A whole night of thunderous heavy rock. The impression that stays with me is masculinity; though there were some female fans in the audience, but I’m pretty sure every member of every band had at least a beard….
The Canadian ‘post-hardcore’ band was in the UK to promote the release of their fourth album ‘Volition’.
The small circular room of the O2 Two was pretty full, and continued till fill throughout the first two bands with beards and checked shirts. Canadian band Intervals opened with a very short set which no-one seemed too fussed about. Next up where British band Safety The Fire, who weren’t half bad and earned a little crowd response with a few chorus sing alongs. They reminded me The Blackout with their fast and furious verses but calmer choruses. Next up was Tesseract who seem to wake up most if not all of the room. They mixed in a gothic element with half the band looking like they belonged in a Black Sabbath tribute, low lighting and smoke filling the stage. The songs were unusual as a few had slow atmospheric intro’s with intricate guitar and melancholic vocals only to explode and sound like the other bands, with fierce drumming, heavy bass and even the occasional screamed lyrics.
Then Protest The Hero stroll onto stage to a huge reception, this woke the room up for sure. They were like a sudden thunder storm, no introduction just loud, insanely fast, with chunky riffs. The vocals were gruff and passionate and the time changes were swift and smooth. Much of the set was like this from what I heard, drums and guitar like machines guns. But from what I could tell, these guys stood out because they were fun. There was a lot of banter from Rody Walker, the lead singer after a few songs. For instants the ‘beer banter’(“down it! down it!” “No. How about, Sip! Sip!) and ‘Hunk of day’ were people climbed on each shoulders and the ‘hunkest’ guy got invited on stage for a selfie and a free beer.
From what I saw, Protest The Hero are for people who want some fun in their machine gun rock, while Safety The Fire are for those interested in something little less brash and Tesseract for those looking for some little unusual.