Forever Never, a band I fell in love with 4 years ago after being randomly added by them on MySpace a few weeks prior to seeing them open up for Stone Sour.
So after seeing them 5 times previously when they announced the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Metal!!” UK tour I was well up for seeing them for the 6th time.Awake By Design [6/10] came onto the stage, a 6 piece heavy rock band with power metal-esque vocals. The bands job is to open up the show, liven up the crowd and warm them up for the other bands. The band come onto the stage and there’s a bit of messing around with awkward silence making everyone uncomfortable to make any sort of noise, then some feedback absolutely deafens us in the crowd. They then kick into it and musically they played very well and obviously knew how to handle their instruments; but as a live act, well, not so great. The lead singer defiantly seemed to be trying far too hard flinging himself around the stage every chance he got and displayed some rather cliché rock front man moves. Having said this he also left and went backstage a hell of a lot, which to me just seemed very unprofessional. As for the rest of the members; well the drummer has the look and attitude that a rock drummer needs and has a very nice style to his playing, the lead guitarist is not spectacular but he stays in the limelight and gives it his best and makes a good job of it. Now in the background, generally unnoticeable are the bassist and rhythm guitarist who do not really put much of a show on, seem to just want to stay in the background and get it over with. Joining the band on some of their songs was a very attractive young lady singing harmonies with the singer; this little addition really gave the vocals an edge which - whilst not drawing attention away from the rest of the band as she stayed at the back – did wonders for the band’s sound overall.
Sworn To Oath [9/10] came on the stage obviously down for a riot and I have to give it to them they were very persistent in getting the crowd to join in with them even though they just weren’t up for it. Never the less they never gave up and thundered through their set with their heavy pantera-esque style riffs and vocals yet not being a rip off of the band. A memorable moment was the bassist and guitarist making some very embarrassing jokes about the drummer leaving the crowd and themselves laughing so much that it took them a few moments for the moment to pass before even being able to continue with the set. The 3 piece band defiantly up the standard for the night and from what I saw when they came off stage gained a lot of new fans in the process – Including me with the £5 I paid for their debut 3 track EP “Don’t Fuck About” [Review Coming Soon].
Forever Never [9/10], the headline band. The reason I took the time to give out a giant pile of flyers to advertise the show. The 5 piece band from Essex are here touring their new 6 track covers EP “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Metal!!” [Review Coming Soon]. The band kicks straight into their set with “Never Enough”, an amazing set opener that had the majority of the crowd singing the lyrics louder than the singer. Front man Renny Carrol puts masses of energy into fronting this band and it feels completely natural, he’s not trying to imitate any other band. Between songs Renny interacts well with the crowd with humorous remarks and chants leaving pretty much the entire room smiling and laughing. A very memorable quote:
“Just because it’s a metal gig doesn’t mean you can’t smile. If Slayer tells you otherwise tell them to fuck off, and tell them I said that” – Renny Carrol.One of the highlights of the set has to be the 4 amazing cover songs they played from the new EP, they were Shaggy’s “Boombastic”, Michael Jackson’s “Who is it?, Go West’s “We Close Our Eyes” and John Farnham’s “You’re The Voice”, very interesting covers but worked phenomenally well. They also graced us with some of their own songs including “Broken Kingdom”, “As I Lie” “Aporia”, “T.I.T.S” and “Eradicated” featuring an Interlude in which Renny really psyched up the crowd. Closing the set with the single “Empty Promises” from the second album, the band leave the stage to come out and sign autographs and chat to fans. It’s not the best show I’ve seen the band play but most of that was down to the turnout and sheer lack of enthusiasm from the crowd. Forever Never in my opinion are a criminally overlooked band and hopefully by the next time the band plays a headline tour, their popularity will grow and they come back with a much more lively crowd giving a fantastic atmosphere that will completely blow my mind.
Judging the night as a whole, I’d give the night an 8/10.
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