Skindred, Still Remains & Bullet For My Valentine at Brixton Academy
Bullet For My Valentine are arguably one of the most industry-hyped metal acts to come out of the UK at the moment, hitting both the mainstream and metal press with a marketing machine that’s propelling them upwards faster than a cruise missile. Deservedly so? The massive, massive queue outside the Brixton Academy seems to think so, but I’ve never been so sure.
First on stage however are Newport’s finest raggametallists Skindred. They’ve always remained at the ‘cult’ or ‘underground’ level of UK bands, but it’s been a good six or seven years since I last saw them in a tiny pub in Lincoln where the special effects budget pretty much amounted to a hand-cranked air raid siren pumped by lead rasta Benji. Now they’re on the big stage, and off the back of the new Roots Rock Riot album they are personally top of the ‘must see’ list. The songs are tight, effortlessly mixing funky dancehall rhythms with heavy metal in that very unique ‘Dred sound. The set ranges from the bouncing classic Pressure through to new fight pit anthems like Cause Ah Riot and the titular Roots Rock Riot, and the budget’s obviously gone up as well with more sequencer and sample backings fleshing out the tunes to great effect. The only bad point is that the second mic, one of those classic chrome crooner-style ones, is either off or wasn’t tested properly so some lines are lost. It’s a brief set, closing with the always epic ‘Nobody’, but a more than effective warm up that’s got most of the early crowd shaking their arses. Bring on the headline tour.
I’ve reviewed Still Remains before when they supported Atreyu and nothing’s massively changed since last time: it’s good, polished metalcore with the right mix of head-banging bridges and singalong choruses, plus the smooth backing of synthesiser loops and keyboard sections. They aren’t going to break any massive new ground to set them apart from any number of other bands that you could name that are pretty similar, but if you like those bands you’ll like this. Perhaps the only noticeable switch from the last time they played the UK at the Astoria - your guess is as good as mine as to if it’s intentional - is a heavier edge to the set, less concentration on the ‘disco party let’s go dancing’Â feel. The track selection overall feels better tailored to getting the crowd actually moving rather than jigging on the spot. In particular ‘White Walls’ from 2005’s Of Love And Lunacy album has one particularly massive riff section which beats the usually crap Brixton sound into the ground - definitely no bad thing.
So to the headliners. Now, I’ll always try and write a fair review based on what I see but I’ve got to admit I’d already half written this mentally before actually seeing the band, which is a bit crap of me. I’ve never been a huge fan of Bullet - when they first properly broke onto the scene with Hand Of Blood it was a decent tune, but the follow up singles never really seemed to progress to anything exciting. Then the new Scream, Aim, Fire album came out and… well, it’s just so fucking generic. If it was a DVD with a director’s commentary you’d almost expect comments along the line of “We had a flipchart to plan out what bits needed to be heavy and quiet”, or “Oh, we heard some of the new Machine Head stuff and thought they had some amazing riffs, so we nicked a couple and threw them in”. There’s just nothing I can find to get really enthusiastic about. But, fair play - credit where credit’s due. They come on stage to a suitably dramatic intro with the band backlit behind a white drape before it all drops, the pyros go off and ‘Scream, Aim, Fire’ kicks in. The crowd go absolutely apeshit, circles breaking out across the sea of people through the entire set. It still doesn’t change my opinion of what they are but as I watched them I started thinking: these days it’s almost impossible to find a tune, sound or riff that hasn’t in some way been directly created from years on years of influences from other bands. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not. So at the end of the day, regardless of my opinion of their music, it’s surely much better that the (very, very young) crowd look up to and are influenced by a band like this that can put on a good, loud heavy metal gig, than end up growing up listening to moronic, brain melting shite that fills 95% of the charts.
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Bullet For My Valentine:Â myspace | videos on UVTV
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Still Remains : myspace | videos on UVTV
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Skindred: myspace
