Last night rocked and the 3 of us had such a great time. I didn't expect to enjoy Kyrbgrinder as much as I did and that goes for my brother and friend who also came along. We were invited as guests which meant the 3 of us got into the venue for the price of 1, and the bands organiser Sherry (who has a small company called UK UNSIGNED Rock) bought us 2 pints which was really cool of her. Sherry, Johanne, Ben and Dave were all nice, down to earth people who came over to chat occasionally. Thank you all.
We got to the venue at approx 7pm and the 1st band from 8 were playing. The other 7 were from Wales who I believe were involved in a 'battle of the bands' type thing, Kyrbgrinder were guests and were the 4th band to play. Each played for approx. half an hour. Most of the bands had something to offer except the 2nd band who were kind of like Blink 182 which doesn't do anything for me. All bands were under the UK UNSIGNED Rock banner. When Johanne walked into the main room about 10 minutes after our arrival, he saw my Threshold Subsurface t-shirt and smiled, so it was then that I walked over and introduced myself.
Sherry then came over not long after and did the same.
When the band were setting up their gear, we made our way to the front with full pints so not to go without halfway through their set.
What came after was brilliant to see and hear.
Johanne singing and playing drums was a sight to see, fantastic job and he can sing bloody well too. As a rule, metal bands have 2 double bass drums and a variety of drums and cymbals/percussion, but Johanne has a small kit with the 1 double bass drum and does the job superbly. Seeing him on the Critical Energy DVD is impressive, but he's definitely gone up in my estimation.
The guitarist Ben gave off a wicked vibe that enhanced my enjoyment as you could tell he was really enjoying himself, moving about a lot and headbanging.
Bassist Dave looked more than capable and focused on his playing whereas the other 2 were 'rocking' for lack of a better word! Johanne introduced 'Fall Away' by saying this song is for the Threshold fans.
Of course he was referring to the similarity of the song title, and when 'What About Me' was playing I had the biggest grin that I couldn't get rid of if I tried.
Later on I saw Johanne in the toilets and expressed my thoughts and as he was so appreciative, as always, he gave me their demo which was selling at £5 so another thumbs up to Kyrbgrinder's main man.
I've been listening to it a few times today and it's excellent, all 10 songs (yes I did say ten!) are quality slabs of 'groove' metal. I can't really pigeon-hole them but they have some thrashier elements, latter day Overkill springs to mind, and some punk and funk is thrown in there too. All with a good dose of melody too. However there are no ballads.For the rest of the night, we got chatting to Ben (I didn't speak to Dave myself, but my friend did) and a few people and the place seemed to be buzzing while the other bands were playing and in between. All in all, a brilliant night and plenty of lager washed down our throats. Pure quality! :Smokin:
Thanks again to Sherry for making us feel welcome and for the drinks, the main man Johanne for the demo and being so pleasant, Ben and Dave. We'll be checking you out soon where possible.
Check them out at
www.kyrbgrinder.com or
www.myspace.com/kyrbgrinder (features 4 full length songs).
