DEAD!/Beyond Recall/Elements/These Septic Stars

The Unit, Southampton

Local punk rockers DEAD kicked off their “Tourtanic” UK tour in Southampton’s Unit last Wednesday. They also brought some exciting up-and-coming local talent along for the ride with them, as well the fantastic Beyond Recall from Bristol. What followed was an entertaining and very loud evening of music!

The first band of the evening was Elements, a hard rock band from Southampton. They’re a decent enough band, and their playing is solid, with a bit of a Lower than Atlantis meets Pure Love sound going on with some electronic touches thrown in for good measure. Overall, Elements performance was competently executed and the band showcased a good rapport with the crowd. It was a strong effort for an opening band and provided a promising start to the evening.

After that, alternative metal outfit These Septic Stars bounded out onto the stage and proceeded to race through a set that was 30 minutes of pure “what the hell?” You can always tell things are about to get odd when one member of the band comes onstage without a shirt, wearing a gas mask. The band’s sound is just as unusual, with both rapping and clean vocals layered over looping, slightly funky guitar riffs. These Septic Stars whole performance was weird and a bit chaotic, but it worked. They were different, but good fun and it’s really nice to see a band whose sound really stands out in a scene containing a lot of copycat, cookie-cutter bands.

Next up were Beyond Recall, and it was this point in the evening that things started to get heavy. Really heavy. The lights dimmed, and as the band strode through the audience to the strains of Fall Out Boy, the atmosphere changed almost immediately. The crowd response was near hysterical; there was at least one mosh pit underway for almost the entirety of Beyond Recalls set. These boys have been getting a lot of airplay on Scuzz recently, and this performance showed why. They’re consummate pros with a knack for connecting with a crowd and their nu-metal/metalcore sound has produced some almost indecently catchy tracks, their cover of Flo Rida’s “Low” was a particular highlight. By the time singer Zaid was orchestrating the mosh pit from atop the venue’s bar, any doubters in the room had been transformed to sweat-soaked converts.

After Beyond Recall, it was time for headliner DEAD to take to the stage, which they did to the Titanic theme tune, in an amusing nod to the name of their tour. It also probably marked the first time ever that Celine Dion has been heard at a metal concert. Still, the incongruous nature of their walk-on music did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of DEAD’s adoring fans, who immediately redoubled their efforts to pulverise each other in the mosh pit, despite the muddy sound quality in the venue. The band showed some great interaction with the crowd, and displayed bags of energy, with singer Sam Chappell actually hanging from the ceiling at one point. As the show drew to a close with “Beautiful Broken Bones” the band basked in the adoration of their hometown crowd, and it was clear that everyone in Unit had just enjoyed a thoroughly memorable show!