The Haunted/ Mercenary/ Needleye
The Camden Underworld, London, 1/11/2006
By James Willcock
Id been looking forward to this gig for some time, despite the number of decent live shows going on at the minute. The reason for this was two fold- not only are The Haunted a personal favourite of mine, but the opening support was Needleye, a band local to London that I have been following on and off for three years now. I hadnt seen them play live for over two years until this gig, and since then theyve changed line up (including the addition of ex-At The Gates and The Haunted Adrian Erlandsson on drums) and their sound (for a full report, look out for my review of the demo from their new album- coming soon).
So I arrived at the Underworld to find Needleye already on stage. One of the first things I observed was that the crowd were clearly enjoying Needleyes performance- I dont think Ive ever seen that many people bother to move down towards the front stage area of the Underworld. Personally, I was enjoying it from the get go. These days, Needleye play a thrash/ melodic death hybrid with a particularly noticeable Fear Factory influence (although not nearly as much as their older material). Duncans vocals always impress me, especially given the fact the band are only just making it out of the local underground, while Im loving the more blistering guitar playing Fletch and James have adopted. Meanwhile, youve got Adrian Erlandsson behind the drum kit- I dont think I really need to say anything else.
Of the material I heard, it all seemed to be new material from their latest release, Ode to None, although I only recognised So Help Me God, the song that closed their half hour long set. One of the few problems I had with the performance was the lack of bass-end sound in the music, a feature also present on their demo. Although it does mean the other elements are clear to hear, it leaves the overall balance sounding lightly tinny and lacking in body. I am willing to bet this is simply due to the continuing absence of a full time bassist from the line up (although someone was playing a bass on stage), a problem I hope they remedy soon. Overall though, the best opening act Ive seen in a long time. And as a final treat, I now finally own one of their legendary T-shirts which reads Cunt on the front and You Are What You Eat on the back. Well, I think its funny anyway.
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the gig didnt continue when Mercenary took the stage. Im writing this review several days after the gig, and I had to look up on the The Haunteds website who the support was, as I seem to have blanked the experience from my mind. However its all come flooding back to me now. Im not going to say that they were bad in the sense that they couldnt play, its just they were power metal. And I dont like power metal. If the whole of metal was comparable to the world of film making, then thrash would be war films, death world be horror and power metal would be musicals. Or to put it more bluntly, I think power metal is gay. Im sorry if this offends, but like I just told you, Im the kind of guy that wears around a T-shirt that says cunt on it. Interpret that how you will.
Anyway, in an attempt to bring you a piece of unbiased journalism, Mercenary are a Danish 6 piece that fuse power metal with very melodic Scandinavian death. Their lead vocalist focuses on the clean, power metal wailing vocals (one of my main problems with the genre- they just grate against me), with backing vocals provided by the keyboardist and bassist in order to give greater vocal range and depth to proceedings. The result is power metal with a heavier twist, that although played perfectly well, I simply didnt enjoy very much, and neither did much of the rest of the audience, judging on the lack of enthusiasm shown. Put simply, an odd choice of band to support someone such as The Haunted.
Anyway, that minor ordeal dealt with, The Haunted were up next. Opening with The Flood, the first full tack from their new album The Dead Eye, the band, not surprisingly grabbed the full attention of the crowd, with a moderate size mosh pit opening up almost immediately. As I was expecting from a mini tour to herald the release of the new album, there was a significant bias of material towards the new album, however I was still disappointed, both for the fact that its always better to hear the old songs you know best rather than new material, but also because the latest album is probably their weakest so far (for my full thoughts on this, look out for my upcoming review of the album). The set contained The Medication and at least one other new track before closing the encore with The Guilt Trip. However, it wasnt just the bias in material from The Dead Eye, but the fact they also chose to play more material from rEVOLVEr, including 99 and No Compromise, at the expense of material from the first three albums. If I remember correctly (which, lets be fair, theres a good chance I dont), they also played Shadow World (the only song from One Kill Wonder), The Hate Song, In Vein and opened the encore with the Dark Intentions/ Bury Your Dead couplet. Much as I love these songs, where were D.O.A, One Kill Wonder, Under The Surface, Leech or Undead?
This minor winging aside, The Haunted, as could be expected, played extremely well, with Peter Dolving looking his usual, deranged self whilst performing, and talking to the crowd in between songs, and Anders Bjorler guitar playing was all you could expect from someone whos been playing in top notch Scandinavian metal band for over 15 years. As a side note, I also spotted Adrian Erlandsson side stage during the encore, quite intently watching the band, but in particular Per Moller Jensen on drums, playing.
The crowd were a decent, well behaved one, with a good mosh pit being sustained for the course of the hour or more long set, and a fair amount of crowd participation in the vocal parts, particularly on the older classics.
