Count Me In open the night by addressing the surprising positivity of their band name, the vocalist giving it some whacky banter along the lines of how he thinks
Azriel and
Bleed From Within are doing really well because they have really miserable-sounding names or something. In fairness to these bands, I think part of their success may be down to tight musicianship and well-crafted songs that are tailored to suitably cater to a blossoming niché in the local music scene... And, ironically, I think maybe this is where Count Me In are also going
horribly wrong. Nothing to do with having too cheery a name, really. Sorry, guys!
The “posi-hardcore” vibe that Count Me In promised to bring - I was told to expect music “like
Have Heart and
Bane” - quite bizarrely turned out to be a bit more like The Gallows playing out-of-tune nu-metal riffs. Don't get me wrong, Count Me In are far from untalented musicians, but there seems to be a a total lack of focus in musical direction. Either these guys just don't know how to write songs, or they all know how to write songs just fine but each member is pulling in a different direction. Either way, the end result comes off a bit clumsy, which betrays the fact that these guys actually do seem to have a fair idea of what they're doing when it comes to the actual
playing the instruments part. I just hope that, when they find the second guitarist they're looking for, he's a bit more polished at the actual
writing the songs part and can help Count Me In figure out exactly what type of music it is they're really trying to play.
The rough-around-the-edges raw musical approach of Count Me In was not to set the tone for the rest of the night. If anything, the remainder of the bill was filled up with bands who have clearly rehearsed their songs, and stage moves, the point of completely rubbing out any of those pesky random factors like emotion and spontaneous energy from the live performance process.
The first of these bands were
The Day I Vanished from Edinburgh, who mix what I fully expect the band themselves would describe as “EPIC SOUNDSCAPE RIFFS” with a wobbly vocal style that - despite being the in-style for like every band in the world
right now - I personally will always refer to as “the Alien Ant Farm style”. Seriously, why does no-one ever pick up on the fact that the vocalists for pretty much all the bands coming out just now sound like the dude from Alient Ant Farm? Motherfucker was blazin' trails back in '01, I'm serious.
Anyway, someone described The Day I Vanished to me as “pure like LostProphets” before they took to the stage, but I wouldn't say that's a fair description at all. They're nowhere near as poppy as LostProphets, and seem to definitely invest a lot more time and energy in creating a mood and atmosphere with their instruments than the boys from Wales. Steaming big slabs of riff-a-rama are flawlessly delivered in the band's live performance, which is about as tight as the lead singer's jeans.
Yes, THAT tight. Dead fuckin' serious, son.Unfortunately, with an amazingly slick and well-rehearsed musical performance also came an amazingly slick and well-rehearsed stage presence, which just reeked a bit too much of “
you practice this in your room, don't you?” to really hold my attention for very long.
The spin-kick thing that the vocalist does looks pretty cool the first time he does it, but when he does it another 5 times within the space of one song it loses its effect somewhat.
Glasgow's own
Sacred Betrayal arrive just a few months too late to jump on the “80s-synths meets 'noughties-whiney-metal” trail blazed for about 5 minutes by Enter Shikari in 2007, but they do their utmost best to make the diminishing crowd get into what they do anyway. Tight as all hell with an energetic and vibrant frontman, Sacred Betrayal's music is well-written and manages to wedge in a few chunky beatdown riffs and gutteral metal growls without sacrificing too much catchyness in doing so.
Sacred Betrayal's problem is that the tunes are just TOO catchy, though. The keyboards are just all over the tracks and the end result is that the shit just sounds CHEESY AS HELL. A set rounded-off by
a cover of “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” pretty much sums up the vibe of the band.
As I watched the vocalist hop the barrier to rock the fuck out on his own in amongst a crowd of about 8 people, it was pretty obvious to anyone in attendance that the vibe of Sacred Betrayal is all about fun first, serious faces later. As much as their music seemed a little too much like “missing the bandwagon”, and just wasn't generally to my own personal taste, I couldn't fault these guys for just having a good time doing whatever the hell they wanted to do. They certainly have the on-stage presence (and OFF-stage presence!) to keep anyone entertained, regardless of what music they may be playing in the background, so more power to 'em.
As headliners
Chasm started setting up their gear, I looked around me and noticed the Cathouse suddenly start to fill up with bodies again just in time to catch the new band's debut performance. Don't confuse “new band” with “inexperienced kids”, though, as Chasm bring together a wealth of experienced musicians from a diverse tapestry of Glasgow bands such as former nu-metal drummer George (ex-
Psyko Dalek), former screamy-pop-punk type vocalist Martin (ex-
Ship of Fools) and guitarist Dave who was one of many former guitar players for post-grunge rockers Meeklejohn back in the day. Probably not the most metal of credentials in this lineup, but absolutely without question the most metal of music as a result and a bizarre collection of musicians that has intrigued enough local music fans to breathe a bit of life back into the attendance numbers of this previously very quiet show.
Chasm make music that I can only really describe as “metal”, mixing together pretty much every style of the genré without discrimination. Casual listeners may be tempted to put the word “core” at the end of whatever label they may come up for this music, but this would be a pretty poor reflection of Chasm's music and totally goes against the fact that most of this band's influences come from bands that play blastbeats and fast, black metal style guitar riffings which underpin insanely technical lead guitar parts. I suppose this type of music IS commonly known as “metalcore”, or maybe even “deathcore”, but I'm a fan of neither label so fuck you.
The people who listen to and play this type of music are somehow generally all convinced that, without question, it is definitely the music of the future and the ultimate pinnacle of all that is metal, in that kind of misguided way that sort of reminds me of how movie directors in the 80s would set futuristic sci-fi thrillers in the year 2010 like they thought some kind of great machine revolution would have come by then. Chasm bring insane technicality, a pinch of groove and a raw stage energy that manages to achieve the rare goal of fulfilling the hype attached to their in vogue style of music, and with several high-profile shows with bands such as Romeo Must Die and Dana Walker on the horizon they're bound to turn a few heads throughout 2009.
Count Me In @ MySpace -
http://www.myspace.com/countmeinglasgow The Day I Vanished @ MySpace -
http://www.myspace.com/thedayivanished Sacred Betrayal @ MySpace -
http://www.myspace.com/sacredbetrayal Chasm @ MySpace -
http://www.myspace.com/chasmuk 
Chasm / Sacred Betrayal / The Day I Vanished / Count Me In @ Glasgow Cathouse - 3rd December 2008 
