollock had wiped his paint brush on it.

Slave To Nature

Ex-Nihilo

Streetsleeper

Minimal Damage


For more photos of this gig see 'Gig photos' button at top.

Keith www.bedfordmetal.co.uk