One Night At The Westy: X-Ray Cat Promotions

Friday 30th March - Metal at the Westy

Andy at X-Ray Cat Promotions got me down to the West End Centre in Aldershot to do some gig photography for one of their metal nights.


First up:

Elephantis

Right then. Let's eyeball these guys, shall we?:

Dave Brown - Guitar

 

Elephantis are actually currently seeking a shiny, new vocalist but for tonight, we had Theo Sandberg playing the voicebox instead who was pretty ace.

Theo Sandberg - Temp Vocals

Connor Jackson - Guitar

Joe Oliver - Bass

Olly Harvey - Drums 

Olly was the hardest person to get a picture of all night and in the images I did get, he was rocking much too hard to concentrate on his expression apparently... it was the same worried look in every photo!


He may have been geniunely worried, I guess. Looking at myself, I do kind of scream 'mad stalker'.


Here's the link to have a listen to these guys:


Elephantis - Listen Here


Musical Influences, according to their FB page are apparently:
Misery Signals, Hundredth, Gideon, Counterparts, It Prevails, The Ghost Inside and This Will Destroy You


...though as I've only knowingly listened to Hundredth out of the above *fail* I honestly couldn't tell you if they were noticibly influenced by these bands.


I can tell you though, that they were hardcore, awesome and made my ears bleed which is what I was hoping to achieve from the evening on the whole. Whoop, etc.


Next up:

Blood of the Spectre

Now, I don't know that spectre's bleed as it was my understanding (and Amy H's) that they didn't...


... however, if they did, their blood would certainly sound somewhat fantastic. These guys were my personal favourites. Really beautiful, er, I mean, 'manly and rugged' music and the progression of each song, in my opinion, was just perfect. A transitional delight, if you will!

Luckily for me, looks like their based in Basingstoke.


Unluckily for me, looks like I'm away when they next gig in Basingstoke.


Great.


Here are the band members:

Nick Brooks - Vocals

Richard Jacobs - Guitar

Dom Pool - Guitar

Tom Farrington - Bass

Laurence Ash - Drums

You can (and I can't believe this) download their 'debut', entirely free from their website here:

http://botsmetal.bandcamp.com/

I know, right? What's the god-damn catch?

The catch is, clearly the insatiable lust for "LOUD NOISES" you will have after listening.

And moving on then of course, we had the headline act:

VIA THE VOID

... Now VIA THE VOID were as mad as a box of frogs. Honestly, when they started, they hit the crowd like a truck and no-one know what was going on. The music started and the vocalist leapt onto the floor and started screaming in our faces. It was AWESOME. He was, like, totally all 'up in our grill'.

At one point I took a photo of the bassist on stage from the floor, looked down (for a split second) to see if I had acheived the desired effect and then looked up again to find he'd somehow teleported directly in front of me and to get a face full of his hair. Unexpected heart-attack. Loved it. W00t.


Members:

Lawrence Biancardi - Vocals

Joe Lambton - Drums

Beau Halford - Guitar

Connor Phelps - Guitar

Brandon Rapley - Bass

Ahh... now then... yes... Brandon, Brandon, Brandon...

You must know, that after faceplanting in front of an audience, it's going to get mentioned on the internet...

... but I have to say, with the amount that this band were up, down, left, right and in your face, one of them had to collide with something.

Brandon was unfortunate enough, mid-leap, to hit one of the floor-monitors and come crashing face-first into the floor (like, really face-first), and what did he do?

Well the cheeky mother-fucker just kept right on playing, didn't he!?

For that reason alone, Brandon is allowed to join my Zombie Apocalypse team because I know, when the day comes, he's going to chow down on those rotten corpses himself. He doesn't give a rats-arse about pain, he's going to keep on going. What a machine.

So back to the music then...

Their influences are:
Suicide Silence, Parkway Drive, Chelsea Grin, August Burns Red and Bring Me The Horizon


You can listen to VIA THE VOID here:


VIA THE VOID - Listen Here


They have such song titles as:
"Smile, Bitch" and "Cake is my Kryptonite" XD

VIA THE VOID were by far the wildest band gracing the stage at the X-Ray Cat Promotions event tonight with their screaming and their jumping, and their rhythmic bobbing (you really do just have to see these guys to appreciate that bit) and their faceplanting.


I loved them.


So to summarise the night:
Elephantis - Ear-bleedingly awesome.
Blood Of The Spectre - Soul-arousingly awesome.
VIA THE VOID - Heart-attackingly awesome.


Events planned by X-Ray Cat Promotions - Soundtastic.


Can't wait until the next one. Check out X-Ray Cat Promotions Faceache page here to find out when the next one is!

...AND I'LL SEE YOU THERE, BABY!