ELEMENTS OF REFUSAL, HELMINTHIAN,
IONEYES, KNIEVEL GENIUS.
The Beds Ath. Wentworth Drive Putnoe
Bedford.
Friday 21 July 2006.
Schools Out For Summer gig.
Elements Of Refusal, Helminthian,
Ironeyes, Knievel
Genius. (flyer)
Keith. www.bedfordmetal.co.uk
After a long gap after their intro and a wide gap between the band and the
audience KNIEVEL GENIUS, with a great stage
presence, warmed up the evening further with a great performance. Despite the
sultry summer heat, they put everything in to it, engaging the people enough to
venture forward slightly. They moved well on stage more than the heat wave
struck audience. Their drummer especially put a lot of effort in to the pounding
beat, while the front man made his welcome presence felt in the performance. I
couldn't help thinking that these guys are such accomplished musicians, that if
given the chance, could have just about played anything on request! Bought in at
short notice, reliable and always up for gigs, you certainly couldn't say that
they failed to deliver.
This next band were new to Bedford, ignored by Esquires I have to say IONEYES
were a great discovery. They live up to their own description of themselves. -
Everything what it says on the tin and more! An absolutely fantastic vocal
range, not sung by someone merely filling in for the vocals, but an actual
proper singer who totally impressed me with the diversity of the singing range.
The songs themselves live up to match. Heavy, mild, and bursts of
atmosphere-laden riffs. This is the sort of band where a C.D. would be well
received to appreciate their material at your leisure. Each member of the band
auditioned for the part, to produce the finest of collective talent. "This
ones about my ex girlfriend" exclaims the frontman before going in to the
next song about a bitch.
As with the first band, the guitarists leapt from the stage in to the crowd,
this band jumping in unison and collapsed to the floor in a dying fly position
while thrashing their guitars to an awesome finale.
I wanted a chance to try a new band to the Ath. and a heavy band for this line
up and have to say, they in no way disappointed. - They return for a BOTB gig
coming up so look out for 'Ioneyse' for future gigs.
It seemed HELMINTHIAN, was the band everybody had
came to see. Their fans making use of the outside chill out areas, between
bands. Their gig was a bit of a party with inflatables kicking around, totally
wanting a grand entrance to masturbate his alcoholically overindulged ego, the
insanely grinning growling front man ploughed his way through the performance,
engaging with the up front audience as much as he could. The precision drumming
and melodic beautifully tuned guitar work bursting with skilled riffs is the
mainstay of how good this band is. I love the intelligence of the guitar work
and tunes and the use of symbol crashes on some of their songs. Thanks guys for
a great gig.
Rather disappointing that Helminthian destroyed all atmosphere created, by
disappearing outside and their adoring audience followed them and not giving the
fine headliners ELEMENTS OF REFUSAL a chance to
demonstrate why I think this band are so amazing live. With sweet, well
practiced drumming elevating the sound of the other instruments, Luton band
E.O.R. are nothing short of a 'Class act'. They know how to deliver. Even their
bassist - a part of any band that can be forgiven for being the still background
entertainer, but here leaping, doing the splits running round and giving an
entertaining and manic performance and as with all the performances, putting
everything in to it. They are a sort of metal/punk infusion with a screamo edge.
They have a gig at Esquires coming up and I recommend you go and see them!
A shout to Unclassified, HeKz and Dilenquents, whose support from some of their
band members was seen in the audience. (This review is dedicated to all the
drummers of the show, relentlessly putting all the fast moving energy in to the
performance despite the humid sweaty weather).