Bedford Alternative Music Present: Countless Skies, with Immortalus, Basilisk and Feedback Aftermath..

Holy Molys Lev 1 Esquires Bedford Saturday 20th December 2014

Third time Iv seen FEEDBACK AFTERMATH now, first being when I luckily caught their set arriving early at a Danny’s bar gig earlier in the year and was instantly impressed. Second was Lev 2 for Oxjam and thirdly Holy Molys for this Bedford Alternative Music night, again totally impressing me with their energy and full on intensity. Their drummer stands occasionally to thrash the drums even harder. Their bassist seemed to be playing solo melodic, rhythms at times making up part of the tune in much the same way a lead guitar would, while their guitar/vocalist – (he’s taller than me) with hair flopping loosely to the full on power he puts in to the on stage movement, guitar playing and singing. With good tunes, well played and the vibrancy added to their playing there certainly isn’t really much wrong with this band, their singer commented that they are like the Mc Fly on the bill, but the variation of the line up worked well and was proud to have this band on the bill. Ill look forward to their next Esquires gig they have coming up in the new year.

Having successfully carried off an opening Danny’s bar slot in November BASILISK rise to second billing at Holy Molys with their progressive metal sound, making them more appealing to a wider age range of audience. As with their previous gig I noticed their singer taking a while to get in to his stride in the ‘getting in to tune’ area which soon settles in to a full on vocally in tune assault. It’s good that he doesn’t have to play an instrument also, as he has more free range to move about, which he does with a bit of on stage head banging, creating a good front man stage presence. Some good well practiced drumming punctuates their songs and not just repetitive beats either, even the bass has a chance to shine with bass solos showcasing through and just when you think the main guitar is strumming the basic tune, he lets rip with a fast gallop of guitar riffs adding an edge like any number of quality metal bands.
Being quite technical and advanced with their song writing I felt the music by numbers basic Paranoid cover by Black Sabbath was a bit beneath them although it certainly got the crowd enthused and it was a well played version. Their own material is more worthy of merit and I look forward to hearing their recordings which they say are due out soon.

It’s really not a good advert for a band to install their girlfriends in to the band area (they shouldn’t have been there) only to have them yawn, chat, and text all the time on their mobiles. It must have been a tedious half hour for them only to shoot off quick when finished. I couldn’t actually see why IMMORTALUS were that bad though and quite enjoyed their set. Getting in to the spirit of the time of year with festive (ish) bah humbug Santa hats. Their songs seem to either have a classy blues rock edge which I prefer, while others are just too James Hetfield for comfort. I think they need to drop the Metallica influences and veer more towards their own style. In some songs they do just that and the set works better for it. Not many fans to see them on this occasion, even their bass player didn’t show, but Immortalus did well to compensate, being consummate musicians their set didn’t seem lacking without the bass which they did well to get around. Excellent guitar work husky rasped vocals and pinned down with some well honed drumming through their enjoyable set, which probably couldn’t end quick enough for their girlfriends.

Relatively new band COUNTLESS SKIES were stunningly impressive here tonight. With members from Ex-Nihilo and Hatespire I had an idea what to expect and they exceeded my expectations. I don’t even think a review can do them justice more than going to see them yourselves and seemed quite refreshing as none of the previous bands adopted their style so it may have been a bit mundane if the other bands were too similar before C.S. took to the stage. They have T-shirts and C.D. ‘s available making them seem quite established. Their style I would say has quite an Opeth like sound which is high praise as far as I’m concerned, with predominantly growled vocals done so well, mixed occasionally with the awesome amazing clean operatic vocals from the other singer making for a fantastic sound to this band. I liked the way their singer guitarist alternated with posing shapes with their bassist for a while. Moving over to the other side of the stage to throw some guitar shapes with the other guitarist who played some blindingly good and intricate structures, all well timed, stopping and starting with precision timing. I was interesting to see people wondering from Lev 2 liking what they hear and staying a bit to watch. A fine way to end the nights proceedings!

Countless Skies C.D. Review

Feedback Aftermath Vid

Basilisk Vid

Countless Skies Vid