Battle Born/Dead Demons/Atomic Samurai –
Corporation, Sheffield, Tuesday, 31st May, 2022
Set List: Pennywise/Hollow/Milwaukee Cannibal/Halloween/Black Rose/House Of Hell/New World Order/Hivemind.
Well when first walked in I was pretty much blown away by the amount of folk already in here to see the opening band since we were way into double figures. Atomic Samurai are a young Sheffield born band who have obviously made an impact on folk in these parts and come across with tons of life and enthusiasm.... as well as a few slabs of volume splitting sound too.
They consist of Morgan Jeffries (Lead Vocal), Joe Marshall (Lead Guitar) Bradley Brown (Rhythm Guitar), Daniel Caswell (Bass) & Luke Wheeler (Drums). The kids and group are loving it alike with their material really sticking it to the ears and minds in here early on in their set.
Their material is very much more of younger, DIY, Nu-Metal meets Brutal style with straight shouty singing and some cookie monster vocals coming courtesy of Mr. Marshall plus some Slayer elements as well.
They began with slow 'n' gutsy Grungey meets Stoner like 'Pennywise' that starts with an air raid siren with standouts including the sinister sounding 'Halloween' and the ballsy 'Black Rose' with its dark riffs.
Their frontman, Morgan jumped down into the small room masses and proceeded to join the small mosh pit he had asked to start up before kicking into the last number 'Hivemind' . I kept well out the way for that though... hahaha. He also asked who was coming to the show there that they were doing the following Saturday and it appeared a fair few may be down for it judging by the response he was given.
What would have been nice though was if the majority of their fanbase would have stuck around after the Samurai had sent their last note packing instead of vanishing leaving a large empty space in the small room – to say I was not impressed by their lack of respect to the other two bands on the bill would be a slight understatement.
Set List: Line 'Em Up/The Devil May Care/Dead Demons/2 Minutes To Midnight/Overload/Dead Man Walking /Crazy Train /Another Space In Time.
Well seasoned musical merchants, Dead Demons raise the bar a lot on both the song standard and vocal ability with the quartet comprising of Mark Hale (Lead Vocals), Chris Weatherall (Guitar), Pete Harriman (Bass) & Jon Booth (Drums).
These boys go for the way more tried and tested old-school authentic 80's styled metal than the stuff that kids are peddling these days which is much more to my personal choice to be honest, not that I am knocking the later styles of course – there's a place for everything.
What a voice Mark has, proving talent really does come from Worksop on the singing front! Only kidding, it's where Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden comes from so no wonder they throw in '2 Minutes To Midnight' in the middle of their set, joking they don't have enough material of their own.
It's a grand festivity of marvellous metal moments when it comes to their own polished offerings with highlights including the opening 'Line 'Em Up'; their fantastically bright signature song 'Dead Demons'; 'Dead Man Walking' with its heavy bass and hookey chorus and closing 'Another Space In Time that starts as a power ballad before erupting into Maiden like epic.
They are certainly proving to be one of the best bands in the area that's for sure who have earned plenty of support slots to bigger well-known acts in a short space of time. There's no need to question why after a performance as good as this.
Set List: Battle Born/Fire Storm/Man Of War/Blood And Fire/Power Force/When Empires Die/Hammer Of Might/Sovngarde Awaits/DYDaRYS/For Our Home/Dragon Heart.
Encore: Bring The Metal Back.
A Power Metal ensemble who are made up of Jack Reynolds (Vocals), Tom O'Dell (Vocals/Guitar), Will Kerr (Guitar/Synths), Charlie Lamacraft-Perrett (Drums) & Matt Hudson (Stand-in Live Bassist).
They come across like the love children of Helloween, Hammerfall and Ed Guy to name but a few who take us right back to the marvellous late 80's where all was grandiose, majestic and war winning with the odd viking vessel and dragon thrown in as part of the whole package.
Although it's not what you say busy in here. Battle Born completely make up for it in stupendous sounding production with armfuls of energy coming back and forth from band to audience. It's all valour and fighting the fight hands down where these guys are concerned – of course on instruments and vocal as opposed to axes, lances and cannons which would have been a bit dangerous on this small stage in Steel City.
They hail from Windhelm, Eastmarch.... which I actually thought was somewhere in Norway but in fact it turns out that its Nordic Folklore so it's debatable if it actually existed in the 1st place hmmmmm.... by the looks of it the lads come from somewhere near Southampton. They put on quite a performance too with many songs being a pummeling, galloping epic anthem in their own right.
'Battle Born' is the opener that sets the standard of the whole set that's full of strong 'n' clear high-ended, vocals, symphonic keyboards with extra sound effects and backing, fast supersonic guitar riffs and more. Various stand-outs are in abundance like the balladeering 'For Our Home'; the pompoustic 'Man Of War' or the racing 'Sovngarde Awaits' that's pure Eurometal with its string-filled soloing and voicings!
The encore tune which is probably one of the best 'Metal Milestones' I have heard in quite some time. It goes by the name of 'Bring The Metal Back' is definitely one that has a chorus that completely sticks in your head. These are a band that can brig it back but did it really go away in the first place?
Battle Born without a doubt fully deserve to one day be on a big stage in front of masses of people – that would be quite something to hear fans roar these songs back to them! It will happen for sure! Go see them wherever you are and whenever you get chance.
If you wanna hear music makes you think it's 1988 all over again, you will got be disappointed – that I wholeheartedly guarantee.
By Glenn Milligan