Writhe,X Constant, Corrupted and Sky Jack my humble opinion

Trev M

First off well done to Niall Stynes on organizing such a good line up...I hope you received good recognition from the bands themselves for your efforts. Great turn out for it …much respect and glad ya didn’t lose your shirt on it.

In term of the bands themselves I have to say I thought the standard was very high, interesting the diverse range of metal on display, here’s how things looked from where I was sitting, I would just like to say that this is my opinion on the bands overall performances and not a critque on the material specifically. Also for people who don't know me I have a vested interest in Gigsmart and hoping it succeeds...now with all of that cleared up>

Writhe.....
Second time I've seen these guys, and much to my relief the sound was better than the last time I saw ‘em in the Sidewalk (I accept responsibility before the snipers start picking me off).... These guys would be the traditionalists in metal terms, in my opinion, of all the bands that played on the night. Choppy guitar riffage from our boy Frank with driving bass and attacking drums, aggressive and heavy and really tight, perfect ingredients for some good rockin( Jesus Im in a cheesy mood today).The vocals were very powerful, the Writhe front man lacks nothing in lung capacity and confidence and was for me, the most animated and energetic of all the front men on the night, think Phil Anselmo and your getting a bit of a picture...
Moving along….. not being entirely familiar with the Writhe catalogue I was particularly impressed with the third last song(I think)...sorry didn't catch the name but it had a kinda rap feel to it which kinda kicked you in the face, very nice. Overall Writhe rawked while guitar slinging Frank smothered with what appeared to be a strain of the abola virus…..I know because in the brief period we spoke he managed to infect me and Im ****in wrecked now…cheers Frank you’re a real pal, but Writhe were excellent so it’s a small price to pay ……as was the measly €6 euro in, so shame on people who supposedly support the scene and didn’t turn up……you know who you are, whip yourselves with rotting fish

X-Constant…..
Extremely angry young men….and these guys stole it on the night in my opinion. I must stress at this point that I am by no means a huge metal expert but the delivery from these guys was spot on and was noted not just by myself but by other innocent by standards who had their heads bludgeoned by X Constant. From the get go (After the first two songs) I was impressed with the guitar work and how well the two players interacted, I suppose the best analogy I can come up with, is that it was like they were throwing huge lumps of really hard heavy sharp things at each other…..I liked it. Very diverse rhythms as you would expect from a metal band and the drummer for these guys was excellent, Im not sure if anyone else noticed, but did you guys see how relaxed that guy was as he beat the **** outta the kit?? Just an observation……Overall, like I said these guys impressed me most on the night, I though if I could offer one small suggestion it would be that they might benefit from having a dedicated vocalist, but its important to realize that playing and signing is difficult and last night the chap signin made it look easy fair play and much respect . I will go to another X Constant gig and I hope more people support this band because they are excellent……fair play and I shall be visiting the site and requesting the EP which I believe is available soon.

Corrupted….
If there is one band around that I think always seem to have their **** together it’s these guys. Anyone who follows the metal scene in Dublin has seen this band and I guess no amount of adjectives will tell you how good these guys are…..do yourself a favour and go see em if ya haven’t already. Very high energy, very high speed at times….. infact very everything. I suspect these guys woulda been happier with a bit more crowd participation as it was all a bit sedated for a while but for the last two songs the head banging commenced , Corrupted fed off this and proceeded to rip the place apart accordingly. These guys reminded me of many of my earlier influences and I thought they stood up well in comparison….if you like Sepultura, Slayer, and generally old metal , or real metal or whatever the **** people are calling these days Corrupted play it and play it well………which reminds me while I’m on the topic can someone tell me if its not cool to like all metal anymore? All in all, if Corrupted were a bulldozer the music center would be dust, as expected an excellent job well done.

Sky Jack…..
These were headlining, and the tone/mood of the gig changed for me, perhaps it was cause I had several beers in me ….perhaps not. Anyway roll out the racks of effects, roll out the extra lights and clear the stage Sky Jack were here and ready to impress. Now before I continue its probably only fair to say that I had heard a lot of stuff about these guys and my expectations were, by my own admission, very high. Phantom have been great champions of Sky Jack as have Gigsmart’s Niall Stynes and Tom Brunkard but for me I just didn’t get blown away at all and thought a lot of it was a bit ……well dressed up rock ? Don’t get me wrong these guys are very good at what the do, the sound was absolutely crystal for them ……anyone dispute this as a matter of interest?…Anyway the use of effects seemed to drive the whole sound and kinda made everything a bit technical for my simple sensibilities…..the performance was executed with precision and was full very clever bits and bobs making good use of the array of effects that these guy have undoubtadly spent hours learning about….but that’s what put me off, the effects where a bit much at times and I spent more time listening to the strange sounds as opposed to concentrating on the actual songs themselves … which is a shame really cause these guys come across as very accomplished (more than I could hope to be !!!) and don’t need all the gadgetry to sound good. I’ll have to listen to some recorded stuff and go see them again, perhaps I’ll be more in tune with what’s going on with them and will be able to appreciate there music…last night though, I just couldn’t get into it? I look forward to Niall and Tom’s assessment, who I suspect will have been suitably impressed.

