So into Bogiez again for another night of heavy metal, this time the headliners were Scottish road dogs Attica Rage and support was coming from to local bands.
Black Light Machine
Swansea's Black Light Machine play riff heavy metal with some progressive influences. However from the off it was clear that something was wrong as the band did sound a little out of sync, this may have been because of the lack of Chris Angelow's lead guitar which had been waylaid by some technical hitches, the sound engineer John valiantly tried to make BLM sound as good as possible through the trouble but ultimately the first two songs felt a little flat due to just having the one guitar. However when normality resumed the band continued with their riff driven metal. Frontman Andy Markin has a strong keening voice and lays down a functional rhythm on guitar that adds to the powerful rhythm section, however despite their prowess as a band a few of their songs did drag on a little too much, there is a fine line between progressive and boring. A good opening set that was plagued by some pretty major problems. 6/10
Tidal
Another Swansea based band in the shape of Tidal who have groove laden classic hard rock that spans Led Zeppelin, Clutch and even throws in some funk and blues into the proceedings. The band stormed through songs from their debut album, whipping those that were near the front into some serious head-banging. The band are made of Adam Vaughn's guitar prowess melding light and shade, dirty riffs and soaring solos, the drums of Joe Wilkes were tight propulsive and in places deafening, through Caged Bird, Like The Wind and Beautiful Ugliness the band rarely let the pace drop except when needed and were driven by the ripping bass of man-mountain Joe Lewis and huge range of Adam Payne who has a cracking voice that can hit stratospheric high notes and also has some great stomping and leg shaking on the guitar solos and lead breaks. Their set was over in a flash and by the time The Tide was played the band had won over the crowd that were there with their excellent groove filled hard rock sound and great live performance that should be in arenas. 9/10
Attica Rage
Attica Rage have been doing the rounds for a few years now and have gathered a loyal cult following due to their relentless touring and no nonsense attitude. The band have the ethos of Lemmy and co which is; plug in, shut up and play Rock N Roll in its purest form, big dirty riffs, pounding rhythms, shouted vocals and bags of attitude. I know very little about the songs they played but what I could tell is that they were all big, heavy biker rock anthems, delivered with authenticity and gusto, that got the partisan crowd going, the set came from their three albums with a focus on their latest release 88 MPH and they built the set up to a great crescendo of their anthem Back To The Old School. The band were very professional and obviously honed from their years of touring meaning they had razor sharp delivery but enough louche-ness to be an authentic hard rocking hard drinking band. Together Jonny, Ritchie, Stevie and Colin make a hell of a racket that is enough to get the heads banging and the fists pumping. They also do a heavy metal version of Crazy Horses which was very silly but still heavy as hell! 8/10
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