First up tonight are Los Angeles based alternative rock/metallers Return to Dust who haven`t been together that long but already have a self-titled album and EP in the can. There`s minimal fuss as this quartet arrive and head straight into the enticing `Black Road` from said album. The grungy `Shine` is shared which was a single from last year. There`s a cover of the idiosyncratic rap band OutKast`s `Hey Ya!` and I have to admit it`s a wonderfully almost reimagined slowed down version which the band really make their own. The band close out with `Bored` which has this packed crowd jumping up and down as one and the churning `Belly Up` which has amassed nearly 6.5 million streams. There`s been some criticism that the band sound a lot like Alice in Chains and that the volume could be louder and yeah there`s a hint of AIC but I loved the dual-lead vocals of Matty Joseph and Graham Stanush and Sebastian Gonzalez can really supply those high energy riffs with London Hudson bashing out a driving percussive beat. I hadn’t realised that he was Slash`s lad. These fellas can certainly deliver and only just getting into their twenties there could be a massive future ahead for them as they seem to be currently everybody`s go to support band.
Next up we have Chevelle, a melodic Alt-hard rock band from the American Midwestern State of Illinois whose core members are Pete Loeffler (guitar and vocals), brother Sam Loeffler (drums) along with Kemble Walters (bass, backing vocals) who have sold over six million records and whose music has been described as “a kind of controlled chaos, a beautiful darkness, a gentle rampage of aural velocity.”
We are led in with `An Island` from over a decade ago and it’s a kinda stop start quite edgy number to open up on before the complex `Face to the Floor` gets the show rolling but it`s `Self Destructor` which has this heaving crowd clapping along. `Send the Pain Below` is more ballad like and dreamy before the powerfully heavy `The Clincher` a number about claustrophobia eludes a real sense of anxiety and panic. The home stretch includes a couple of cuts from the band`s breakthrough album `Wonder What’s Next` with `The Red` and `Comfortable Liar`. `Red` begins with Pete singing alone with his guitar with the stage swathed in red and the crowd singing along before the other guys join and really expand this number while `Comfortable Liar` is a lot more thoughtful and reflective. The band close out this intense, pulsating and throbbing forty odd minute set with `Mars Simula` a track that is written about the bands interest in interstellar travel especially a journey to Mars, escaping “Earth” for another planet, or leaving behind an unbearable, simulated situation in life for something better. If i`m honest it was all over too soon but a least forty odd minutes is better than no minutes at all and it`s been over a decade since the band last played here in England`s second city. Hopefully, it won`t be loo long until the band grace us with their presence again in Brum.
Even before Breaking Benjamin arrive on stage this three thousand capacity sold out crowd are singing the lyrics to BB songs so when the lights dim the place almost erupts into a screaming frenzy. Alt-metal post grunge band Breaking Benjamin is in essence lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley and since 2014 Jasen Rauch, Keith Wallen and Aaron Bruch along with touring drummer Brian Medeiros. I hadn`t realised that this was BB`s debut Birmingham performance but as the singer has a fear of flying this has curtailed tours of the UK and Europe as he travels here by boat.
The soaring expansive anthemic `I Will Not Bow` opens the show with everybody singing and screaming every lyric which becomes the pattern for the remaining ninety minutes of this blistering set. Singer Benjamin`s young son Ben is introduced and joins the band not only for the rest of the show but also, we are told, the rest of the tour and the crowd chant his name before the guys head into the next track, the rhythmic almost ballad like `Until The End`. Songs like `Crawl`, `Red Cold River` and `Blow Me Away` are more considered and thoughtful with soaring melodies and aggressive growls, mainly delivered by bass player Aaron Bruch.
The strength of the band is in the variance of their musical depth as `Angels Fall` is delightfully contemplative, a track that encourages resilience, `You` explores regret, addiction, and past mistakes while the thoughtful `So Cold` had me drifting off in thoughts of my own. `Polyamorous` and `Dear Agony` were probably the best received numbers of the evening although contrasting in styles. The former a straight up rock out about a friend`s self-destructive habits, while the latter a ballad that touches on the singers health issues and life struggles.
In amongst the closing section were a couple of relatively new numbers that give a hint as to how the new album, hopefully due before the end of the year may sound. `Something Wicked` is a recent single and fairly anthemic but with some unclean vocals and `Awaken` is much more anthemic and cinematic and emanates a sense of hope and strength.
They say all good things come to an end and the group leave us with `The Diary of Jane` which moved from a heavy guitar, bass, and drum tone to a more melodic soaring vibe as the track evolved and that was it. There`s a new album due to surface before the year is out so I can see most of next year spent in North America promoting such therefore i`m sure it`ll be a year or two before the band return to these shores and on the strength of this evenings performance it`ll be at a much larger arena sized venue or festival.
