August 26, 2006
Captive Audio
Newcastle based band Captive Audio are misleading on first sight, they're 3 piece and so you tend to expect a bit of emptiness and a lot of simplicity, especially when metal is on the menu. Well, the cynical smirks were wiped off the faces as soon as they began. Fluctuating and often experimental, but still solidly structured. Powerful build-ups with some impressive riffage swooping between the epic and the raucous were brought crashing back down to earth with superbly timed drop-outs going into eerie and effective breakdowns. With a very One Minute Silence edge to the bass, it provided a solid and complex reinforcement to their sound. Imagine Boy Hits Car with female vocals and without the Indian scales.
http://www.myspace.com/captiveaudio
El Cielo
El Cielo are a band we've seen and reviewed a good few times before and although we haven't seen them for a while we know exactly what to expect. They have a new Ep out and and have been in and out of the studio, so they've got some new tracks to showcase tonight. El Cielo's breed of progressive screamo metal is certainly unique, i haven't heard anything quite like it, but it seems they've created their own genre and are adamantly sticking to it. The tracks are long, complex, unorthodox and technically impressive, with drawn out instrumental sections and varying vocals patterns throughout, but that is the same for every track. It was a great performance tonight and the excellent and unsurprisingly epic 'Icon' from their new EP was executed brilliantly, it is however the only track i've found of El Cielo's that has a lyric line that manages to actually stick with you.
Illuminatus
Illuminatus come onto the stage to a long ominous intro with underlying politically inspired samples and of course the presence and charisma we have come to expect. This intro gave way to a sudden angry onslaught of the grinding distortion and slow powerful drums getting their set officially underway. Driving metal riffs overlaid with passion fuelled vocals give immensity to Illuminatus that few rarely achieve. Long powerful instrumental sections using soaring classic metal solos alongside thrashing riffs show how insanely tight they are, despite having a stand-in bassist for tonights show. The stage show is obviously important to this band, although it's a simple and well-used image their togetherness is impressive and dominating. There's simply no compromise in their energy and and sound just because they are without their usual keyboards and a permanent bassist. These guys must be aching for the right line-up to come along, because they need to be heard by the millions of metal fans that were not at Junktion 7 tonight, and frankly, their loss.
Rise to Addiction
Rise To Addiction are a band surrounded by a buzz at the moment with a fair bit of radio interest (including Extreme Radio and XFM) and plenty of successful headline shows around the UK, so we were interested to see what all the fuss was about. I have to admit, two songs into their set we were still wondering, with what seemed to me like over-used riffs and vocal patterns and some pretty dodgy lyrics, I was hoping this would be another band that made it big on their charisma and cheese factor alone. But, as it went on I was gladly proved wrong, once we'd got past the 21st century Black Sabbath stage. In the last half of their set, their style came into it's own. The drummer really impressed and was probably one of the most imaginative on stage. They were tight as hell and with a frontman most bands would lose a few limbs for, you can see why they've made impressions live. It was a cracking performance of 'Everlasting Wave' from their current EP that began the second half of their set and it was from then on that made me see why all this hype is not wasted. Check them out.
http://www.risetoaddiction.com/home.htm
Reviewed by: Steph
