Seismic Records and Stickerchap
presented

'JUNIOR SHOWTIME'

Eden Maine
Narcosis
The Kevorkian Solution
Mistress
Bumsnogger
Army Of Flying Robots
Vehemence
Sutta Kane

Sunday 26th January, 2003
The Charlotte, Leicester, ENGLAND.

'JUNIOR SHOWTIME'
A strangely titled event - Junior ShowTime - which was a two day event that boasted some 24 bands over the weekend. It’s great when people make the effort to organise this sort of festival and our hats go off to those that made this happen. Unfortunately we could only make the Sunday, but still with a cast of excellent bands - most of which we hadn’t seen before - and with stalls and distro’s around the room selling rare and exciting stuff, you just couldn’t go wrong.

The opening band of the day was Sutta Kane who are a four-piece band from Derby. They played a really good set of metallic hardcore maybe along the lines of Decimate or Earth Crisis on speed. The vocals were really strong and powerful varying between shouts and screams as required. The pace of their songs was also fluid with plenty of aggressive speed but mixed with slower sections that gave a good balance. They are a band well worth catching live (unfortunately, I can’t comment on anything recorded) and provided an enjoyable performance on the day.

Vehemence were on next and are a three-piece London outfit who oddly perform without a bass player. Not sure if this is through choice or not but it did produce a significantly different sound to what you might expect from a band that comes across like early Napalm Death. This is grinding, brutal and extreme deathcore, which as the comparison suggests features a number of very brief songs that are just a few seconds long. Moments of detonation would be an apt description, but I am sure they are really very deep and meaningful. These are combined with more conventional-length grindcore with lots of growling, shouting and, well, err, vehemence…

Army Of Flying Robots - 4 Track EP on IATDE Records, Early 2003 An East Midlands based band called Army Of Flying Robots were the first pleasant surprise of the day. Not having come across this band before, so therefore not knowing what to expect, they proved to be an excellent band and gave an energy soaking performance, which went down really well despite the vocalist being completely anal. Intense angry screamo-core with a groove, often hectic, even manic, occasionally slower but always as heavy as fuck. This is violent  metal   hardcore.  They  have  a 
four track 7" EP to be released on In At The Deep End Records available soon - it will be a gem.

Next up were local loons Bumsnogger (containing a member of Cape Canaveral and the Stickerchap himself - Andy). The Nottingham doomsters like to have a good time when on stage and this gig wasn’t any different. They're an amusing act to watch, with smiley fun and commentary from the twin-screaming vocalist throughout, their grinding sludgecore was sleazy and heavy and they went down very well with the crowd. It’s quite a squeeze for a five-piece on the Charlotte stage and there was a veritable mosh-pit of action going on up there with two vocalists jockeying for position with guitarist and bass. This just added to the fun of what was an enjoyable set of downtuned, doom-laden, hardcore which included a crazy cover of UFO’s Rock Bottom!

Then it was time for Mistress. The Necrodeath doomsters played an absolutely blinding set of screaming stoner sludge that is so heavy the sound waves must have been made out of solid lead - seriously weighty! This was grinding sludge-doom with black metal pace and a style that wouldn't be dissimilar to Eyehategod on speed.

The Kevorkian Solution appeared on stage next and proceeded to do something to the crowd that no other band managed today - confuse. I asked our Brian what he thought at the end of the set and all he could say was "Errr, I don’t know really" and there were others in the crowd with similar ‘…don’t know really’ faces on - I really liked it however, but I've always been a bit "different"!

The sound that they produce is something quite different to just about anything else on the UK scene at the moment. It’s difficult to describe, but try Progressive Spazzcore. They’re shapeless and chaotic noise merchants playing math-grind without the aid of a bass player (this time by design). It’s like a Dillinger Escape Plan song chopped into pieces, mixed around with electronic noises and then played through a kaleidoscope. Visually they are just as perplexing with a vocalist that spent the whole set crawling barefoot around the floor, over the barriers and anywhere he could really, while furiously screaming. The bloke controlling keyboards/electronic effects mostly looked demented, with either extreme concentration contorting his face or just appearing disturbingly deranged. The drummer played like he was pretending to play and had the look of a jester without the costume, however the guitarist was fairly normal! Going to a Kevorkian gig is an experience  that  should  become the new   National  Service  and be compulsory,

The Kevorkian Solution
at least once in everyone’s lifetime. Believe me, you will tell your kids about it when you get old. Go and get their very strange hour long CD ‘Invokation (RandomSelector4.8)’ on Deathstill - it's shocking (follow the link for a review).

After a needed break and on our return Narcosis had started their set and immediately sounded impressive. It was unfortunate that we only caught the second half of it, as the technical grindcore mixed with grooving sludge sounded very enlivening. This was another good band that seemed to be enjoyed by the crowd.

Finally, the headliners - Eden Maine - took their turn. Word had it that they’d already played a gig earlier in the day in Manchester and then hacked it down to Leicester so as to finish off this excellent day’s music. If that was the case, then they deserve even more respect than they got - which was fairly rapturous albeit from a diminishing crowd due to people's travel arrangements - as the band gave well in excess of 100% effort to their performance for those that could stay to watch. They were simply magical, hammering out their special brand of intense and brutal metal - it’s kind of like Mahumodo and Glassjaw served on a bed of Converge. They were devastatingly heavy and extremely professional and are without doubt a band to watch very closely - you could do worse than seek out a copy of their EP called ‘The Treachery Fact’ on Ignition Records.

There were a number of bands that were on the original bill that didn’t attend - for reasons unknown - which meant the event started a little later than scheduled. These included John Holmes, Stand, My War and Out For The Count, but to be honest eight bands was ample and there were few bemoaning the bands that didn’t appear. It was indeed a good day of entertainment, with a very high standard of bands ensuring that nobody went away without enjoying themselves (and most left with a stack of CD’s under their arms). A big thank you to everyone involved in the organisation and planning and of course to all the bands. We definitely want more of this!

Rigsby
www.iwillbeheard.co.uk

 

Releases:

Eden Maine ‘The Treachery Fact’ EP - Ignition Records (ign024)
The Kevorkian Solution ‘Invokation (RandomSelector4.8)’ LP -
Deathstill (Deathstill 003)
Mistress 'Mistress' LP -
Rage Of Achilles (ILIAD026)
Bumsnogger "...and destroy all those that come before us" EP - Ape of Thoth Records
Army Of Flying Robots  ...?
Narcosis ...?
Vehemence ...?
Sutta Kane ...?

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