Metal 2 the Masses Heat 4 / The Exchange / Bristol
A trip to Bristol with the day job, and a chance to head to one of my favourite venues, the Exchange for a dose of live music. Tonight we’re attending one of the Metal to the Masses (M2TM) events. I was really excited and looking forward to the experience.
M2TM is a fantastic idea. It’s an offshoot from the highly popular Bloodstock metal openair festival, held every year at Catton Park in Derbyshire. Venues all over the country host regional heats for upcoming metal bands in a competition for a spot on the stage at the annual Bloodstock Festival. Metal bands from ever sub-genre possible come together to fight it out. The results are determined by a vote, both from an expert panel and from a fan ballot. The winners go through to semi-finals and finals.
I love the concept on so many levels. First up, it gives bands the opportunity to compete for an incredible prize, bringing their music to a huge audience on the stage at one of the world’s premier metal events. But along the way, it gives bands the chance to play on a stage to a crowd that may not experience their music otherwise, AND it supports grassroots music and venues.
The Bristol heats have been running for ten years now and are as popular as ever, a true testament to Bristol's underground Metal scene. One of the best things is that win or lose all the bands get to perform on a stage that they might not otherwise, and it helps build and reinforce the great community spirit around it all, so bands can use the events to network and connect making the local scene even stronger.
Tonight we’re in for a treat with five local Bristol bands on show. A mix of well known bands on the Bristol metal scene, and one performing together for the first time.
Monochrome - A five piece ambient metalcore band, their sound is heavy and brutal with some thunderous riffs in the breakdowns. A great mix of clean and course vocals
Archemori - Veterans of the Bristol extreme metal scene, Archemori brings a fresh technical metal sound mixed with elements of death metal and some old school 90s mathcore. I loved the erratic, discordant bass elements, which reminded me of the jazz metal stylings of Imperial Triumphant.
Trayus - Are a Bristol based Metalcore band, mixing melodic hardcore with more progressive elements. Tuly hardcore, their set reminded me of my previous trip to see hardcore artist Jesus Piece. It had the same brutal and powerful energy that got the pit working toitss max !
Oskaria - Ah got to love a bit of Doom ! Oskaria come together for their first live show tonight and what a show ! Delivering some outstanding doom/sludge metal, with deep, dark growling vocals and thunderous bass riffs. It had elements of Marduk and Belphegor with its intense driving sound.
Vulture God - Playing a technical, progressive style of death/sludge metal, Vulture God delivered some solid, chunky grooves. The tone had a grunge edge to it and some fantastic harsh vocals from frontman Milo Clack.
All five bands delivered something different, and it’s fair to say, they were all impressive. The one problem with something like M2TM…… is that some win and some don’t. And tonight, the three lucky bands progressing to the semi-finals are Monochrome, Oskaria and Vulture God.
But the winners here, really are the bands and fans of the thriving metal scene in Bristol. The fact that all five bands were so impressive tells you something about the local scene, and the size of the crowd, especially on a Monday night was impressive.
Congratulations to the organisers for a fantastic evening and to all the bands involved, and good luck to Monochrome, Oskaria and Vulture God.
M2TM is active all over the country with shows from Belfast, Manchester and Birmingham, to Nottingham, London and Bristol. Get yourselves along for a brilliant night of grassroots metal.
If you’re in Bristol, the semi finals are at the Exchange on Sunday 11th May & Sunday 8th June and the Grand Final on Sun 13th July.
