Oxford metal has been reinvigorated over recent months, and Skeletor Promotions has had no small part in championing the genre locally. As the first of their monthly nights at the O2 Academy (in collaboration with Room 101) in 2012, this gig pulled in a fairly large attendance, especially considering the technical, ‘niche’ style of the headliner, Aliases.
The night opened with the first of the (all-local) support bands, Save the Saviour. Mac Spraggs took to the stage a little too shyly to really energize the crowd, and although his confidence improved as the set went on, he could have done with a little more enthusiasm, particularly between songs, where he seemed to almost emanate nervousness. On the subject of stage presence, I felt some other members of the band could have moved about a little more, especially guitarist Matthew Wilson. Having said all this, I saw potential in Save the Saviour as an excellent live act – musically, the band were fairly tight, and poppy synths added a fresh feel to their sound, allowing them to stand out a little from the other bands playing on the night.
In contrast to Save the Saviour’s slightly lacklustre stage performance, Crysis, the second support band, had an absolute ton of energy! Frontman Kial Churcher took boldly to the stage shirtless, spitting aggressive vocals into the mic as he bounced energetically around the stage, at times jumping down onto the barrier to get as close to the crowd as he could. Kyle Quinell (bass) and Shaun Linstead (guitar) took this a step further by actually moving off the stage to play in the middle of a ferocious circle pit for their track ‘When Hell Becomes You’.
Next came Ways Across, by far the most melodic band on this lineup in particular. Before the gig, I was unsure how well a band using exclusively clean vocals would go down at a show with a predominantly heavy and technical headliner like Aliases, but I was pleasantly surprised. Crowd reaction to Ways Across’ set was excellent throughout, which appeared to bolster initially nervous-looking frontwoman Caroline Sperko’s confidence, in turn improving her (already powerful) voice dramatically. The band finished with a cover of ‘Rose of Sharyn’ by Killswitch Engage, which was received brilliantly, with a large proportion of the crowd singing back at the top of their voices!
Aethara started their set as the main support act by unveiling two pristine new banners on each side of the stage. Although it felt like they took a little too long to set up, once the band did begin their set, they played brilliantly – I have never seen a front barrier shake quite so much with the sheer force of three or four full rows of people headbanging away! I feel the need to highlight Aethara’s stellar vocals, especially cleans by drummer Ted Hewett, and also guitarist James Whitmarsh’s lead playing, particularly in consideration of the fact that he appeared to have some kind of a cast on his wrist!
The thing that surprised me most about Aliases’ set was their incredible stage presence – as a highly technical band, I was expecting them to be fairly static, sacrificing stage presence for overall tightness – this could not be further from the truth! The whole band, especially guitarists Leah Woodward and Graham Pinney, were absolutely mental on stage! It was also fantastic to see a band who really looked like they were having a great time – although many bands may resort to their ‘default’ brutal metal face on stage, Aliases really looked as if they were enjoying themselves! By this point, possibly due to the excellent standard of the support acts, the crowd felt somewhat worn out, and as a result their reaction to the Aliases set may have been a little sluggish, but it would have been impossible for any tech metal fan to walk out of the venue afterwards and deny that Aliases put on a great show!