Bloodshot Dawn, Seprevation, Triaxis - The Exchange, Bristol
Across the bridge to Bristol for a hell of line up featuring Wales' own classic metal band Triaxis, Bristolian death/thrash mentalists Seprevation and Portsmouth technical death band Bloodshot Dawn. There were two other bands on the bill but we missed them due to other factors, but still for £6.50 we got three excellent bands and one of the most surreal nights I've ever witnessed.
Triaxis
Welsh metallers Triaxis are going from strength to strength, they are currently recording their third album and we were promised a sneak peek of two songs from said album. Now to address the elephant in the room, this was a Halloween show with all the bands and indeed a lot of the fans in fancy dress. Triaxis went all out with the band decked out as The Zombie Village people and kicked things off with Sand & Silver the pounding drums of Giles The Builder were like skull cracking metronome and they worked well in providing the bottom end with new girl Becky's Rickenbacker bass, who in her biker with handlebar moustache get up resembled a female Lemmy (Surreal moment number 1). The riffs came thick and fast from Soldier CJ and Cop Glyn, with elements of Maiden, Priest and even thrash bands like Megadeth, the riffage was sublime, the solos of Glyn melted the fretboard and CJ's rhythm guitar just brought riff after glorious riff. Finally to top it all off were the sublime vocals of cowperson (political correctness here you see) Krissie, there aren't many vocalists that are still audible when the mic is about a foot away from them, the power this woman has is amazing. We were taken into twisting metallic rhythms of Sker Point and the excellent Some Things Are Worth Dying For which gave a nod to of what to expect on the new songs with a war theme and heavy weight music. As we collectively got our breath back and massaged our necks, it was time for the new songs, first up was Victorious which brought forth the heavier new sound and saw Krissie in full Xena mode. Finally the Welsh band left us with the the might of Death Machine which ended the set strongly. Triaxis have always been good but by mixing up the set list a little and adding the new tracks it showed that they are both progressing strongly as a band and producing some more top quality metal!! 9/10
On a personal note, the band paid tribute to a of fallen brother the Musipedia's during their set bringing a little tear to the eye of myself and Mr Hewitt. So thank you guys, we appreciate it so much.
Seprevation
Back in May I’d seen Seprevation serve notice of intent with half an hour of blistering burning groove laden thrash which was sufficient for me to purchase their debut Consumed, an album that spent several weeks on repeat in the car. Blessed with an excellent sound tonight, Seprevation turned in a performance several levels above that one in May and possibly took all the points on the night. Dressed as superheroes, well, Batman, Spiderman, Superman and of course Willyman, the Bristolians provided a thrash onslaught which once again highlighted their excellent musicianship and song writing. The band started as they meant to go on with a maelstrom of riffs, blast beats and shouts on the excellent Servants Of Suffering before rapidly moving into Slave To The Grave and Sarcophagal Chamber. The first three songs battered you like a fight with Manny Pacquiao with the band drawing most of their set from their debut album Consumed they played a relentless set of death infused thrash with everything coming at lightning speed, lots of shredding, powerhouse drumming and the semi-death vocals of Lluc Tupman combined to get the healthy crowd moshing and thrashing away. This included the surreal sight of a Ewok in the middle of the pit at one stage (surreal moment number 2) However they drop a point for their cover of Iron Maiden's The Trooper no matter how good it was, and indeed it was good. If these guys can maintain the momentum they have a great chance of progression and I’d love to see them on the Sophie stage at BOA next summer. 9/10
Bloodshot Dawn (Review By Paul)
Fresh from an impressive main stage opening set at BOA, Bloodshot Dawn has already delivered one of the albums of the year with the recently released Demons, full of high quality compositions and technical death metal. In the club environment Bloodshot Dawn are in their element and tonight they were excellent again. Buoyed by the release of Demons and a successful UK tour, and assisted by the excellent sound, newie Smoke And Mirrors kicked off proceedings in fine form with Josh McMorran and Ben Ellis soloing as if their lives depending on it. In fact, such is the shredding prowess of these two that later in the set, when asked what the audience wanted, one wag shouted out “less shred” which raised smiles all around. The Bloodshot set was a mixture of new tracks from the new album and older tracks from their self-titled first album. Vision, The Quantum Apocalypse and Archetype merged seamlessly with Unified amongst others. Technically Bloodshot Dawn are in a class of their own, dynamic structured songs with massive blast beats and a driving rhythm section and most importantly some huge hooks which leave the songs in your head for ages afterwards and after a slow start the crowd increased in both size and ferocity with Josh instigating a brief wall of death at the end of the set. One of the most important bands in the UK metal scene today, Bloodshot just keep getting better and better. 9/10
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