Reviews

The 20th of December 2006 was a bit of a special day for the younger bands on Guernsey's music scene as it saw the return to the stage of two of the top rated local bands of the past few years in extreme metalcore merchants My Last Victory and emocore rockers The Mid Carson Coalition.

Before we got to these two almost revered groups however we were treated to two new ones, starting with The Escape Fall.

Sam of The Escape Fall.

Clearly taking their influences from bands like The Used and My Chemical Romance (particularly that bands work around the time of the 'I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love' record) they provided the pleasant surprise of playing pretty standard emo-punk very well.

While the music they were playing was not the most imaginative ever heard The Escape Fall delivered with aplomb and got a few of the crowd dancing as well, and they deserve all the more credit for working through a few serious technical problem like loss of the amps for the guitars.

However they successfully got through this to finish things off with an interesting rendition of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' (interestingly enough a tune that has, in the past, been covered by My Chemical Romance). From tonight's outing I can see great things for this band in the future if they can survive the swing away from this style of music which we are in the midst of.

Next up we had been expecting to here the merciless hardcore assault of Limefire, however as the band the decided to call it a day last weekend the assembled throng in the St Margaret's Lodge was instead treated to the unique hardcore stylings of The Vietnameasles.

One of The Vietnameasles.

Once again blasting through their set with reckless abandon, tonight the band seemed slicker in their performance while retaining the loose cannon nature previously displayed, and of course continuing to display their unique sense of humour which last time round led me to dub them "the most offensive band in Guernsey". However they assure me everything they say is not meant to offend and is meant to be taken in good fun (and so I won't mention tonight's tongue in cheek encouragement of a crowd member to expose himself and a few references to current topical events).

By this point in the evening the venue had strangely transformed itself into something of a sweat box, which was surprising considering the low temperature outside and so by the time My Last Victory took to the stage a group of crowd members had clearly worked up the energy and agitation to kick off quite a mosh.

Josh of My Last Victory.

Playing a selection of tunes from their album 'Bury These Thoughts', alongside a few covers, My Last Victory proved themselves a formidable metallic force. Their style, mixing screaming vocals with wailing guitars and blasting drums, certainly proved popular this evening and their lengthy songs proved that this is a band with some true musical talent, however I feel a lot of this may have been lost tonight due to the problems encountered in hearing the vocals anywhere except when standing next to the singer.

The band however fought through a few technical gremlins to deliver a great set of a uniquely extreme variant on the metal/hardcore crossover genre, however their set ending massacre of Dio classic 'Holy Diver' seemed somewhat ill advised to me (Killswitch Engage might be able to pull it off, but tonight My Last Victory didn't).

Finally this evening The Mid Carson Coalition returned from hiatus to treat us to a set of their emocore rock. Being the band who arguable stole Summer Wave from under the noses of chart bothering pop-punk nerks Son Of The Dork, expectations were understandably high tonight and the band started off their set by saying they had only practiced twice for this show and so might be a little rusty.

Ollie of The Mid Carson Coalition.

This apology however was completely unnecessary as the band sounded fantastic as they rattled through a selection of tunes from their 'Bring Me The Ashes' EP and got the more dedicated members of the seemingly over heated and worn out audience moshing away.

The highlight of their set, and of the night, came in the form of the bands final song 'Bleeding in Black and White'. While the problems of not being able to hear the vocals continued during this song it seemed to matter less as a majority of those in attendance were singing along word for word at the top of their lungs creating a truly terrific and rare moment for a local band playing original material.

Overall it was a great night's entertainment and while popular opinion seemed to go with either The Mid Carson Coalition or My Last Victory being band of the night, I personally have to say that the two new acts, especially the Vietnameasles, really showed that there are new bands on the scene acting as worthy challengers to the might of the comparatively older hands.