Date: 8th of August. Venue: The Bitter End Romford. Acts: Nothing Gained, Black Polaris and When All Else Fails.

So finally I am treated to a night of senseless brutality! The Bitter End had promised the up-and-coming Bleed From Within and the melody raping Hideous Miscreation! But alas I am disappointed again, as it soon transpires that both had pulled out and hastily the bill was filled by unheard of (by me) Black Polaris and When All Else Fails; bands that are also dedicated to bludgeoning it's audience to death sonically, so my disappointment was short lived.

First band up however were the aptly named 'Nothing Gained', a female fronted (sighs) nu-metal like band from the London/Essex area. Inspired by this band, I have begun writing a separate blog on the topic of female fronted metal bands and the sad state of most of them being really fucking lame, so look forward to that!

For me, this band summed up EVERYTHING I hate about the Essex alternative scene; the main point being that mostly it's members are stuck in the past. By 'the past' I mean these people seemed to have stopped being interested in new bands/styles in the scene around about 2001; so Linkin Park, long dyed black unconditioned hair and chains on jeans are still genuinely enjoyed. Nothing Gained look, sound and smell cheesier than Fred Durst after a 2 year tour of the world, with no shower and being completely fuelled by Wotsits.
Their sound was a Tesco's value grade soup of all the most obvious bands to be a fan of in the alternative scene of the last ten years; Korn, Slipknot, Machine Head, Disturbed etc. Combine this with a deplorable lack of stage presence and you end up with a band that has fuck all to give... Oh! Nothing Gained! Now I get it!
The fishnet-clad lead singer to give her her due, could sing and scream well; but as the rest of the band drowned her out it hardly seemed worth her being there at all!

Now I could go on and on about the bands appearance, believe me! But as the main criticism I've been getting has been that I write too much, I'm just going to proceed onto the next act; Black Polaris.

Black Polaris are as Deathcore as it gets; fringes, skinny's, bruuutal band logos on their t-shirts, and planet heavy breakdowns with glass shattering screams and brown note growls. Since Deathcore is the big issue in metal culture today, I would like to declare my colours; I quite like it. I like it in the similar sense of when people say they like Girls Aloud, it's the metal equivalent. It's not really doing anything different or special but nonetheless it's entertaining. Predictable but enjoyable, kind of like Suicide Silence.
Black Polaris give it a hefty go at trying to get the audience going, but as the Romford alternative scene hasn't quite got death metal yet (presumably because of it's lack of turntables), the most the band gets is a few lads down the front and a few pricks at the back shouting "you're shit!" Shame.

I'm barely over the fact that Nothing Gained had a longer set than Black Polaris, when 'When All Else Fails' begin. The Terminator 2 theme heralds their arrival and builds the tension; it's a bit of a cheesy move, and one that is sooooo 21st century pop culture reference humour, but I'll never say no to a sweet injection of nostalgia. The first thing I wrote down when this band started playing was; "talent". They seemed so comfortable onstage! Leaping, flopping and running about on/off stage and into the feeble crowd, passionately requesting for the crowd to move forward and giving the finger to the loud mouths at the back. This band were a joy to watch, fast, furious and simply too big for the Bitter End.
Primarily a hardcore band, obviously some second wave death/deathcore influence though, with some great screams and chugging guitars.
The only problem being the short length of the set; I'm sure WAEF could have gone on all night for the small collection at the front who cared, but alas licencing forbids them from continuing.

Here is where I end for this week; apologies for how long it took to get this up on Blogger, life's a complex rubix cube and it throws you a few curve balls. Priorities etc. Any, hopefully you enjoyed this blog and you'll read my next featuring;

Electric Child House
States of Emotion
The Jayways
and
London Blackmarket

Peace ma Ninjas!


http://www.myspace.com/nothinggained
http://www.myspace.com/blackpolaris
http://www.myspace.com/waefuk