Well, our regular reviewer, Jamie, was slacking off this Gig night so I was
called in to do the review of these two bands.

As per usual the gig started late due to the amount of people turning up, I
don't think i've ever seen the small Cafe packed so tightly before. Slowly
the PA turned down the music as Martin came up to announce the first of two bands playing. Civillian.

From the moment the first guitar string was strung and the first drum beat
was blasted, the crowd went crazy. I honestly didn't think it would be
possible for such a small cafe to hold so many moshing teens. Civillian gave off this awesome aura of energy as they played, which was perfectly balanced with the excellent harmonic, yet screamo vocals. With their Avenged Sevenfold sounding guitar playing and heavy blast beat drumming they were definitely onto a whole crowd pleaser. Their consistent style of heavy death metal, fused with melodic metal blending perfectly into each other, there was only one way to describe it. Awesome.

There next song was a slight change to the screamo metal that had previously been heard. Black Star started out with gentle riffs, but as the band and the crowd knew, they were building up to something. As if they hadn't changed their style, Civillian morphs this subtle song back into hardcore metal roots, with the vocals varying much like Metallica's James Hetfield.

Civillian with their fusion of Epic metal, Post Hardcore and Classic metal,
their awesome energy, insane guitar solo's, technical drumming, inspiring
bass riffs and ability to command a stage and the crowd, are definitely a
band to watch out for.

The next band up were The Drive Home and to be honest not much could be said about them. As normal after the first band had left, the cafe seemed a lot more spacious, as half of the crowd had left after Civillians awe-inspiring set.

The Drive Home, lacking one member who was unable to make it, have a very pop punk wannabe sound, much like a fusion of Busted meeting with
Nickelodeon Jr. Although it seemed like they were trying their best to
please the crowd, it definitely wasn't working for them tonight. The drums
simply overpowered the singing and guitars and all that you could hear from the guitars when the drumming wasn't so loud was the terrible reverb coming from the small amps, which frankly aren't capable of being used in a live gig. When you could hear the vocals, it was very obvious that the singer was straining his voice to be heard, which only left for a sound that can only be described as a cat being strangled.

By the middle of The Drive Home's set, it began to pick up a little, they
seemed to have warmed up to the stage and the crowd, but it was short lived as the music rapidly declined into a dreary noise of bad reverb and vocals with the drumming. Although I will admit that the drumming was fairly good, but that's mostly all you could hear from this band during what seemed like their first ever live performance.

Finally their set was nearly over and with their last song they pulled out a
stunning performance, the vocals actually matched up, the guitars and
drumming were finally in time, shame that it was all a little too late for
the boys from The Drive Home. Maybe in the future with a little more gig
experience and Band time, they'll iron out these minor creases and become a steady well oiled band. "Yeah....Yeah....Yeah....Yeah" I just hope that the boys had a nice "Drive Home".

Anyway I hoped you enjoyed this review, albeit a little (a lot) later than
normal, and (gladly) our regular reviewer Jamie will be back to continue
with the regular reviews.

Adios amigos,

Damien Whitham