Tag: Hildamay.

Categories
Live Reviews Music

Hildamay, Album Launch Show – The Garage, London

HILDAMAY
w/ Landscapes, Tu Amore, Black Shapes, Insurgents
The Garage, Islington
22nd October 2012

Hildamay have had a hell of a year already, the quintet from Kent had a busy summer wowing the likes of BBC Radio 1, Reading and Leeds festival as well as preparing the release of their debut album ‘Miles Away’. Now they’re back on the road ahead of that release and everyone here tonight is in for a real treat, plugging an exclusive-listening of the new tracks.

Insurgents picked the shortest straw and are up first. The trio from Watford perform like they have everything relying on it. It’s not until they bring out an additional two drums into the centre of the crowd to form a drum battle which see’s frontman Ant Giannaccini and bassist Bentley Levy bash away to a beat that their show becomes is three dimensional.

‘It’s like a twelve year old school disco,’ frontman Gareth Evans of Black Shapes tells the half empty venue. The result? Gareth resorts to joining the intimate crowd, performing majority of the set off the stage. On the plus side, the fans that are present have more space to hard-core dance and the opportunity to share the frontman’s microphone for numerous choruses. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t looking forward to the release of their new EP ‘In The Mourning Light‘ out later this month.

Tu Amore have a soulful, indie sort of sound to them stirring in drumbeats that bring the show alive. The four members from Peterborough seem to have established a sound that sets them apart with energy of a much heavier band. Up next is Landscapes who have the challenge of getting some kind of crowd engagement. ‘I can’t even see you!’ Complains vocalist Shaun. What welcomes them though are a small group of hard-core kids and the band seem far from impressed. The quartet from Somerset no doubt have the songs to put other British rising rock bands on the edge of their seat. Whether they stick to half-hearted shows such as tonight’s is another story.

Just after 10pm and the half empty venue turns into a tightly squeezed room eager for the headliners. Hildamay strike up ‘We Loved, We Lost’ and ‘This House Became Our Home’ plunging down a route of heavy rock, but what these clever lads have managed to do is put meaning into a genre that is known to be full of mosh-pit mayhem melodies. Their tunes are extremely rough round the edges but you can tell they’re genuinely heart-felt.

The band are truely passionate which shows in tonight’s performance, pushing through songs that are bounded together by fist pumping beats and gritty guitar riffs. Usually it’s the frontman that captures the attention but Hildamay are a band that have so much going for them as a whole. Recent single ‘Changing The Key’ even managed to turn the heads of those at Radio 1’s Rock Show gaining Track Of The Week status. Tonight’s live performance of that track certainly showed it was worthy of that title and what Hildamay are made of as a whole.

Words: Jenny Chu

Categories
Features Music

Must See Shows: October 2012

AUGUST BURNS RED
w/Devil Wears Prada
18 – NOTTINGHAM Rock City, 19 – GLASGOW Garage, 20 – WOLVERHAMPTON Wulfrun Hall, 21 – MANCHESTER Ritz, 22 – BRISTOL Academy, 23 – LONDON Electric Ballroom

For metalcore fans, this is quite clearly a phenomenal tour, not just for October, but for the whole year. Expect plenty of breakdowns, brutal mosh pits and many a sub-drop. Listen to ‘Meddler’ by August Burns Red and you’ll know exactly what we mean.

EVERY TIME I DIE
w/Stray From The Path, Last Witness
24 – SOUTHAMPTON Brook, 25 – BRISTOL Fleece, 26 – PLYMOUTH White Rabbit, 27 – BRIGHTON Haunt, 28 – CARDIFF Solus, 29 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 30 – WOLVERHAMPTON Slade Rooms, 31 – MANCHESTER Academy II

Band after band said that Every Time I Die nailed it nightly on the US Warped Tour, and now over on our shores we are expecting exactly the same amount of carnage. With ETID being joined by Stray From The Path (who you might have caught with Architects earlier this year) and homegrown talent Last Witness this is a very healthy looking line up.

