Gigs

Gig Review: As I Lay Dying + GOTK + Veils

Venue: Barfly, Cambridge
Date: 24 March 2008

Veils are first-up and are immediately confronted with a venue that’s at capacity. Seems the world and his wife want to hang around for this Manchester quartet of metal-heads and they are duly rewarded. They play rapid, death metal with elements of thrash and hardcore thrown in for good measure and have quite an impact as a mosh kicks off instantaneously. A few idiots start running across the circle pit before launching themselves into any unsuspecting crowd members - inadvisable in such a tight venue - it’s not long before a bouncer moves in to stop a punch-up breaking out. The lead vocalist is keen for more and he looms over the barrier with one hand on the low roof, supporting himself, screaming encouragement. “I want to see more of this dancing. It’s fucking mint!”, he yells, before proudly announcing new track ‘A Resistance To Exist’. It’s like listening to the end of the world - a mixture of booming double-kick, cascading tom rolls, tightly-coiled guitars and brutal, roared vocals. They pause to launch a few CDs into the crowd before assaulting us again.

I last saw Glamour Of The Kill supporting the raging metalcore of Darkest Hour in January. They seemed rather out of place then and nothing appears to have changed. They play a kind of emo-inflected rock with a double vocal that never really rises over the sound of their echoing widdly-widdly guitars. They’ve adopted monikers such as Mikey Massacre and B. Brutal and hide behind coiffured, razored hair. ‘Hearts Burst Into Fire’ is still pretty weak vocally but I quite like the riffs that drown them out. It’s certainly their best song to date. I’ve already made my feelings on this band known so I’ll just suggest they choose their tour slots with a little more care in the future.

Following a long delay and a seemingly endless series of sound-checks the lights dim and the crowd noise doubles in intensity. The opening bars of ‘Separation’ ring out and As I Lay Dying burst on with ‘Nothing Left’. Immediately Tim Lambesis’ vocal blows us all away as he lets rip a gigantic roar - it seems to sweep out into the room as a soundwave knocking us back a few paces. His huge frame appears over the madly devil-horning crowd and we know we’re in for one wild ride.

As has gone with the bands before, it’s abundantly clear that when the venue is full the low ceiling and stage mean that anyone back from the first five rows aren’t going to see much of the band tonight. Maybe the odd glimpse of a guitar or the top of Lambesis’ head as he stretches to see how many are in tonight, but mainly just the backs of heads. I can just about make out that there isn’t much room for them all on stage with Nick Hipa hiding behind bassist Josh Gilbert but still churning out a conveyor belt of incredible shred guitar.

‘An Ocean Between Us’ and ‘The Darkest Night’ blast out and those watching echo the words straight back. The pit opens up and the mosh begins in earnest. Tonight the search-lights are in action sweeping out across the crowd whilst the coloured strobes attempt to reduce our view of the band even further. Lambesis is up on the barrier, awash with tattoos, high-fiving and screaming bloody murder at us. As the blistering pace of ‘Within Destruction’ falls away, and the pit collapses into a sweaty mass, he leans forward and asks “Is everybody still alive?” It’s certainly getting pretty stuffy but the endless supply of water at the bar makes it bearable. The individual guitar parts in the heavier songs are getting a little lost and I’m certain the chap at the sound-desk is being kept busy. Sure enough, as their set nears it’s end we’re treated to a superbly crisp encore which kicks off with the anthemic ‘I Never Wanted’ and ends on the pogo-friendly ‘Falling Upon Deaf Ears’. It’s certainly an aural feast if not a visual one.

For fans of: All That Remains, Despised Icon, Darkest Hour
Band links = As I Lay Dying / GOTK / Veils

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