Tonight marks the first time Devolution Magazine has been to Kirkgate Community Centre in Shipley. The venue has a definite churchy feel to it, which is kind of perfect as we are here to worship at the altar of UK metal!
First to take the stage tonight are Leeds post metallers Hundred Year Old Man. This band has been on a devastating burn over the last twelve months with strategic gigs that have hit with pinpoint precision. Excellent new songs, new personnel and new haircuts are all present and correct. We donβt know how they do it, but every time we see this band, they seem to have gotten heavier! Cloaked in shadows and fog, as is customary with HYOM, tonight is yet another killer hit for this crew.
Tesseract guitarist James Monteith is back from touring the world with Tesseract, and tonight he wants to riff! Cage Fight is in the house, and they are certainly up for a brawl. Rachel Aspe commands the room like a hybrid of Angela Gossow with the vocal dexterity of David Simonich from Signs Of The Swarm. Her range is absolutely stunning these days, and on newer tracks like βUn Bon Souvenirβ from their upcoming βExuviaβ album, she also displays beautiful, clean vocals. Tonight, nothing can cage the fight in this band, with Mr Monteith even starting his own circle pits! Cage Fight absolutely demolished this place and are the perfect support act.
Employed To Serve are in triumphant spirits tonight. This is the first night of their victory lap around the UK with last yearβs incendiary βFallen Starβ album now deeply etched into the psyche of their audience. The mass sing-alongs that greet new classics βBreaks Me Downβ and a savage rendition of βAtonementβ is confirmation of their anthemic status. The latter song proves what an overlooked vocalist, lead guitarist Sammy Urwin, is, as he belts out the Will Ramos guest parts with pitch-perfect performance into the mix.
Tonight is yet another reminder of just how much of a treasure this band is. Whether they play to 200 or 20,000 people, this band will always deliver an arena-sized performance. A bullish βWe Don’t Need Youβ feels like the voice of the UK at the moment as the audience shouts back the refrain at the awesome Justine Jones. Tonight, this band didn’t stop smiling for the entire set; itβs one of the many reasons they are such a great band live. Beyond their many, many instantly recognisable tracks, they are true lovers of metal in all of its forms, and tonight they deliver all of them at once in a masterful explosion of joy. We all truly love Employed To Serve, and when we see gigs like tonightβs, we think they love us too.
Review By George Miller β https://www.facebook.com/oneflamemedia
Photos By: Thomas Hazlehurst β https://www.instagram.com/tommytogtog/
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