When Pryma appeared with Blaze Bayley and his band during “Man On The Edge” towards the end of their set, it looked like they were having the time of their lives.
That also appeared to be their default setting in the Kent band’s set too. “Suicide Storm” is heavy, Gabrielle Geroge is more than capable of growls as well as something more melodic, as she shows on “Survival”.
Their new single, “Dead To Me,” has a real old-school mix to the sound of “My Cold Shadow”. They even threw a brand new track in, and “Mask” has a tone that screams modern metal.
Add in their singalong “Freaky Friday Night” and the fact that they looked like they absolutely loved it, and Pryma are ones to keep an eye on.
The last time MV saw Absolva was just before Christmas, and frontman Chris Appleton had told us that the band was going to spend the year on the road. He’s been as good as his word: “Our partners and children don’t recognise us anymore,” he says tonight.
Those shows have honed the set too. “Fire In The Sky” and the utterly superb “Never A Good Day To Die” sparkle even more than normal.
Other guitarist Luke Appleton takes the vocals for “Side By Side”, while “Stand Your Ground” has a touch of the epics about it, and like the openers, Absolva are premiering a new track. The world first, no less. “The Thrill Of A Chase” is a high-energy rock n roll affair, great fun, and it bodes well for the new album.
Absolva are – and it’s inescapable every time you see them – a brilliant band. The two brothers together at the end of “From Beyond The Light” somehow underline that. Their increased activity has paid off wonderfully, and as they end with Chris’s usual exhalation of “Remember the name, Absolva!” it’s hard to forget.
There is no fanfare to speak of when Blaze Bayley arrives on stage. But his solemn walk to the microphone is partly for fun, of course, but it also shows just how seriously he takes this stuff.
A hometown show (literally—he lives just up the road), he is among his people, and when he’s in such situations, he is unstoppable.
Beginning with “Alive”—given what happened to him a couple of years ago, that is still poignant—the next couple of hours is a study on how to deliver a metal show.
His latest album, “Circle Of Stone,” is marvellous and they evidently know that, given how much of it is included. “Ghost In The Middle” is prefaced with the thought that he was “living my dreams,” and there are many highlights. “The Call Of The Ancestors” is one of those, and the title track is magnificent, while “Path Of The Righteous Man” has a real gallop.
In amongst all the new stuff, like the dark “Rage,” there are the usual pillars of Blaze. Some old, some Maiden, and some fun.
The Maiden stuff that is dusted off this time includes “Lightning Strikes Twice” and “When Two Worlds Collide” (“that was my favourite song of the Maiden period because it had the word ‘Telescope’ in,” says Bayley), while the acoustic section includes “2 a.m.” Even better, it had a brilliant Reworking of Bayley’s own “Stare At The Sun” – the first song he sang after coming out of his heart surgery.
There’s another poignant one with “Every Storm Ends” before a trio of Maiden songs. The aforementioned “….Edge”, “Futureal” and “Angel And The Gambler” all of which show that it’s high time there was a reevaluation of his time in the band.
That’s for another day though, all I can say about this one is, way back he used to do a thing each year at the much-missed JBs called The Big Bash. They were wonderful, almost life-affirming affairs. This had the same vibe. In a setting like this, there’s no one better.
