Reviews

First Blood - Music Review at The Exchange, Bristol

Posted on: 2015-08-22

First Blood came on to ?Girls just wanna have fun? by Cyndi Lauper, which was brilliant, then straight into ?Enemy? from the ?Silence is Betrayal? album. From then on, to be honest it was an all out assault on the senses.

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Once I heard First Blood were rolling in to town I knew I needed to get a ticket and head down for this one, the rest of the line-up wasn’t too shabby either.

Nihility are an exciting prospect, really abrasive. They had a strong death metal influence with some lurching beatdowns thrown in for good measure. Sounds like they have a decent scene in Southampton and these guys are worth keeping an eye on, to be honest they wouldn’t really have sounded out of place on Relapse Records roster around a decade ago.

Tempers Fray are a solid band. I’ve seen them a few times; they set up, beat you around the head with their groove laden beatdown, then leave. The good thing about them is there’s plenty going on. They’re a band that yeah – they have big, hit you in the face beatdowns that make you want to destroy someone, but they are definitely technically proficient and this might well help them rise above their peers. Look out for their next release - if ‘Gainsay’ is anything to go by it’ll be a right scorcher.

This was the first time I have seen No Second Chance in a couple of years – my old band had the pleasure of sharing the stage with them, and they were always energetic and a formidable live band – they have stepped it up and got a lot more recognition in the past couple of years – has this slowed them down or gone to their heads at all? Not one bit.

Re-energised with their new vocalist Adrien, hearing ‘Depatures’ always puts a smile on my face. They threw some new stuff in there also, and it’s heavy stuff indeed – always enthusiastic and passionate until the final chords ring out – just a great overall hardcore band. From what I understand the new vocalist also lives in France (the rest of them are based in London) if that’s not dedication I don’t know what is! Cursed is out soon on the legendary Rucktion Records, look out for it.

First Blood came on to ‘Girls just wanna have fun’ by Cyndi Lauper, which was brilliant, then straight into ‘Enemy’ from the ‘Silence is Betrayal’ album. From then on, to be honest it was an all out assault on the senses. People who have always loved Beatdown like myself were licking our chops at the thought of half an hour or so of politically charged mosh – they took it on the chin that they weren’t playing to a packed out venue and had fun anyway, the crowd participation was great and FB kept the pace consistent. People were wiping sweat from their brows at the end and checking for injuries (hip Injury for me- just noticed earlier in the shower) The new stuff sounds great; based on the new track they played the new album will be a cracker.

Everybody left satisfied with the night in general – cheers for BCHC for being daring enough to put a Tuesday night gig on - because to be honest if people didn’t make the effort and take risks with gigs we would have no decent hardcore gigs to go to! Also have to mention that the atmosphere was good, there was some hard mosh going down but everyone was spatially aware and no one was targeted - bodies flying from side to side and everyone had a smile on their face. Despite the physicality of gigs like this, it had a good balance and everyone had a good night.

4/5

Reviewed by Nick Clay for 365Bristol - the leading events and entertainment website for Bristol

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