Kurdt

just started a new thread about this....lol...anyway deleted it and heres what i had to say...

what a night!!!!

i just wanna say thanx to all at gigsmart and to all the bands for putting on a great show!!!!

writhe...thought they were ok...need a bit of work though...the bass player was the highlight there...he was great...

x constant...to quote a friend 'f**kin hell!'....i thought they were amazing!!!! look forward to the EP...have they got a website, does anyone know??

corrupted...enjoyed their set a lot...though its too similar to stuff i've heard loads a times before...but still thought it was great!!!

skyjack...they've been hyped up by some friends so i was expecting the next big thing...though they were musically excellent and they looked really good together...it just wasnt for me...dont get me wrong...o thought they were good!!! just not my cup of cha....


so there ya go...

cheers

kurdt

Trev M

Nice one Kurdt!!!

Seraphina

the bastards on the door told me it was seven.
you might wanna investigate that, a fair few people paid 7 i'd say...

Trev M

six with a flyer ....the assumption was made when I wrote my review that everyone had a flyer cause te review was written for the gigsmart board, I just posted it here in case some folks from this board went along .....thanks for making us aware of that though!!

Niall S.

Yeah sorry about that, It was spose to be just seven quid in either way, the flyers were more adverts rather than concessions.
But it was on the radio that it was seven quid in, 6 with a flyer which was not suppose to be the case cause I hate it when you turn up to a gig and you've forgotten your concessions, so I just made it nice and cheap for everyone.
But cause the Radio it was advertised as concessions I had to give in, and let people in cheaper with a flyer.

Sorry about that.

Niall.

Seraphina

doesn't matter anyway, no qualms with parting with my cash, twas WELL worth it.

thedrowner

i was unable to go last night coz of a birthday dinner but i would've loved to, even though its not really my kind of music it is highly enjoyable. Ive never seen writhe, but ive seen skyjack, who are always good live (i actually prefer them live to their recordings!), x constant are great too as are corrupted, who are a band i just think are goign to make it, for some reason.

ellentic

Originally posted by Kurdt
x constant...to quote a friend 'f**kin hell!'....i thought they were amazing!!!! look forward to the EP...have they got a website, does anyone know??

http://www.xconstant.com .. I think its down at the moment, and theres a new site being put up to coincide (sp?) with the release of their EP..


[Alice In Chains - Would]

Kurdt

so clicked on the link...computer crashed...important work lost!!!! woohoo!!!!

thanx anyway...gis a shout if ya hear about a new website!

cheers...

i see they're playing at blastfest...along with corrupted and a whole host of others....but why does it have to happen so far away???

not that i care, i'll be away!

Gar_ptc

having been too hungover to go to the gig i'm quite annyed at having missed it
but corrupted are the finest and most entertaining band in dublin at the moment, they rock and they stole the show from superskin when they supported.

i don't think that any band should ever have corrupted support them cos they are too good to follow.

x consant and writhe are bloody rocker's too;they both have such great leading men-writher especially!

congrats to niall for getting such a great group of bands on one night!
we doth bow down to such a gent!

Niall S.

Why, thank you kind sir, your only too kind.

Cheers to all who came.

Niall.

Brian Horgan

Hi ,
Brian from Skyjack here,

Thanks to Trev M for starting this topic,
I have to agree , it was a great "rockin" night!
It was great to play with some good bands and to see a decent turnout for a Sunday night.
Hopefully the current scene will continue to grow , Id like to think that rock/metal fans in Dublin are spoiled for choice at the moment!
Thanks to Neil for sticking his neck out to put the night on.

If anyone wants to check out our stuff in more detail go to www.mp3.com/skyjack for downloads or visit our site at www.skyjackmusic.com

Keep it loud!
Peace,
Brian.

Niall S.

Thanks for joining us Brian, but the name is Niall.

No problemo, you just keep knockin out da good tunes and there will always be an audience for you to play too.

Cheers.

Niall.

Sandi

That gig was great! That was the first time I'd seen Writhe, X-Constant and Corrupted. While they were all really good, with some great guitar and fantastic drumming, it's not really my style. I prefer slightly less heavy stuff like Skyjack. David (Skyjack) has a really good voice and uses it well and doesn't just scream/growl all the time. Have to say tho that the song X-Constant did with the guy from Kelsey was amazing. Skyjack blew me away. I'd seen them before, but it wasn't as impressive as Sunday night. Their hard work really paid off...and David's t-shirt with the glowing green thingy on it was cool!

Kurdt

its true...that was the coolest tshirt ever!!

Silverfish

To quote me on X-Constant.....

F*ckin' Hell!!

They really, really, blew me away.

I haven't heard music like that in years.........

Briiihihihiiiilliant.

Perception_Distorted

A "thank you" from the extended CORRUPTED family for the kind words in this thread about the gig.

For those who've not had an opportunity to hear the band, please visit the Website at http://corruptedmetal.cjb.net where you will find links to sample sounds and info on ordering the band's debut CD, "Feed on the Weak.".

We're also interested in new visitors to our Forum at http://www.forumco.com/corruptedmetal/default.asp which has wide-ranging topics on music, life, the universe and everything!

Congratulations, Niall, on putting together such a good show!

BEHOLD!

I dunno...X-constant were a good metal band in that they could play...but every song was the same...no variations...same scream..same drum rolls. the only one I thought was different was the one with another guy singing with yer man.
they could be good...they have the energy and musicianship...but no diversity.

Corrupted are a lot better since the last time I saw them....but they are still painful to watch.

Skyjack were excellent. I dont know how they get slated and corrupted are praised! dressed up rock? they can play...they have lots of gear...what do you want? them to play some boring bland riffs through a 10 watt marshall??? fair ****s to them for trying to be different...even if there are shades of TOOL in there..I know they have been listening to them before most around Dublin who jumped on the LATERALUS band-wagon.

I dont get it...:rolleyes: