Concert: Threat Signal, Hail The Villain, Alpha Galates
Posted on May 06, 2008 at 7:39 pm by admin
I would count the Salt Lounge as the nicest small venue in London, so it’s always great to see more and more heavy music coming to such a venue.
The night opened with a local band who played melodic metalcore. They did a cover of an August Burns Red song, but they’re nothing you couldn’t get from a standard Unearth clone. Their most entertaining moment was when the vocalist said “The clap is back in style!” I couldn’t remember their name, and considering how much melodic metalcore there is, they might as well have been a “dying” band.
The next band to take the stage was also another set of locals, this time playing ex-punk radio-rock along the same lines as Three Days Grace. They had the sound and the look down, but I’m guessing most of you Three Days Grace fans probably care about more about Three Days Grace than some local band who isn’t in your area.
Now on to the bands on tour, Alpha Galates came up. The set up of this band was strange, with the drummer providing lead vocals, and the 2 guitarists, bass player and keyboard all providing backing vocals. They played a strange sort of indie-rock that at times was surprisingly quite heavy, even without any screams or growls. Unfortunately, most bands that prefer to play something different don’t always get a great reaction, and the only people willing to get up front and show their support were the people willing to go it alone and stand out amongst the crowd. Certainly not a band for those Honda drivers.
Direct support came from Hail The Villain, radio rock/nu-metal very similar to Disturbed. Considering that there are already a few Disturbed clone bands out there much bigger than Hail The Villain, I’m sure you could easily get your needs taken care of mostly by simply throwing on a Disturbed album.
Finally came Threat Signal. Long hair hared members of Adam on guitar and Pat on bass headbanged away the rhythms with vocalist Jon spewing out screams and belting out choruses. I can’t say their new lead guitarist Travis had a lot of stage presence, as he was mostly concentrating on playing, he did however shred that fretboard up when it came time for a solo.
In all, the show was a mixed blessing. It was great to see our friends Threat Signal again, and be introduced to a group of artists as daring a brave as Alpha Galates willing to do something different during a show where 3 other also-rans simply try and ride off the coattails of the scene and hope to “catch a break” and “make it big”.
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