August 3, 2005
Another week at Junktion 7 and this time we’re disappointed to hear that Clamp In Charge had dropped out in the last minute, meaning there were only three bands on tonight. We can safely say that they were the worst band of the evening. Their lack of music had no dynamic or emotion and there was a complete absence of stage presence. So they may as well have not showed up.
Luckily Balance Of Silence dragged their arses up from Leicester to play tonight and kicked off with a powerful, emotional and passionate performance. These guys play with such conviction it’s scary. With two guitarists that vary between fierce riffs and drool-worthy solos, this bunch knows how to smack an angry nail on the head. Using booming bass and breath-taking drumming to add real backbone and strength to the songs, Balance Of Silence produce extreme zealous metal charged with emotion. The vocalist moves between melodic and tuneful singing and full on gut-wrenching screams. With his relaxed and friendly stage manner, he puts the audience at ease, so they can get on with some serious moshing and head banging! Balance of Silence were really tight and seemed so very comfortable blasting out this brand of angry and hungry music, even though at times it did lack build up. They used well-constructed songs create a mass of sound and certainly let us know that the night was well and truly underway.
7Stone took to the stage second with more members than last year, and had obviously evolved their sound. With a heavy edge to their emotional concoction of indie and grunge rock, they pushed through a set of infectious and moving songs. The vocals are really strong and clear and had a deep growling feel, which reminded us of Eddy Vedder, with the drums and bass keeping a steady flow to the songs and the guitars using simple riffs and catchy solos to drive them forward. They appear in a confident mood, with plenty of movement from the frontman, in his bin-man hat and with the guitarists donning dodgy sunglasses they really looked like they meant business. Unfortunately, at times the singer seemed a bit uncomfortable without his guitar and after a few songs 7stone seemed to lack variety, The songs could have had more changes in tempo and texture and a few ‘break downs’ wouldn’t have gone a miss. With the strong vocals, the frontman really added emotion, if the music could build this up more, 7stone could really have an extra edge to their sound. Better than last year but still more to come one thinks.
To wrap up the evening Death Bed Blues expose us to some moving psychedelic rock and after the first two bands intense emotion, it’s a welcome come down. Using some beautiful instrumental tapestry, Death Bed really know how to use dynamics to build their songs. The songs varied well, with injections of vocals and harmonica at random but well-timed points, they showed plenty of imagination. In many parts of their set, they seemed to conjure up half the music at will and even though they were tight it still had a relaxed and laid-back flow. The drums and bass had upbeat and funky feels with lots of movement and with the guitars using a mix of rock and blues scales, they showed plenty of skills. This mix of 60’s and 70’s blues-rock n roll was really easy to listen to and its good dynamics pushed beautiful and trippy frontiers. Death Bed Blues have a very original and interesting sound that moves like a fast roller coaster getting higher and higher and not stopping until the wheels are ready to fall off. It is brilliant and intelligent music that blows your mind and embodies coolness itself.
And the winners of Junktion 7 Battle of the bands 2005, heat 4 were Balance of Silence
Writen By Steph + Gaz
