@alpaca.presents
by Brandon van der Berg @vdb.brandon
The 28th of November will easily be remembered by myself and everyone in that room for years. The performances given by the bands was an unexaggerated 10. Nothing short of an iconic and powerful bill who sold out the venue room and delivered performances worthy of that. Every audience member assuredly went home satisfied and gratefully enthusiastic about the music they heard, the people they met in an incredible atmosphere and an all-round beautifully fantastic night of polished entertainment and artists displaying their craft in a definitive punch. Read about the night below. BLADE OF GRASS It is very much like Papa Roach was fronted by Alanis Morrisette and they kept asking System of a Down to turn down but they ignored them and gradually took over the sound system. They are perfectly in the middle of high energy and slow dad rock. The same is reflected in their performance which has a somewhat cinematic nature to its slow tempo but an active entrance and delivery. Everything felt in slow motion, with no impact lost. The frontwomen is incredibly surreal and when she closely guards her ribs with her elbows, tensely holds up her shoulders and twists around the stage it feels uncannily immersive. There are some FANTASTICALLY crafted melodies that flow in a crude rebellion to bad taste and engage you wholly. VERY COOL “The other day I was at my house and so was Matt and he stole my butternut squash and he’s brought it with him” *Brandishing a butternut squash* Crowd “WOOOOO!” The music evolves into something Iron Maiden-like. The drummer is totally satanic. Something feels very dark, possessed and absolutely unsettling about his performance. His clean, very well-groomed appearance mismatched with fantastically big breakdowns and a cultish delivery imbed a sense of unease and discomforting coolness. What I simply refuse to understate is how much this band blew me and everyone else away. What a downright incredible set with terrifically developed and physically enthralling songwriting. My head had a f*cking mind of its own, I could NOT stop headbanging. For Fans Of System of a Down, Alanis Morrissette and Papa Roach Find them on Instagram or Soundcloud BENEATH PURPLE A classic feedback queue to introduce the set. The way the guitarist was throwing himself headbanging, I know his neck is gonna HURT the next day. The performative intensity right from the start is commendable and well done. The belting melodies are very memorable, in fact, the only time I had heard of this band was when one video popped up on my Instagram feed a while ago and just from that I could sing along to the first chorus. That’s how you know you’ve written a gooden. Listen to that song here. It is very existential. You can visibly see the drummer’s perfectly still face becoming a pendulum of blood as he throws his head up and down. The melodic integrity and control over thematic upset holds up passionately over the arrangement and has a power over you to pull and sway you. I would say that a strong start is less important than a consistently maintainable level of power throughout and that the performance clearly took its toll as the show went on. But also probably because it was 5,000 degrees in the venue for the duration of the performance. There is a lot of dramatic influence as an audience member in some of the synchronicity employed in their performance it feels very smooth and fluid and combined with the crowd-killing music adds a great deal of momentum to the viewing. It generally gets heavier and I prefer that, the arrangement progresses into a more careful craft and has way more impact. A seriously magnificently choice of cover is Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”. It had everyone, including myself going absolutely feral from the moment the first chords were played. For Fans Of Evanescence and Slipknot Find them on Instagram or Spotify MANDRAGORA If there is any young metal band you should be paying very close attention to right now, it is Mandragora. Mandragora frontwoman Maisie’s approach to vocal melody is simply breathtaking. The emotional nuance behind that subtle vocal tremolo and the jaw-breaking lyricism employed by her came as no shock to me having seen one song of theirs live before although this was directly countered by the bassist getting his hair accidentally caught in the guitarist’s strings and fight wrestling to get it out while still trying to perform which had me in hysterics. Although I don’t think many people noticed so you’re good guys! Oh dear, the hair thing happened again and that looks painful. The arrangement would make a hungry bear sh*t in excitable fear. The biggest pain for me was constantly having to define which Ryan I was taking notes on since both guitarists are called Ryan and neither are easily distinguishable by rhythm or lead guitar as an audience member because both left and right Ryan seem to be virtuosic on the guitar. So I’ll do it like this for your reading pleasure and so you know who I’m talking about if you want to see their next show. Which I highly recommend you go to. LEFT Ryan Left Ryan is blonde. Left Ryan is the poster child for Good Time Having Geezer’s World WideTM. Left Ryan was astoundingly versatile as both a performer and personality on stage and there is something to be said about how fantastically both guitar tones were crafted. RIGHT Ryan Right Ryan is brunette. Right Ryan looked somewhat surprised to be there sometimes. Right Ryan was an emphatic guru of snarling cheers and thunderous prosperity on his instrument and as a performer. This wall of stringed intensity on either side of the stage lifted everything tenfold and the harmonies in their arrangement and the care put into their writing both shows and wows. Quite frankly you couldn’t have picked a better drummer for this band in the Tri-State area so I will dub Riley ‘Dr. Doofenshmirtz’ for the purposes of this write-up. Every hit is titanic, every crash is metallic china smashing in a gothic hall and every kick is a harrowing punt to the sternum. Hearing their first time let go on stage; It’s like Mike Tyson connecting a right hook to your incisors. Clearly, there is an argument to be made that too much hair was wiggled and wagged on stage for their own good but a sound rebuttal would easily be made upon seeing how dauntingly kick ass he looks helicoptering it around, Kieran is a beastly powerhouse. Because of his height, the weight he holds on stage needs no introduction but you are sure to be reminded of the amount of ground he can cover in such a short amount of time and how present it feels as an audience member. The tension in every area of Maisie’s performance is outstanding and the painfully caressed movements explore and capture the gentle, existential parts of the music breathing like fire onto her performative dynamic and employed in contrast to the insane musical arrangement going on around her. It really, really works. Every part of this set was authentic and awe-inspiring and honestly quite easily the best metal show I’ve been to in Bristol. For Fans Of Kill Switch Engage, Counterparts and Trivium Find them on Instagram
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