Venue: The Brief
Date: 24 October 2008
Website: myspace.com/godsized, myspace.com/themoreisee, myspace.com/mantra1
MySpace: See above.
Label: None
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive!
A metal gig in Croydon, for a fiver and with a free shot of Jagermeister on the door... Now who in their right mind would want to turn that down? Except for maybe a teetotal Dance music obsessive from Scarborough (that's nothing against Scarborough... it's just that it's a place that's not Croydon!).
The evening started with Mantra, a band from York that I'd never had the pleasure of witnessing before. The band played a good set and their brand of melodic metal / southern southern rock has led me to add their album, "Blackened Cross" I believe it's called, to my "To Buy" list... Or, if anyone has the urge to buy me an early xmas pressie, please feel free to splash out on that for me! Ta very much! Failing that, I guess I'll just wait for Pay Day... roll on the 18th!
Mantra were followed by The More I See. I was really looking forward to seeing them after rockgoddess (from the Loucifer Speaks forum) mentioned that she liked them. The band had an impressive start, but I found their set to be a little too long. With that said, the rest of the crowd did seem to enjoy them and a moshpit quickly materialised!
Then it was time for the main event - Godsized. About midway through the first song I realised where I recognised the frontman from - a band called 5th Man Down (a brilliant band who were on the Croydon circuit a few years ago... possibly a bit longer than that now... I lose all track of time!). To say that the band played well is a huge understatement. THEY WERE BLOODY FANTASTIC! Melodic Metal (with Southern Rock elements), kickass solos and plenty of headbanging moments... as I discovered... and my neck has only just started to recover! Highly recommended - especially if you're looking for a British band that can give all those American Southern Rock / Metal bands a good run for their money!
For those of you who couldn't make it along to the gig, here's a couple of videos to make it feel like you were there (although you won't get a free shot of Jager!)