Friday night saw the first 2017 semi-final of Metal 2 The Masses London at Nambucca in North London. Katie went along to check out how the competition had progressed since she covered Heat 7 for Moshville Times back in January.
Six London-based bands fought for just three places in the Metal 2 The Masses Grand Final and the chance to play Bloodstock Open Air festival in August.
First to hit the stage were hard rock four-piece Mordecai from Croydon who describe their sound as “dirty, over-driven guitars, in-your-face vocals, and heart-thumping rhythm section”. The band wasted no time in getting the crowd going and I for one was instantly impressed by their performance, which set the bar high for tonight’s competition.
Next up were prog-rockers Opensight who, despite being a man down, played a brilliantly engaging set that went down well with the ever-growing Friday-night crowd. The band describe themselves as “an adventurous and neurotic blend of metal, spy themes, quirky jazzy passages and powerful orchestrated sections”.
Bursting onto the stage third on the bill were five-piece groove/thrash/death/alt-metal band Sutalkerah, whose excited fans ran around the room filming the performance and each other, in-between moshing away to their favourite band. One fan even had a home-made sign covered in fairy lights… something I have never seen at a metal show before!
Following the strong performance of Sutalkerah were Dead Man’s Whiskey, who more than stepped up to the challenge. The five-piece hard-rock band posed and strutted around the small stage. I really enjoyed their bluesy-rock sound and they were a pleasure to photograph!
The penultimate band to perform were The Brood, who describe their sound as “grinding hardcore with hints of dirty punk, filthy death and evil black metal”. The band were full of energy from the very start, feeding off the energy from the crowd.
Last but most certainly not least were the band with my favourite name of the evening: Bangover. The thrash metal five-piece owned the stage from the moment they stepped onto it, and the crowd were more lively than they had been all evening.
But which three bands would progress through to the next round? In the semi-finals the score is made up of 30% crowd vote, and 70% judges vote, and tonight’s winners were… dun, dun dun… Opensight, Sutalkerah and Bangover! Huge congratulations them, and a hearty pat on the back to Mordecai, Dead Man’s Whiskey and The Brood who were also brilliant.
Following the verdict there was a set by non-competing special-guest headliners Footprints In The Custard – a five-piece comedy punk-metal band from Manchester – followed by DJs until 3am. Sadly there are no photos of Footprints In The Custard as I had to run off to catch my last train home.
The Metal 2 The Masses Grand Final will take place at Scala in London on Saturday 1 July, promising “twelve-hours of real rock and metal”, beginning with the M2TM final, followed by a headline performance by Acid Reign, then Unholy Club until 6am. Get your advance tickets online now.
Bloodstock Open Air will take place at Catton Park, Derbyshire on 10th-13th August 2017. Tickets also available now.
Huge shout-out to all the bands who played, and big thanks to Monstaents for putting on yet another fantastic evening of rock and metal – see you at the final! \m/
All photos by Katie Frost Photography
