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CD's
JESUS ELEPHANT GOD
'Jesus Elephant God' EP
Opening track, *Control Of Reality*, has a spooky feel to it. Wailing guitars and TOOL-esque drumming start the song off
and then the spoken vocals come in. It carries on like this for the most part of the song, changing to shouty vocals for the
chorus.
*The Quiet Dispair* starts off in a similar fashion, this is a very weird record! No vocals this time, but the use of Viola
builds tension and then the song is over.
*Slave Morality* has, once again, a similar start and carries on in this vein, with the music sounding the same throughout
the song and those same shouty vocals again.
*Red Tears* has a disturbing spoken word extract from a film as an intro and then the song kicks in. Once again, there
is the guitar/drum intro but it seems different to the others on this record. However, seems to keep the same structure throughout
the song.
The final track, *Voice Of The Drowned*, starts off with a guy screaming, and moves into the expected mysterious intro
of the guitars and drums. Here I think it is the lack of vocals which lets this track down.
Theres no sudden time changes or fast drum beats or hectic parts and for the most the songs do sound very similar, but
it is a decent effort none-the-less. I think maybe a little more experimentation is needed and some time/riff changes in there,
because at times, the songs are a little too predictable. The good thing however, is that this appears to be music for the
thinking man, and not your average hardcore record.
5/10
(for more information, please contact: www.jesuselephantgod.co.uk)
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Gigs
AFI w/ Stampin Ground
So, on came STAMPIN GROUND, and totally fucking ripped the place apart! This band have got a great future ahead of them. They
enticed the crowd into the old fashion *wall of death* which is basically splitting the room up into 2 and letting everyone
run straight into one another!!! I left that to the professionals! Adam then made a circle pit and it was hardcore at its
fucking best. He even joined the pit for a bit, as did AFIs tour manager when he was helping the GROUND cover SICK OF IT ALL's
*scratch the surface*.
And then came AFI. With the start of STRENGTH THROUGH WOUNDING, the crowd cheered through
our bleeding we are one, it was a brilliant entrance from a brilliant band. With two little pumpkins each side of the stage,
when davey havok made his entrance the crowd errupted! I started in the middle and half way through the first song (THE LOST
SOULS), I was 3 people away from the stage from everyone forcing forwards to get a good look at davey.
With Mr havok
getting in the crowds faces as much as he could without actually being in the crowd, it made for an exciting gig. The highlight
was DAYS OF THE PHEONIX because everyone in the whole ballroom was singing along to every word and also when davey actually
leaned into the crowd!
They played about an hour set because of STAMPIN GROUND playing a 40 minute set before hand.
They played a good mix of old and new songs, and when, at the end (during GOD CALLED IN SICK TODAY) davey stood on the crowd,
the pit collapsed. A sad end to a great gig, but they'd be stupid not to come back for more in the future.
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CD's
BLESSED WiTH ECSTASY
"Hurry Up!" EP
The opening track, *Too Late*, starts with a melodic guitar intro and fuses into a pennywise-esque verse which switches
back to the melodic intro style for the bridge and back to in-your-face for the rest of the song. Next up is *The Confession*,
which strangely reminds me of the Guano Apes Big In Japan cover! But this is meant in a good way. It has a lovely bouncy chorus
and powerful verse which carries on where Too Late left off. *Try To Change* is a slower number which shows they dont stick
to the "tried and tested" melodic punk blue print. *Fly Away*, sounding at first a bit like the new [Spunge] single, is more
emtional with a lovely stadium punk chorus (reminding me of THE DONOTS live performance with MiLLENCOLiN earlier this year)
and a solo! So unheard of in modern day punk songs. *Look Into Yourself* is another Pennywise-esque song, with a chorus which
makes me think of BOWLiNG FOR SOUP.
Overall, this is a great EP and shows good potential. The vocals do take a bit getting used to but are certainly unique
with the clear Italian accent on show. It is clear they have taken a leaf out of their influences (that would be PENNYWiSE,
MiLLENCOLiN & LAGWAGON amongst others) book without sounding like a clone of them. Lets hope we can hear more from these
guys very soon.
7/10
(for more information check: www.blessedwithecstasy.com)
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