It seems to be a common theme that nine times out of ten, I feel ridiculously old when I go to a show. Despite being an 18+ show with a club night attached, most of the We Are The Ocean fans there that night were surely underage with clever fake IDs or at least of a lesser mental age than I seemed to be when I was fresh out of sixth form. Maybe it’s because I’m now considered a jaded old punk at the age of 21 (you know checked shirts and bat tats are so last year) and because I’m older than most of the people in the bands I’m now going to see. It seems that increasingly, success lies in bright and youthful eyes and a voice that seems as if it’s wise beyond those years.
That isn’t necessarily an adage that applies to Finish Him!, a local Coventry metalcore/deathcore/partycore/yourowncore (delete as applicable) band. Their voice certainly isn’t wise beyond their years, with song names like “Rosie vs Jim – The Final Showdown” and clips from movies overtly introduced before a particularly heavy breakdown. I tell you what it is though – bloody great fun. There are some ridiculously accomplished riffs and mental time signatures going on within the music as well as a great guttural growl from vocalist Mitchel. There’s clear influences from bands like Emmure, but they certainly have their own sound, and despite looking totally cool, sedate and suited up during the first song, they really went crazy as the set went on, giving their set an intensity to admire without losing sight of having a great time. I’m really looking forward to what these guys have to offer, and with a new record on the way, things are looking good.
Scream Blue Murder looked like, as Kitteh said, they’d just jumped off Myspace. Remember those metal bands who had the flashing backgrounds with dripping blood, a lot of black and red and virtually unintelligible logo? That’d be these guys. They’d gone for some threatening makeup, but just looked as if Black Veil Brides had taken a nap and forgot to get the cleansing wipes out. And they looked like they were only twelve except that one bloke we saw getting a tattoo when I was. Appearances aside, they certainly have some growing up to do. The performance was reasonably tight, but it was boring. Extremely generic riffs, growls with no real tone to them and a pretty average rhythm section. They showed none of the fervour that Finish Him! had, and when they hit upon a pretty good sound, it quickly vanished back into the maws of mediocrity.
We Are The Ocean are the kinds of people that are raised on hardcore but then decide to one-up it and create beautifully melodic songs with all the aggression and passion of the scene they came from. Far be it from me to question the glorious scene that was the 90s emotional hardcore scene, but if we ever wanted to reclaim “emo” from the media and give its original meaning back, We Are The Ocean would be the band to do it with. Their stirring anthems rang out loud and clear over Kasbah tonight with a resonance that other bands can only envy. Despite the room being packed full of dickheads with receding hairlines (I mean, seriously… when it gets that bad, scene hair can’t save you. Shave it.), the room had all eyes on the stage, or occasionally the floor when vocalist Dan Brown decided to take to the pit or the bar himself. We Are The Ocean have so many great singalongs and while the set focused heavily on second album Go Now And Live, the fans knew every word and were happy to show it. You know when you see a performance that leaves you a bit lost for words because it’s more than a bit brilliant? Oh yeah. This was one of those. We Are The Ocean are already doing rather well for themselves, as is evident from the customised plastic bags and yearbooks, but this is going to be their year. Don’t miss them when they come near you.
“Despite the room being packed full of dickheads with receding hairlines (I mean, seriously… when it gets that bad, scene hair can’t save you. Shave it.”
“Despite being an 18+ show with a club night attached, most of the We Are The Ocean fans there that night were surely underage with clever fake IDs or at least of a lesser mental age than I seemed to be when I was fresh out of sixth form”
Which was it? A room full of 12 year olds, or a room full of 40 year olds?
hey, well just to point out, scream blue murder were the best there last night, finish him were shite and we are the ocean were only ok but very boring, plus your review is very badly written (:
It is always amazing when reviews are written, especially when they are small established businesses. We Are The Ocean are an incredible, professional band. Finish Him have been around Coventry for many years. Scream Blue Murder are a very young and yes 15-19 years old band, however they have now supported several major bands across the UK and are currently being placed into the US by main line promoters. The reason for not looking as good as Black veil Brides is because they are not trying to be them! it is obviously not your liked genre!! We believe together with many promoters and other bands that SBM are and will be big in the very near future – I am not sure what show you were watching?
