Unitus supported by Delicate Children and Orbus.
Saturday 18th October 2003, Bedford Esquires.

With so many changes of this nights line up to make even the leader of the opposition ( I.D.S. ) stand up and say, “Oh yes isn’t it the case that the people in this town cant believe a word the flyers say, oh yes”. The only one I ended up remembering which was actually playing was ORBUS: As with the last time they played, they were the band who’s name I gave on the door when asked who I had come to see. They were an improvement on last time as well, Their drummer looked a tad bored while playing, but their front man kept things livelier, in having much more confidence this time – gone was the shoe gazing and there was even a welcome bit of banter with the crowd. I originally came to see this band on the strength of their C.D. (which was bloody good), that I caught before their first gig live.
When I first took on the mantle of looking after this site I was asked to filter out the Indy stuff and keep it Metal but I kind of think, hey if its live, alternative and origional I’ll include it on the site. It showed that Orbus had had even more practice, which enabled them to fit in well with the line up, and even managed to sound a lot heavier than last time round.

I must admit I didn’t know DELECATE CHILDREN were on this nights bill, which was a welcome surprise, as I liked them so much last time. They even dedicated their first song to me – ‘Cheers Ant’ thanks to Nosferatu (but that’s another story). Their singer certainly knows how to get the full vocal potential out of the mic; the sound was particularly good on the night, making the mic sound like another instrument in its self. Their songs are no basic affairs, with a high quantity of words in the lyrics, performed with arms flapping occasionally, and demonstrating a passion and zeal in to the singing, without reverting to running round the stage. – It probably takes a lot of concentration being able to remember all the lyrics they have!
Some of their songs seem so melodic and technical at the same time, which almost gives a quality of being too good to mosh to.
The guitarist, attired in sombre black and reserved movements on stage with an almost bassist’s stance in putting more effort in to getting the playing delivery right, instead of strutting out posing movements on stage.
I urge people to look out for and go and see this band live. They have a more individual style to a lot of bands at the moment and with a bit more live experience and confidence they can only get better, they weren’t even advertised – showing they are a band that are ready to play at short notice and take a place by storm. – You’ll like them, ill put my reputation on it.

I was one of the few people to know UNITUS were actually playing, (although I forgot it was this night) but was asked not to put it in the gig list because with two changes of band members, they wasn’t sure how they would go down. They must have practiced, as although having a new drummer and bass player, sounded fine and went down well. I even heared their sound –check sounded great also!
They have some dark moody dirty guitars in their Stoner sound and the usual ‘mad man on stage antics’ from their front man, tying himself up on stage with his microphone cord like a bondage fetish stage act.

The whole night had a heavier quality than anticipated, although billed more as an Indy line-up and with members from Goldigger and Chrome visiting the venue I hope they weren’t disappointed – I certainly wasn’t. Unitus well deserved the epithet of ‘And Special Guests’, and with free C.D’s thrown in for good measure, who wouldn’t be.

“Oy Keef – what of the C.D.’s themselves?” – Well they were placed on the stage in a box for people to grab for free and with individual phrases written on the disks like:- ‘Unitus have bad handwriting, Shit never sounded so good, try to crap yourself on your own, Phelps your out of the band’, making each one unique. The first track starts like a very sophisticated machine leading into a grungy guitar led, well played sound with an incendiary of rough vocals.
The second track has a real melodic start, almost disguising the types of instruments being used rather like a lute, a lyre or some other instrument from ancient Rome. (just at the beginning) and as with the third track, has an almost hypnotic instrumental sound, reminiscent of great bands like Cathedral and Sabbath, with manic gravely crafted vocals melded in. get a copy when you get to see Unitus live or contact them on their website.

Review by Keith; © www.bedfordmetal.tk No part of this review may be copied or used with out permission!!