Endwell, Beneath the Sky, Lennox(CD Release) - Swayzes - 11-05-07
Thursday, November 15, 2007
11-05-07 Swayzes
Endwell - http://www.myspace.com/endwell
Beneath the Sky - http://www.myspace.com/beneaththesky
Lennox - http://www.myspace.com/lennoxrock
After months of planning, Lennox was finally able to orchestrate a concert to celebrate the release of their new CD, "This is What We're After...". Though bands Rome and Dead in Dallas were also on the bill, I only caught the last three acts: Endwell, Beneath the Sky, and Lennox, and each band played and sounded better than the one before it. It also looked like Lennox had promoted the show well as Swayze's had a much bigger crowd than the last few times I have been there.
I had never seen let alone heard Endwell before. According to the singer, they had recently lost three members of the band and found some new guys for the tour. They had been working on new material six weeks prior to the show and played several of those songs for us. The music was nothing new to my ears, heavy riffing over double bass topped with growling vocals. The lead guitarist was KILLING it at times which had me all hyped up, and the drummer did a solid job, but I wish he would have attacked the drums more, especially when he was using the toms because I couldn't hear him. The vocals were not very impressive; his presence was great, but hearing the same scream for 30 minutes got old. I like to hear some dynamics even if the vocals are a metal screaming. For only being a group for six weeks or so, they were pretty tight especially with their new songs.
Beneath the Sky also played to a familiar note, lots of low end, lots of double bass, and lots of screaming. The two guitars looked like they were doing some stuff, but I could only hear one loud muffled sound coming from them. With two guitarists, I expect to hear a lot more than the same breakdown riff layered over itself. They both played hard and showed talent rocking out the whole show regardless. The vocalist was very intense; he had great presence, knew his abilities, and kept my attention the entire set. The drummer was a bit more intense than Endwell. He played clean the entire show and held down the beat, but still lacking the hardcore killing that one would expect with metal. The bass was awesome, I really enjoyed this guy. Mostly because I could hear him, very well actually. Every note shook my insides and filled my desire for that low low low end. He also hit the vocal melodies that the lead singer was unable to do from screaming, it was a good mix.
Lennox is a great group with terrible luck. This is the second time I've seen them play, and again they had some technical difficulties. The first time one of the guitarist broke string fixed by used another band's guitar, and the bass player destroyed his knee fixed by playing the rest of the show sitting on the floor. This time the lead guitarist's entire amp was trashed. By the end of the third song, there was no more lead guitar, and the power to both his amp and the bass amp had gone out. The other three continued to play the rest of the song, as should be expected by a solid band. The singer did a good job of filling the space while they worked out the amp kinks. This kind of talking in between songs is acceptable, especially when he can talk the drummer into a drum solo. For a CD release, and all things considered, the show was great.
It was a good night for music and I felt my money was well spent in return for 3 solid sets. I was also able to obtain a copy of Lennox - This is What We're After...to be reviewed; it will be online in December.
Labels: ShowReviews
posted by Conqueror @ 2:00 AM,