GALLOWS
w/Feed The Rhino
03 – BRIGHTON Haunt, 04 – EXETER Cavern, 05 – BRISTOL The Fleece, 06 – MANCHESTER Club Academy, 08 – NEWCASTLE Academy 2, 09 – GLASGOW King Tut’s, 11 – NOTTINGHAM – Rock City Basement, 12 – SHEFFIELD Corporation, 13 – STOKE Sugarmill, 14 – WREXHAM Central Station, 15 – LEEDS Cockpit, 16 – PETERBOROUGH Club Revolution, 17 – BIRMINGHAM Academy 2, 19 – LONDON Underworld

Their latest release received critical acclaim across the board, and now with intense front man Wade Macneil at the helm and Feed The Rhino as support, this isn’t just a must see show but a ‘you’d-be-really-fucking-stupid-not-to-go’ kind of show.

HILDAMAY
w/Landscapes
17 – DERBY Victoria Inn, 18 – GLASGOW Ivory Blacks, 19 – MANCHESTER Star & Garter, 20 – LIVERPOOL Format, 22 – LONDON Upstairs at the Garage, 23 – SOUTHAMPTON Cellar,24 – PLYMOUTH White Rabbit, 26 – PETERBOROUGH Met Lounge

We’ve noted Hildamay as ones to watch for some time now, and with a full UK tour to support their forthcoming album, hopefully this will be their time to shine. With Landscapes also on the bill this will be an awesome showcasing event for British talent as hardcore doesn’t get much more emotional and bleak than the way Landscapes go about it.

NEVER SAY DIE 2012 TOUR!
w/ We Came As Romans, BlessTheFall, Stick To Your Guns, For The Fallen Dreams, Obey The Brave, At The Skylines, The Browning, At Dawn We Rage
15 – UK Birmingham, O2 Academy 2, 17 – UK Manchester, Club Academy, 18 – UK London, The Electric Ballroom

Never Say Die Tours are always great but this year it features two of our favorite artists, Stick To Your Guns and Obey The Brave. Stick To Your Guns put on a hard hitting yet optimistic live show and Obey The Brave are sure to slay with their brutally heavy riffs.

PROXIES
11 – BUCKS Uni SU

If you are a regular reader of Crossfire you’ll know that we rate Proxies very highly indeed. Catch them at their live show to find out what all the fuss is about.

OF MICE & MEN
w/ Memphis May Fire, Secrets
08 – NORWICH Waterfront, 10 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 11 – GLASGOW Garage, 12 – MANCHESTER Moho Live, 13 – BIRMINGHAM Asylum, 14 – LEEDS Cockpit

Of Mice & Men are the buzz band of metalcore right now. Not only due to their ridiculously strong re-release of ‘The Flood’ which featured 4 astounding bonus tracks, but due to the fact that Austin Carlile and his band mates seem to fully engage with their fans.

STRAIGHT LINES
01 – BIRMINGHAM Rainbow, 02 – NORWICH Waterfront, 04 – KINGSTON New Slang, 05 – BRIGHTON Hydrant, 06 – SOUTHAMPTON Joiners, 07 – EXETER Cavern, 10 – BRISTOL Thekla, 11 – OXFORD Jericho, 12 – MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms, 13 – READING Face Bar, 15 – LONDON Barfly, 16 – CARDIFF CF10

After releasing their second (and awesome) album, ‘Freaks Like Us’ earlier this year, check out Straight Lines as they embark on an expansive UK tour.

THE DANGEROUS SUMMER
01 – EXETER Pheonix, 02 – SOUTHAMPTON Mo’Club, 03 – BRISTOL Trinity, 04 – NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms, 05 – GLASGOW Garage, 07 – MANCHESTER Club Academy, 08 – NORWICH Arts Centre, 09 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy 2, 10 – LEEDS Cockpit, 11 – LONDON Electric Ballroom, 12 – KINGSTON Fighting Cocks

After releasing one of the albums of 2011 in ‘War Paint’, The Dangerous Summer have become firm favorites at Crossfire HQ. This October they are hitting the road with another of our loves, Don Broco.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
15 – LONDON O2 Brixton Academy, 17 – LONDON O2 Brixton Academy, 18 – MANCHESTER O2 Apollo, 19 – GLASGOW O2 Academy, 20 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy

It appears everyone has a place for The Gaslight Anthem in their hearts, and rightly so. After a releasing another timeless album ‘Handwritten’ and performing a euphoric set at Reading & Leeds, The Gaslight Anthem are ready to take full control of the UK.

