We are back again for the next instalment of competing bands playing their hearts out for the top prize of performing on one of the stages at the main festival for metal music in the UK. And it gives me immense pleasure to start this review by stating that, unlike last week, we have a full line up of four bands this time around. With the unfortunate circumstances having a band pulling out last week, it left a small void with something missing (well… a band, obviously! But it seemed more than that). Even though we were given a headlining band to fill the empty slot, it took away that sense of competitiveness from the night. But tonight also came with a surprise to me towards the end of the night, which I will come back to later on.
Without further ado, we get to kick off with the first band of the evening. Force of Mortality were listed first on the bill. This band I believe is from here in Oxford and have been on the scene for close to a decade. Their music covers a vast array of metal genres, primarily heavy metal, with a touch of prog and thrash thrown into the mix. A mass of spectators instantly moved to the front of the stage the moment the band started playing their first song.
It was clear to see that they had not performed for a period of time, and after doing a small bit of research post event, they had been on a break for a large amount of time, and this clearly showed. They lacked confidence on stage and their overall performance just seemed to be missing an edge. Do not get me wrong, they still performed a particularly good first song to which I really enjoyed, however, that is where the start of their issues became apparent.
Due to poor communication from the sound engineer, once they finished, they dropped their instruments and preceded off from the stage. It was their understanding from the forementioned sound engineer that it was their warmup. Unfortunately for Force of Mortality, their time slot had started when they started playing, and there are strict guidelines for the set times for each band. It was not too long before they retook to the stage and continued with their set, but the damage was already done.
This major upset just had a domino effect, knocking their confidence further. This to me was extremely upsetting, as something so trivial as communication has now potential hindered this band’s progression further into the competition. Regardless of the result at the end of the night, I hope that Force of Mortality can accept this small incident as a learning curve and come back and show us what they are truly made of.
Next up onto the stage is a band I have been hearing good things about from the grapevine, or should I say the beer garden. Halfway Home are a five-piece, alternative metal band from Buckinghamshire. They completely changed the atmosphere in the venue right from the start. Their sound took me back to my youth, with what I can only describe as a metal crossover of artists like Fallout Boy and Avril Lavigne with a much more modern twist (I hope this does not offend them in any way). It certainly was a unique sound, with great backing vocals working in fantastic harmony.
As for stage presence, they have clearly been performing for a great deal of time, despite being quite young looking. Confidence is one of the key aspects that I look for in a band, and they were definitely not lacking any this evening. Their movement on stage was, despite being such a small stage, extremely energetic, slowing down during parts of their music, and speeding up in coordinated sync. A great first heat from this band and I have a feeling we have not seen the last of them.
OK… now as a reviewer, I am screwed. Seriously, what do I write about this next band? Not only have I seen them perform six times, reviewed them five times, done a face-to-face video interview with, been quoted in their online bio, become friends with, I even work with one of them on our Manic Mondays radio show on Moshville Radio. If you have not gathered by now, I am clearly talking about Stone Soup.
If last year was not enough for these guys, they are back again despite making it all the way to last year’s Grand Final. Clearly being finalists is not enough for them. They want that title, and they want to perform on The New Blood Stage at Bloodstock. As per their performance tonight, I could just simply copy and paste from any of my previous reviews. As usual they were flawless from start to finish. I cannot reiterate how much these guys sound like “Blues Brothers meets Metal” and their merch game is still standing strong, with the addition of kitchen utensils this year. I do not know if I want these guys to change anything from their set or allow me to write something new. But either way, it is always a pleasure to witness Stone Soup on stage.
We now arrive at the last band of the evening, This Dying Hour. Another fairly local band bringing us some tasteful metalcore, a subgenre of metal that has started to become part of my every day listening thanks to last years M2TM. Because of this I have some high expectations for the next thirty minutes, and I was not disappointed. From their first song to the last, they played some magnificently heavy riffs, perfectly timed drops along with some ever so impressive screams. To go with this, they performed with a formidable stage presence for the mass crowd standing directly in front of them. All of their music seemed to have a deep, intense emotion and passion within the lyrics, without any one of their songs having that “samey” vibe to them. Should they progress further, I can see this band posing an extreme threat to others in this competition.
The night has almost finally drawn to a close, and if you remember right back in the first paragraph of this review, I said that I had a surprise coming to me? Well now its finally time to expand on that. With the Two Face Promotions team being a man down for the evening, they were unable to start tallying up the voting slips from the crowd and make the announcement that voting was officially open, so with that I was asked to take to the stage. I did not have to perform for thirty minutes, nor deal with the pressure of being in a competition. I just simply needed to inform everyone that voting was open, and they only had fifteen minutes to vote for their favourite band of the evening. But that did not stop my heart from pulsating faster than ever, or having sweat pour down my face like a waterfall. But I managed to complete my task along with an even greater role of announcing both the judges’ and crowd votes once the slips had been tallied up. Just doing this has given me a slight insight into what it takes for these guys to be up on that stage with all eyes of them. To all the bands that I have seen in the past, and to all those many bands in the future, I certainly tip my hat to you.
So, I had the immense pleasure to announce that the first-place crowd vote went to This Dying Hour along with the second and fairly close crowd vote going to Stone Soup. The judges vote was a close decision too, but Halfway Home had impressed them enough to progress through to the quarterfinals.