Hey what a great night with over 350 tickets sold!
The amazing WATO were unforgettable, Finish Him performed to their best as usual!
Did you actually see SBM – I really believe they stole the night! the FULL crowd stayed to watch the show, all enjoyed it, and a major mosh was had by all! – Obviously you do not know SBM boys – many of us have been following them for some time and watched them grow – nearly 7000 fans on Facebook in less than 8 months! loads of people will totally disagree with your review, its a shame that you do not listen or look carefully who is moving upwards instead of making nice reviews of friends bands and just licking the asses of bigger bands only.
I enjoyed SBM more than Finish Him so i dont know what your going on about mate?
Finish him were no way better than Scream Blue Murder, for a start of they had bigger crowd and better reaction, and Finish Him sounded a mess, We are the ocean were great though xD
SBM FTW
As a reviewer, it’s my prerogative to give my opinion. And yeah, I thought that Scream Blue Murder were dull and unimpressive. I love a lot of genres of music, metal included, but I felt like they had a lot of improvements to make. So, if you enjoyed them, then go see them, buy their records, get them to where you think they should deserve to be. Personally, I don’t think there’s room for that kind of generic metal in today’s market. I don’t think Finish Him! sounded a mess at all – they were doing some pretty clever stuff, but I suppose that kind of genre doesn’t have a mass appeal because it can never be background music; you always have to be paying attention.
And anon – it was a room full of 12 year olds with an unfortunate Benjamin Button complex. Clearly.
And to Glen (hello SBM’s manager, I think we’ve got assorted family members here too) – I’ve never met any member of any band who played that night, so I’m definitely not doing this for a friend. Nor would I have given WATO such a good review if they hadn’t earned it. This site deals predominantly with unsigned or new music and last year, I found out about some amazing bands. I reviewed a metal band called Stained Ashes last year who had, hands down, one of the best EPs I’d heard in a long time and they could have been classed in a similar vein to SBM. SBM didn’t bring it on the night. That’s all I can say.
sbm was the best there 🙂
Where has all this animosity towards Ripper come from? Oh yeah she decided to say that a band wasn’t good. There will always be some days where a band gets a bad review. There are three things that band (or fans in this case) can do: 1) Ignore the review and continue on in whatever manner they had been, doing nothing to address any issues they feel are legitimate. 2) Attack the review simply for being an opinion they didn’t want to hear and not change anything simply out of spite. Or 3) Carefully read the review and think about what idea they agree/disagree with and then act on that by either being confident in what they keep the same and what they decide they should change.
It would be very interesting to hear what the band have to say about the issues in the review rather than read loads of character attacks on ripper.
If you want my views on the music itself please ask, I both disagree and agree with Ripper in various places.
As a former member of SBM I agree with you completely ripper. There arrogance will only get them so far and they seem to think they are the high and mighty top dogs of the upcoming music scene. They need to learn to accept criticism and move on instead of getting people thrown out of gigs for saying they do not like there music.
Good honest review 🙂
Hilarious that 1 the bands manager has felt the urge to comment in their defence (also being 2 of SBMs father if I’m correct) and oh wait, 2 one of the boys mentally retarded girlfriends.
As well as being a shite band SBM try to victimise and verbally attack and threaten anyone who disagrees with their music. What a truly shite band.
And tbf whoever said Finish Him were a mess, get your ears checked cos Ive been to plenty finish him shows and they’ve always played brilliantly.
There is no way this review is badly written. its clever, humorous and honest. as far as reviews go twobeatsoff writer , ripper delivers.
As a fan of all 3 bands, I find myself in a dilemma of having to choose a favourite but my life depends on it then FINISH HIM! takes the medal by a considerably mile and well deserved at that. Their performances are consistently tight and leaves room of spectators with their jaws on the floor.
SCREAM BLUE MURDER fans, understand this , there isn’t a band in the music scene that hasn’t received any sort of negative criticism and thats ok . Thats how to improve , no one gets better without improving and in some cases completely changing appearances, perfomances and most importantly music. Ripper is more than entitled to give an honest opinion about a band .
p.s The WE ARE THE OCEAN GIG is not a competition , each band is different is their own unique way in how they deliver their music and how they look .
Just my opinion,
Ace