TRIVIUM
w/ As I Lay Dying
15 – MANCHESTER Ritz, 16 – GLASGOW O2 ABC, 17 – BIRMINGHAM HMV Institute, 19 – BRISTOL O2 Academy, 20 – NORWICH UEA, 21 – LONDON Shepherds Bush Empire

A titan of modern metal, Trivium, joined by one of the godfathers of metalcore, As I Lay Dying, in arguably intimately sized venues… this is going to be amazing.

Categories
Free Downloads Music Music News

Eager Teeth Sign Deal And Offer Free Download

Eager_Teeth_PromoUK indie label A Wolf At Your Door Records have announced their latest signing as Post-hardcore Brighton based band Eager Teeth.

Eager Teeth formed just over 18 months ago from the ashes of Telegraphs, Chaos Days and This City and have already started to cause a stir with their nostalgic brand of alternative post-hardcore. The band have spent much of this summer in the studio with emerging producer pair Thomas Mitchener and Steve Sears (Gallows, Spycatcher) tracking their brilliant self-titled debut album, which is set for release early next year.

AWAYDR are certainly an exciting label to join, having launched Deaf Havana’s career and with up and coming artists Marllory Knox and Hildamay on their roster. To mark the beginning of the AWAYDR and Eager Teeth partnership, album track ‘Exorcise Bike’ has been made available for FREE DOWNLOAD, you can grab it below.

Categories
Features Music Preview

READING & LEEDS: MUST SEE BANDS – BBC INTRODUCING STAGE

Reading & Leeds Line Up Poster 2012

BBC Introducing Stage, Reading & Leeds 2012

As always Reading & Leeds has an impeccably strong line up. Headliners The Cure, Kasabian and Foo Fighters are joined by numerous big names across several stages including Cancer Bats, At The Drive-In, The Gaslight Anthem, Enter Shikari, The Maccabees, Every Time I Die… The list goes on! But for those who are more interested in finding some fresh blood, the recently announced BBC Introducing is the place to be.

33 up and coming bands have been selected by various BBC Radio Introducing shows and the festival promoters Festival Republic. We’ve handpicked our favourites below with the full stage line up as follows: Attention Thieves, Backyards, Bearfoot Beware, Black Moth, Crooked Tongues, Cut Ribbons, Danica Hunter, Dear Prudence, Dingus Khan, Empror & Duppy Beatz, Escape To New York, Escapists, The Establishment, Family of the Year, Fish Tank, Glassbody, Hawk Eyes, Hildamay, Ifan Dafydd, Lady Lykez, Marmozets, Marsicans, Max Raptor, Mikill Pane, Park Bench Society, Proxies, Rachel Sermanni, Samoans, Sarah Williams White, Seasfire, Wet Nuns, We Walk On Ice, We Were Frontiers.

Proxies:

After selling out physical copies of their EP ‘The Lost Demos’ in a matter of minutes, having toured with the likes of Hadouken! and Canterbury, releasing a single featuring The Blackout’s Sean Smith, and, with over 16,000 followers on Facebook is a bit of a surprise that Proxies are on Reading & Leeds smallest stage! Well we can assure you they won’t be there for long, watch this electric young band up close and personal while you still can!

Hawk Eyes:

Describing their debut album as, “sleek and modern and hardcore and suitably post-post-everything,” and themselves as, “Band, four people, Leeds, riffs, spend a lot of time in a van,” Hawk Eyes are a no frills, yet exceptionally fun, British rock band. We can guarantee that Hawk Eyes won’t be playing these smaller stages for much longer so catch their intimate set while you can…

Samoans:

Samoans are masters of the fretboard. Their distinctive brand of progressive math-rock draws influence from the legendary Reuben and Maps & Atlases. The raw emotion in the vocals is comparable to early Biffy Clyro, making Samoans are compelling and intense live band.

We Walk On Ice:

After featuring on Fred Perry’s Subculture ‘Best New Music’ section and filling out some of London’s coolest venues, We Walk On Ice are one of those buzz bands that you need to catch. Renowned for surf-pop-soundscapes, We Walk On Ice are the perfect accompaniment to a British summers day (weather permitting).

