We went
down to Waterloo to check out what was going on and man was it worth it.
Starlight was banging like a mad house with the mix of Thrashy and Doomy from
the bands playing tonight, Howl Said the
Wolves kicked the night off, followed to a far more Electric Wizard or Sleep
type experience with Astral Witch. Then came the clearly Children of Bodom influenced Invicta,
which has Kyle Edissi and Greg Carvalho from Aepoch, and of course the headliner of
the night The White Swan, a band
made by Kittie drummer Mercedes
Lander, who live fronts the bands as the guitarist, keyboardist and
vocalist.
Howl Said the Wolves kicked the night off
with a nice change to their setup, the band played as normal, but there was a
second set of drums present on stage for the vocalist to play during some
parts, this gave the sounds much more of a punch and definitely pushed the
sound of the band a long way. I’m not too familiar with the music of but they
bring the hard and heavy spirit of Rock and Metal and kill it live. Anyone who
has the chance to catch these guys live I highly suggest you do it, you won’t
be disappointed!
Next up
was Astral Witch and man did they
bring would the Doom of the KW area. Playing more of a mixture between Electric Wizard and Sleep, Astral Witch were full of long, drawn out, droning songs that all
the proper Doom fans in the audience could get into, especially one fan who
wore a Doom Denim sporting huge Sleep
and Electric Wizard patches and a Bongzilla shirt. The songs were slow,
the singing was almost haunting and as much as I hate to say it, I was bored
out of my witts and that’s not a hit against Doom Metal or Astral Witch. Sometimes Doom Metal is great and I’ve caught my fair
share of Doom Metal bands live and arguably Weedeater are the one that do it the way it should be done, studio
their slow and heavy, live they kick it up to double speed and play almost old
school Heavy Metal. Maybe it’ll ruin the atmosphere of Astral Witch, but it
might also open you up to a whole new audience. For now, Doom fans rejoice,
because Astral Witch are as Doomy as
you’ll get here in town.
Invicta were up next and stood out from
the crowd, bringing a more Black Thrash sound much like early Children of Bodom to the table and
frontman and lead guitarist Kyle Edissi definitely takes a page
out of Alexi Laiho’s book with his style. This is both good and bad in
a sense as he is full of showmanship, but completely shadows the rest of the
band. You could see a little in the way they moved live they were trying to get
a bit more of the spotlight. Regardless, the music killed, full of heavy riffs,
shredding solos and some good portions that helped other members shine, Invicta are a band that will go far in
the scene.
The White Swan capped off the show with
our second Doom Metal set of the night, but The White Swan are more Reverend
Bizzare or Black Sabbath style
Doom than they are the Sleep style.
The band knew how to rock the stage and know how to make it their home. From
beginning to end each member of the band managed to take centre stage at least
a few times, but all eyes were on Kittie
member Mercedes as she rocked out on guitar, sang her heart our and
messed around with the keyboard for a few songs. The band had a decent pull
tonight, as the crowd has filled in a little bit, this was a small venue but
there were a fair few people in the audience showing their support. Outside of
the crazy long instrumental intro that felt like it went on forever, I felt
myself drawn into the music, and before we knew it, the night was over and it
was time to head out. The White Swan
finished off a great night of Metal and did it incredibly well, hopefully in
the end, The White Swan end up with
the recognition they deserve in the scene.
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