Sunna and Miocene - live review @ The Charlotte, Leicester, England (10/03/2001)

This for me was an awkward night to have a gig on, as Sunday night is traditionally a time for getting my head around another week at work, but not this week. On arrival it was obvious no-one else was worried about a Sunday gig as the place was very busy and there were plenty of smiling faces... Excellent.

Unfortunately, we completely missed the opening band of the night, a band called Crackout who must of been on fairly early (I think the venue likes to close a little earlier on Sundays), so sadly I can't comment on them. I heard from others that they were quite entertaining, however.

So, the first action was when Miocene appeared on stage with an eerie swirly (almost Hawkwind) intro that got everyone's attention ready for some entertainment. "We're Miocene from London. This is called Free Reign" states Ben (vocals) and without wasting any time they exploded into the song. And what a song it is too, the power and energy that was being released into this magical heavy groove was immense. Less than one minute into the song and I already had a stupid huge grin on my face. These four blokes are good! This song is excellent, I get the feeling we are in for a good night!

The next song Rivets was met with a cheer from the crowd as they launched into it with such power that it was breath taking. The band have such presence and play so tight as a unit, the overall effect is very impressive. I am not the only one enjoying the gig, as I look around the crowd are equally immersed and there is some serious movement going down in the pit.

Pure was next up and is another slab of fine music. They produce a crafted and progressive, yet intense and extremely heavy Tool-esque style of metal, which is played passionately and with such a high level of talent it's truly amazing. Their songs are on the longer side (averaging around 5-6 mins) but believe me, they pass incredibly quick and are far from being boring or indulgent, each expressing an emotionally mixed bag of feelings that shred any fatigue.

Shine and 9mm High & Rising follow and are performed superbly. I have not seen Miocene before and I have only heard one or two tracks previously, but I just cannot get over how good this band are and I am completely bowled over by them. They finished with the powerful Fits Like That and the crowd go berserk. It is pleasing to see that not only have the band given their all and provided us with a professional and highly entertaining 40 minute set, but the crowd have also appreciated it and have reciprocated in a deserving response.

This is one of the best performances I have seen in quite a time, and having come to this gig to see what Miocene were about, it was such a nice surprise to be blown away! If you only go to one gig this year, make sure you go and see this band, you really won't be sorry... Also, look out for their excellent debut release, a mini-album called Refining The Theory on Infernal Records (Infernal 7CD).

The final band of the night was Sunna. Again, this was a band of which I have only heard a couple of songs. They have a more melodic style which to me seemed to be a mix of indie and hard rock, producing what was a popular sound, judging by the crowd response. The set began with one of the songs I have heard before, called I'm Not Trading (I have seen this song accompanied by a video on MTV). It got them off to a good start with a large part of the crowd bouncing around.

They then brought the tempo down with a more moody section of sound that covered a couple of their songs that are very quiet, slow and atmospheric. I have to be honest here, they are not really my cup of tea. There is nothing really wrong with their music, it just doesn't hit the spot for me and after the highs scaled by Miocene, for me this was a little anticlimactic.

The pace was once again picked up with an apparently reluctant rendition of their first single called Power Struggle which was only being played through the insistence of the

drummer (Richie Mills) and much to the disgust of the vocalist Jon Harris (not sure how tongue in cheek this was?). Anyway, for me and many in the crowd, it was a high point of the set and rocked along quite nicely (it was also the only other song of theirs I had heard).

The rest of the gig was alternating between the slower and then faster paced songs, with plenty of the atmospheric guitar playing brooding and dark songs with twisting moods from their debut album One Minute Science. They rounded off a good performance that had plenty of enthusiastic support from a large majority of the people here tonight, so if you enjoy your music more on the melodic and moody side, check them out.

Overall for me, Sunna were too gentle and just not heavy enough, where as Miocene were far more to my taste and stole the show with a mesmeric performance that made a massive impression on me.

Rigsby