Attention Thieves:

Born in the vibrant Reading music scene, Attention Theives combine straight forward rock with some gutsy punk spirit. You may recognize front man Alex Green from tech-metal band The Arusha Accord, but Attention Theives are on a completely different end of the alternative spectrum with a much more accessible sound. Constantly living life on the road and frequently treating fans to new music videos, Attention Thieves deserve this exposure.

WORDS: EMMA WALLACE

Categories
Album Reviews Buzz Chart Music Reviews

Hildamay

We Loved, We Lost EP
A Wolf At Your Door Records

For A Wolf At Your Door Records’ latest export, Hildamay, the second half of 2011 has so far been one of the most crucial periods of the band’s career; from receiving commercial radio attention from none other than Radio One’s Zane Lowe to going on a hugely anticipated tour with hotly tipped label mates Mallory Knox, Hildamay are certainly making big strides towards greatness. With this in mind, much is to be expected of We Loved, We Lost and while it’s not exactly make or break, it certainly will be a release that carries a lot of weight on their path to success.

It doesn’t take long for the band to display exactly why they describe their sound as Punk ‘n’ Roll (the opening bass line of EP opener Parachutes, to be exact) and why they’ve generated so much hype in the relatively short time since being signed, from start to finish every single chorus on the EP seems capable of inciting a mass sing-along and every verse seems to build up to these perfectly. It truly is a credit to the band’s songwriting ability that everything about the structures of the songs on We Loved, We Lost feels perfectly natural without falling into a lull of predictability, something which many bands seem to fall victim to recently.

The band certainly wear their influences on their collective sleeve, with elements of Hot Water Music especially creeping it’s way into the band’s sound quite often, though this isn’t to say that the band don’t have their own identity, with the title track in particular showing a unique blend of intricacy and pure balls to the wall aggression that is often difficult to blend cohesively yet the band seem very comfortable in their ability to bring the two together effectively.

Picking a specific highlight from the bunch would be a nigh on impossible task but the aforementioned title track and the brilliantly paced Delicate are definitely two of the most memorable tracks on the record, although there isn’t a dull moment to be found on the EP. With most fans having already heard This House Became Our Home on their recent split EP with Mallory Knox there was plenty to be optimistic of and thankfully the band have duly delivered.

All in all, Hildamay have crafted an impeccably structured and sonically beautiful EP which could easily be looked back on in coming years as the record that determined what was to come. On this evidence, the band have certainly lived up to (maybe even surpassed, depending on who you ask) expectations and have built a solid foundation for a career that will hopefully lead them onto bigger and better things; with a support slot for Crossfire favourites letlive. coming up in the next few weeks they could well be on their way sooner than expected. Definitely ones to watch.

Ryan de Freitas

Categories
Music News

Hevy Festival announce first line up

hevyfestival2011We had a rad time at Hevy Fest last year and this year looks set to compete with a line-up that shows great potential for another fun weekend packed with great music.

Back in Port Lympne in Kent, at the Wild Animal Park, Saturday night will be co-headlined by The Dillinger Escape Plan and Architects. Dillinger aren’t even doing any other European festivals this summer. NONE! The rest of the line-up is looking like this so far:

The Dillinger Escape Plan (European Festival Exclusive), Architects (co-headline), Bouncing Souls, We Are The Ocean, Zebrahead, Capdown, Ceremony (UK Festival Exclusive), Polar Bear Club, Your Demise, Rise To Remain, Touche Amore (UK Festival Exclusive), La Dispute (UK Festival Exclusive), November Coming Fire, Awaken Demons (UK Festival Exclusive), Man Overboard, Lemuria, Brutality Will Prevail, Spycatcher, Death Is Not Glamorous, Rot In Hell, Polar, Cheap Girls, Heart In Hand, Hang The Bastard and Hildamay.

Weekend camping tickets are priced at £89 and will include free entry to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for the weekend. Tickets will be available online from www.hevy.co.uk / 0843 221 0100 / and from selected HMV stores across the UK.

Probably worth it for Dillinger, Architects, Ceremony, Polar Bear Club, Touche Amore and La Dispute alone. OK, that’s quite a lot already. Roll on the announcement of the rest of the 80 band strong bill!