Aliases

The Hope

Sunday, 24th April 

Appropriately named the 'Tech Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself Tour' this night really needed little introduction. Arriving at the venue saw a wide variety of Tech and Metal heads eager for the onslaught of 7 string wizardry.

Since the demise of SiKth in May 2008, Tech has grown from strength to strength and now the world watches eagerly to see what guitarist Pin has up has sleeve.

First band we saw of the night were local Once A Wolf. Since releasing their EP 'Advent' in February this year, the band have been gaining a stronger following with their performances in and out of Brighton. 

The experience they have gained in the last few months has obviously done them well with their performance delivering more aggression and authority than I have seen before. Steve Powell's vocals have made a massive improvement, nailing the clean sections with style and the screams with the supposed anthropomorphic qualities their name suggests. 

Highlights of the set included a tight rendition of 'Primeval Atom' and dusting things off with their EP's title track 'Advent'. With the way things are going for the band, it won't be long till Once A Wolf are on the prowl again in a town near you.

Cyclamen were very much a new band to me, but boasted a performance worthy of the entry fee alone. Frontman Hayato Imanishi greeted the set jumping straight into the audience in a manner that would also see him shouting straight into peoples faces and climbing The Hope's central pillar. 

Featuring Monuments guitar player Olly Steele in the mix the band sounded tight and maintained a heavy presence throughout the whole set. Songs such as the un-acknowledged 'Djent! Djent! And 'Never Ending Dream' created momentum and energy on the floor. Cyclamen were absolutely great emotively creating an heir of unsatisfied desperation whilst raising the flag for modern 'd-jent'.

Break Ya Neck

Metal has come a long was since Steve Vai put his name to the first mass produced 7 string in the early 90's. It would appear that Chimp Spanner's sole commander Paul Ortiz is here to push that envelope further, forgetting industrial sized hair dryers to preen his ego but instead choosing substance over style. Their set for me stole the night and by the audience's reaction of gaping jaws and raised horns I wasn't alone.

As the set continued the band reach unchartered levels of intensity, and the dirty bastard even got his 8 string out, causing the earth to quake and hell to open.

And just like Paul the band he had assembled were equally matched in proficiency. The drummer was groovy, tight as fuck and one hell of a showmen, demonically gurning at the crowd and spinning his sticks as if it were all just a walk in the park.

To anyone who believed like I did, that 'djent' is just a load of trendy bull shit-that quite frankly Meshuggah have done already and better, listen to Chimp Spanner. Just be careful, your head might explode.

Headliners Aliases come to tech your tits off and oh boy were my tits teched. What is odd though is how little exposure this band have had outside of their sole release: 'We Never Should Have Met'. 

But, I like a lot of members of the audience were gagging to see what kind of sick (or SiKth) shit well renowned bad mother fucker of the 6 string axe Graham 'Pin' Pinney was going to pull.

Expectations can be a cruel thing, but not when they are blown to smithereens. Within seconds of the set opening vocalist Jay Berast was upfront spewing a monstrous vocal performance down the mic and the band collectively stepping up the energy on stage than the other acts.

As expected Pin was an absolute behemoth on the guitar just like fellow axe-women, Leah who together displayed enough fret tapping to put Van Halen out of work.

The bands material is strong and although similarities between them and SiKth can be drawn it's obvious they're evolving on their own terms. Aliases are a band to watch, and fuck me they can play.

Underground