Breed 77, Imperial Circus, W.A.K.O and Spirytus live at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, UK, on August 30th, 2013

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© Jay Hawkins

Photos by Jay Hawkins

http://www.jjphotographyuk.co.uk/

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Live Gig Review Credit: Jay Hawkins (Journalist/Writer/Photographer) (Myglobalmind Webzine)

As autumn gets ever closer, the live music scene, in the UK, shows no signs of cooling down, which is a good thing!

Tonight’s hotly anticipated gig certain promised to be a great spectacle, with the likes of W.A.K.O, traveling all the way from Portugal, Breed 77 hailing from the sunny British province of Gibraltar they’ve certainly brought with them some heat. Before all that, however, we had two local Nottingham bands supporting Breed 77, the first of them, Imperial Circus, kicked off proceedings. Consisting of;

Leigh Dickens – Vocals

David Weston Smith – Drums

Daniel Buck – Guitar

Andrew Cargill – Guitar

Leighton Mead – Bass

These guys are no strangers to the stage, with many support and festival slots over their 7 year career. With two albums under their belt, these guys like nothing more than keeping it real!

Tonight’s set certainly got the crowd going, as intended, the first few tracks were full on thrash/rock, which sounded full on, courtesy of Leigh and his powerful vocals. Unfortunately the band encountered a technical fault with Andrews guitar. Although they did everything they could, it ruined the last couple of tracks and feel we missed out on the full IC experience. Not to rubbish their entire set, the band were given a rapturous applause for their efforts.

Next up, W.A.K.O (We Are Killing Ourselves) more on that name in a minute, consisting of

Nuno Rodrigues – Vocals

João Pedro – Guitars

André Sobral – Guitars

Pedro Mendes – Bass

Bruno Guilherme – Drums

Being from Portugal, it was interesting to see how their thrash metal music style would come across. These guys have got a healthy following and have toured with the likes of Slayer and Megadeth, so they are doing something right. Tonight’s performance was an awesome display of power, Nuno’s vocals especially, christ the guy can scream! I can’t fault the guys for their showmanship, or musical abilities, as they tried very hard to get the crowd involved, beckoning them forward to mosh out. Unfortunately the crowd weren’t willing to oblige, and stood at the back like miserable bastards. I did try and stand at the front of the barrier, hoping people would join me, but after one song, stood on my own, I felt a bit of a twat and joined everyone else at the back! As their name suggests “We Are Killing Ourselves” they certainly were tonight, for our benefit, their performance was outstanding, but I fear the crowd didn’t get it.

I thoroughly enjoyed their performance tonight, I got it and hope to see more of them, in the UK, in the near future, alongside better suited bands maybe?

Next up, an absolutely belter of a band, Spirytus, from Nottingham, just a stones through away from me, how I’ve never come across this band before, I don’t know, but many have. Just goes to show, when you think you know all there is to know, their’s always something new, around the corner, literally, waiting to be discovered!

Consisting of Ryan Walton – Vocals, Alistair Bell – Guitar, Ben Edis – Bass, Ben McAlonan – Drums, Danny Jones – DJ

This bunch are a real mixture of characters, which harmonizes well with their musical style. Billed as Aggressive Funk Groove Metal, what ever the hell that is, these are one of those genre crushing bands, similar to Skindred, Slipknot, Senser and Korn, who are willing to explore beyond the boundaries of metal, crossing over into funk, drum and bass, soul, pretty much everything really. You really need to see for yourself to be fully appreciate them!

From the off, these guys looked pumped and ready to party hard, as were the crowd, which seemed to triple in size for these guys, clearly a firm favorite. This band are a real family affair too and I don’t say that in jest, as most of Ben’s immediate family were in the crowd, rocking out and supporting them, which was great to see.

Throughout their entire set, I stood in absolute amazement, with the biggest grin on my face! Two great moments was when they played their version of James Brown’s, I got you (I feel Good), I’m pretty sure the great man himself would feel good, if he was around to hear it! The second was their rendition of Prodigy’s Breath, which really did leave me speechless, both tracks have been given a new Spirytus, the band making them their own!

As a thank you to the crowd, for their support, they decided to play all the tracks off their new EP. With its release immanent, every track sounded great, personally I can’t wait for its release, as i’ll be at the front of the queue for that one! A truly great performance on an epic scale. Became a fan instantly I hope to see them at a few more festivals and gigs very soon!

Set List:

Fundamentals

Qandahar

Mandem

Horses

Patience of a Saint

Horses – Skit

All Because of Me

Heaven Hates You

Breathe

Crucify

As diverse as their counterparts, Spirytus, headliners, Breed 77 have taken the metal genre and made it their own, giving their sound a truly Mediterranean flavor. To help distinguish this sound they incorporate acoustic guitars, giving a Spanish-esq twang, played alongside some amazing guitar riffs.

Originally founded in 1996, In 1998, Kerrang readers voted Breed 77 the ‘Best Unsigned Band’. In 1999, they won both the Metal Hammer and Kerrang awards for the best new band. Then in 2001 they signed a five album deal with Albert Productions, the legendary Australian publisher of AC/DC.

This current headline tour is to co-inside with their latest, highly anticipated, 6th studio album release, “The Evil Inside” which is out now and is bloody brilliant. Sadly Paul Isola has decided to leave the band, so filling his shoes for vocal duties is Rui Lopez, playing along side the rest of the original founding members;

Danny Felice – Guitar

Stuart Cavilla – Bass

Pedro Caparros López – Guitars

Andre Joyzi – Drums

With such a new vocalist, its hard to compare the two vocalists but I can assure you, fans of Breed 77 should not be put off by this fact, as Rui has fit in reallywell. His vocal abilities are every bit as good as his predecessors as is his persona on stage. He did nearly kill himself tonight though, when he tried to perform a long jump off the barrier, back onto the stage. I’m glad to report, he is still alive and will be able to see out the rest of the tail end of the tour. We can next see Breed 77, at the end of September, where they will be headlining the Rock and Metal Circus Festival, Stoke Priory in Broomsgrove.

Set list:

Drown

Blind

Fear

The Battle Of Hatin

Bring On The Rain

World’s On Fire

Broken Pieces

Low

Zombie (Cover)

Burn City Burn

Insects