This is an excerpt of an article written by Tom Girard
Late last year Havoc Events staged a metal night at The Fermain Tavern and it obviously inspired others as, with a very similar line up, Black March was announced once again highlighting the heavier side of Guernsey music scene that is, arguably, less seen today than it was a decade or so ago.
With The Tav packed with more equipment than I think I’ve ever seen at a show Gentle Suburban Boys began the night with their usual mix of technical death metal sounds.
While things started off slightly plodding and perfunctory, as the set went on they delivered their best performance yet.
The band were correct when they mentioned I’m not a fan of their cover of Slipknot’s Left Behind (and tonight didn’t change that opinion) but a Gojira cover was another matter and it was from that track on that they seemed to up their game.
A further highlight came with Reap What You Sow and a particularly impressive solo from guitarist Matt Pyle, and by the end of the set the whole band seemed to be firing, if not on all cylinders, then certainly on more than previously, it just took a little too long to get there tonight.
With no frills and no fuss Of Abscess And Amputation tore their way through a set of uncompromising death metal.
Their ‘song title then song and repeat’ approach is perfect for this style of music as it allows the brutal and visceral sounds of the songs to do the talking exactly as they need to.
Matt Burdett’s performance mirrors this being the focal point without any need for showiness and, while it took a few songs, they hooked the audience in and even got the first mosh of the night going.
The highlights of the set came with Thinly Veiled Hate and the closing track that was possibly the hardest and fastest thing I’ve heard in Guernsey and left me wishing good luck to the rest of the night’s band’s who would have their work cut out following that.
Unfortunately for the strangely monikered Ironfoot the power, brutality and conviction of Of Abscess And Amputation was something they came nowhere near close to even approaching.
Armed with a setlist made (mostly) up of thrash metal classics including Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth and an abundance of Metallica, there’s no denying the appeal of the songs, unfortunately the delivery never quite lived up to the material.
This was compounded somewhat by the fact that lead guitarist Gordie’s solos more often than not got lost in the mix behind the slightly flat rhythm parts.
Certainly their choices of tracks are challenging and ambitious but, as they ended on a rather massacred version of Metallica’s One (the original being a personal favourite of mine), I did overhear one member of the audience exclaim this was ‘truly horrible’… that said more than a few were clearly having a great time singing and moshing along.
Starting off by dedicating their set to Cam Le Page, From Darkness proceeded to deliver the best performance I’ve seen from them.
Beginning with a more classically heavy track to set the mood, the rest of the set came in far more measured fashion than usual that, rather like Of Abscess And Amputation earlier, allowed the songs to do the talking for themselves.
This made the whole thing all the more engaging and showed that the band have a few very solidly accomplished slices of heavy metal in their repertoire that got bodies moshing and heads banging aplenty.
While things started to revert a little later in the set (I suspect as the several Bredas consumed during the performance took effect) and the decision of what to play for an encore was a little protracted, From Darkness certainly delivered their best performance to date and showed that they may well have become one of the bands to watch at the heavier end of the island’s music scene, along with the aforementioned death metallers earlier in the evening who were, if you hadn’t already guessed, my highlight of a generally very enjoyable night of metal.
