#utoxator

Id liken these to Rise Against and InMe with the screaming of early Funeral for a Friend.

The Bastard sons are up next and don't start! I know this is an extremely bias review being best man for the guitarist Alex two days ago but The Bastard Sons are a truly great band, to be honest, if I thought they were shit then I wouldn't be bothering at all! These guys have a truly awesome stage presence particularly front man JJ Jackson who rocks out like a hairy drunken gorilla even when sober (definitely not sober) Really well worked out Southern style rock mixed with metal. Anything these guys have recorded really doesn't portray the absolute brutality of the live performance! Made exceptionally apparent by JJ's lack of breath after the second song. With catchy as hell guitar harmonies, and riffs that bounce off each other in perfect timing, these guys are ones to watch! 'Winter' is a fantastic song with lyrics about Game of Thrones absolutely great to sing along to! The Bastard Sons rip up the stage each song as up beat and catchy as the last, they end the set to the epic chants and guitar tapping of 'Salem's rot' to be fair this is one of the best sounding performances I have seen from these guys.

The first of the co-headliners The Smoking Hearts open with a metric fuck-ton of alternating screams between frontman Ben and bassist Calvin, the first song soon gets everyone involved by yelling "this is time to destroy" then blowing straight into a squealing guitar solo. Introducing the next song as a 'fast heavy one' I'm surprised they can top the first one but am soon proved wrong as a wall of sound comes at me with a vengeance! Not the best sounding singing tonight but The Smoking Hearts do their best to make up for this with the intensity of the screaming, guitar and drums are technically great! We are introduced to 'shred and destroy' described as their punk song and it certainly is, punk mixed with metal, this fast paced track with plenty of screaming chants gets people moving. 'Stomper' for the ladies, this will be interesting! Slower than the rest of the set but equally as brutal! Ben throws his mic into the crowd to be grabbed by Idiom's frontman Matt Sharland for joint screaming then launched back and forward between them, a great touch which added something a bit different to the performance, I really liked it, but it could only work for a small crowd such as this. That is one hella long mic lead as Ben runs to the back of the venue to sit on the bar for the end of the last song!