Overall, this was a very good gig, let down slightly by a bad choice of main support 8/10
The Camden Underworld, London, 1/11/2006
By James Willcock
Id been looking forward to this gig for some time, despite the number of decent live shows going on at the minute. The reason for this was two fold- not only are The Haunted a personal favourite of mine, but the opening support was Needleye, a band local to London that I have been following on and off for three years now. I hadnt seen them play live for over two years until this gig, and since then theyve changed line up (including the addition of ex-At The Gates and The Haunted Adrian Erlandsson on drums) and their sound (for a full report, look out for my review of the demo from their new album- coming soon).
So I arrived at the Underworld to find Needleye already on stage. One of the first things I observed was that the crowd were clearly enjoying Needleyes performance- I dont think Ive ever seen that many people bother to move down towards the front stage area of the Underworld. Personally, I was enjoying it from the get go. These days, Needleye play a thrash/ melodic death hybrid with a particularly noticeable Fear Factory influence (although not nearly as much as their older material). Duncans vocals always impress me, especially given the fact the band are only just making it out of the local underground, while Im loving the more blistering guitar playing Fletch and James have adopted. Meanwhile, youve got Adrian Erlandsson behind the drum kit- I dont think I really need to say anything else.
Of the material I heard, it all seemed to be new material from their latest release, Ode to None, although I only recognised So Help Me God, the song that closed their half hour long set. One of the few problems I had with the performance was the lack of bass-end sound in the music, a feature also present on their demo. Although it does mean the other elements are clear to hear, it leaves the overall balance sounding lightly tinny and lacking in body. I am willing to bet this is simply due to the continuing absence of a full time bassist from the line up (although someone was playing a bass on stage), a problem I hope they remedy soon. Overall though, the best opening act Ive seen in a long time. And as a final treat, I now finally own one of their legendary T-shirts which reads Cunt on the front and You Are What You Eat on the back. Well, I think its funny anyway.
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the gig didnt continue when Mercenary took the stage. Im writing this review several days after the gig, and I had to look up on the The Haunteds website who the support was, as I seem to have blanked the experience from my mind. However its all come flooding back to me now. Im not going to say that they were bad in the sense that they couldnt play, its just they were power metal. And I dont like power metal. If the whole of metal was comparable to the world of film making, then thrash would be war films, death world be horror and power metal would be musicals. Or to put it more bluntly, I think power metal is gay. Im sorry if this offends, but like I just told you, Im the kind of guy that wears around a T-shirt that says cunt on it. Interpret that how you will.
Anyway, in an attempt to bring you a piece of unbiased journalism, Mercenary are a Danish 6 piece that fuse power metal with very melodic Scandinavian death. Their lead vocalist focuses on the clean, power metal wailing vocals (one of my main problems with the genre- they just grate against me), with backing vocals provided by the keyboardist and bassist in order to give greater vocal range and depth to proceedings. The result is power metal with a heavier twist, that although played perfectly well, I simply didnt enjoy very much, and neither did much of the rest of the audience, judging on the lack of enthusiasm shown. Put simply, an odd choice of band to support someone such as The Haunted.
Anyway, that minor ordeal dealt with, The Haunted were up next. Opening with The Flood, the first full tack from their new album The Dead Eye, the band, not surprisingly grabbed the full attention of the crowd, with a moderate size mosh pit opening up almost immediately. As I was expecting from a mini tour to herald the release of the new album, there was a significant bias of material towards the new album, however I was still disappointed, both for the fact that its always better to hear the old songs you know best rather than new material, but also because the latest album is probably their weakest so far (for my full thoughts on this, look out for my upcoming review of the album). The set contained The Medication and at least one other new track before closing the encore with The Guilt Trip. However, it wasnt just the bias in material from The Dead Eye, but the fact they also chose to play more material from rEVOLVEr, including 99 and No Compromise, at the expense of material from the first three albums. If I remember correctly (which, lets be fair, theres a good chance I dont), they also played Shadow World (the only song from One Kill Wonder), The Hate Song, In Vein and opened the encore with the Dark Intentions/ Bury Your Dead couplet. Much as I love these songs, where were D.O.A, One Kill Wonder, Under The Surface, Leech or Undead?
This minor winging aside, The Haunted, as could be expected, played extremely well, with Peter Dolving looking his usual, deranged self whilst performing, and talking to the crowd in between songs, and Anders Bjorler guitar playing was all you could expect from someone whos been playing in top notch Scandinavian metal band for over 15 years. As a side note, I also spotted Adrian Erlandsson side stage during the encore, quite intently watching the band, but in particular Per Moller Jensen on drums, playing.
The crowd were a decent, well behaved one, with a good mosh pit being sustained for the course of the hour or more long set, and a fair amount of crowd participation in the vocal parts, particularly on the older classics.
Overall, this was a very good gig, let down slightly by a bad choice of main support 8/10
