PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
A beautiful hot and sunny Sunday afternoon walk down to Fibber Magees it was, until PlanetMosh descended into the humid murky bowels of the club for the final day of this year’s Unleashed Festival. This last day was an all-ages affair and the gathered minions were definitely excited for the day ahead. This review is a summary, as our intended reviewer was unable to attend at the last minute.
First up were Strange Daze, and young (like most of the acts today), two piece who made an enjoyable racket although even though they were joined by a bassist for the opening number, they seemed to lack a large stage presence . Their musicianship is very good and with a little more confidence they will be a band to keep an eye on over the coming months.With Grace and Charm followed and to be fair, they were fighting a losing battle from the start. Playing as a trio as a result of band members leaving the group, they had to use a drum backing track and the set suffered as a performance piece. I briefly chatted with bassist, Schizo after their set and he said that they had some new band members joining and that they will be back as a stronger unit soon. Defector opened their set with a pretty awesome version of SOAD’s ‘Aerials’ but I have to apologise to the guys as I had to head away for the remainder of the set and I hope I’ll catch them again before the end of the year.
Momentum was definitely increased with Displaced. Clean vocalist and guitarist Ed Graves, complete with bandana mask, was charismatic and definitely one to watch in upcoming shows. The other guitar slinger and rough vocalist Danny Bochkov, fairly shook his dark mane while shredding his axe and their mix of modern industro-core was lapped up by the audience. The first gang of proper headbangers were camped in front of the stage from the first to the last note. The mood was set and teenage emotions were now properly charged and the perfect band to feed on this, Call To Arms were up next. I recently saw these guys supporting Voodoo and knew what to expect. From the off, dynamic frontman Dean, kicked a circle pit into motion- “This is a Call To Arms Show, You know the drill, you know what to do”. The crowd was happy to oblige. They are a very young band (their drummer is only 15) but they have a strong following of loyal fans (evident from the number of CTA T-Shirts present). Their songs were well balanced and geared towards the live show and towards getting people off their ass and rocking the fuck out or crashing the fuck together in a wall of death. Every one of them is ready to take this to the next level and I for one am excited to see where their journey takes them. The singalong of ‘We Are The Core’ was the highlight of their explosive set. Note: This band has the potential to be great for BOA M2TM. It’s days like today that we have to realize that the youth are the future and the future would be fucked without bands like Call To Arms.
The penultimate band of the weekend was the reawakened Awaken Dominion. Back after a 6 month gig hiatus, they opened with a cracking instrumental before they were joined on stage by ex-AeSect, , frontman Shane. What followed was a blistering set of technical and progressive heavy tunes played by friends enjoying themselves on stage again. The crowd was a little sparce due a lot of them dispersing after Call To Arms played and due to Sunday evening train timetables but the guys didn’t let that affect them as they spilled from the stage for the final number. Vile Regression had the honour of closing out the Unleashed Festival and they jumped into the challenge head first and balls deep. Performing songs from their recently released ‘Empires’ opus, Vile Regression are one of the top bands in Ireland at the moment. As Awaken Dominion before them, they were not fazed by the small crowd (although there were a good few late arrivals specifically for their set) and frontman Padraig paced the floor in front of the stage like a caged beast. Vile Regression finished off what was a great weekend for The Unleashed Festival’s second outing with a solid set of brutally heavy progressive metal.
The Unleashed Festival 2 was a fantastic three days of very different styles and we at PlanetMosh were very proud to be associated with the whole event. Massive kudos to Robbie at EHT Promotions for putting the whole event together and to all the bands that came along and put their hearts into playing the music the love playing.
Roll on The Unleashed Festival 3 in 2015
A full gallery of images from the whole weekend by Down The Barrel Photography is available here:
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