STREET SOLDIER, NEGATIVE FRAME, NO RELIEF & FINAL NAIL
Fierce, heavy, intense but Pavlis left feeling slightly disappointed.
Ah, it’s a sunny Sunday evening so time to head to the Waterfront Studio for an evening of gentle, mild-mannered, polite music. Erm, I mean an evening of ear melting, face shredding beatdown hard-death-grind-metalcore
Norwich metalcore band FINAL NAIL - not to be confused with the blackened deathcore band of the same name from Germany - commence the evening. Unsurprisingly, their sound is brutal, intense and angry. Final Nail offer nothing particularly original or outstanding but there is something refreshing about their almost basic approach and the Hatebreed cover goes down a storm.
To start with, NO RELIEF suffer from a strangely muffled sound. When that resolves itself, they are messy in a good way, kinda reminding me of Poison Idea circa Blank Blackout Vacant with added tremolo abuse or a faster, heavier Cerebral Ballzy, with moments that almost stray into 80s/90s funk-metal territory.
After a hip-hop intro, NEGATIVE FRAME burst into the most raging set so far. Their sound mixing NYHC, grind and 80s “Big Four” thrash. This is all a bit surprising given the guitarist looks like he’s just wandered off Sunset Strip circa ’87 but then again he is playing a BC Rich that Slayer’s King or Hannerman would’ve been delighted to play back in their prime.
And so to the main event. I’ve gotta be honest and say that STREET SOLDIER disappointed me. All the ingredients were there for this to be a triumph: coming straight after an appearance at Bloodstock, an enthusiastic (if small) audience, a decent sound and, based on the studio versions, songs that are pretty good. Cam is a superb bass player, guitarist Ollie knows his way around the fretboard, the Drill Sgt sure can hit those drums and Scotty Hall has got the requisite roar. With the occasional forays into rap and slap bass, Street Soldier should have been next level but somehow it never sparked. There were awkward pauses between songs, whilst Scotty and the Drill Sgt seemed at times to be going down the comedy double act route. The big space at the front of the stage – ostensibly there for the pit – stays empty for most of the set with sporadic, short bursts of windmilling, stomping and moshing.
Would I say any of this to the members of Street Soldier? Almost certainly not. Would I give them another chance? Yeah, I would.
