LIVE REVIEW: InVisions Album Release Party!
Updated: Feb 15, 2019
Author: Jonathan Burgin
On Saturday 9th February, I headed down to the InVisions Album Release Party at The Key Club in Leeds.
After the review I read in Kerrang! regarding InVisions’ new album ‘Between You & Me’, I gave the album a listen, and quite frankly, I can’t see how or why it was given such a terrible rating.
I do think some of the tracks blend into each other on the odd occasion, and it has big similarities to Attila, but what can you expect when the band is signed to Stay Sick Records?
Nevertheless, I have seen InVisions before at UK Tech-Fest 2018, and they were excellent then, and I enjoyed the album regardless, so understandable, I was pretty excited to see them in their prime at their own headline album release show.
First on was Cutting Teeth, and holy shit! They were a VERY strong start. They started 15 minutes after doors opened, so to begin with, it was fairly quiet. Within 10 minutes, the venue started to fill up, and they finished their set in front an already full venue.
The vocals were very strong, and the energy they put into their performance from start to finish made such a huge difference to the vibe and attentiveness the audience had with them.
At first glance, they don’t quite seem like the type of band to throw themselves around, and backstage, they seem like really nice guys too, but all of a sudden, bursts of energy and anger appeared from all members, and a totally different side to this band showed itself.
Their guitarist ended up in the mosh pit, causing total chaos, and that captivated the audience from all corners of the room.
Quite frankly, these guys have a great deal of potential, and I can see some really brilliant things coming from them in the near future.
I’ll definitely be heading down to a future show of theirs. So if you see them coming to a venue near you, make sure you check them out!
Next up, Captives. Now then - WOW. I wasn’t expecting this either. I hadn’t listened to a great deal of this band before the night, but I certainly will be from now on.
One of the key standout qualities of this band for me was the immaculate, beautiful and down right powerful vocals given by their vocalist, Matt. An immense amount of emotion came straight from the heart, and that heightened the performance by miles.
They hooked me right from the start. It’s a little bit of a Holding Absence/Dream State sound, and I love both of those bands, so this was always going to be a winner for me.
Again, another band with total energy and passion, captivating the audience at every moment.
We saw a little more movement from the crowd with Captives - people were starting to warm up a little, get into the vibe, and that is clear evidence that the support bands are doing EXACTLY what they’re there to do, and doing one hell of a good job at it too.
For a moment, I was hooked on watching the guitarists - there was particular moments you could see the love of playing live flooding from their aura, and I totally adore seeing that from a band.
They kept me and many others around me completely engaged throughout their entire set.
Another band I would recommend checking out if you get the opportunity. All aspects of the group are at such a strong level, they could also be making big moves within the UK scene in the very near future.
The main support at this show was On Hollow Ground, a band that, as many of you know, are on our management roster. For me to review one of my own bands would be a little bias, but I’m going to do it anyway!
On Hollow Ground had the most energetic audience of the night (so far). Maybe this was down to selling a large number of tickets to friends and close fans, and with Cutting Teeth and Captives doing an incredible job at warming up the 300 capacity crowd, but nevertheless, they blew the audience to pieces.
They returned from a brief hiatus, and this was the first show of many to come to demonstrate their new material.
They now have quite an influence from ‘trap’ music within their content, and in all honesty, it bloody works. It’s a very energetic, angry, emotional and chaotic performance, with heavy breakdowns and electronica vibes mixed in on their backing track.
I was blown away by their performance, their quality, sound, and last but not least, their crowd interaction.
Crowd surfers going from front to back, mosh pits, circle pits, any kind of pit - if they asked for it, the audience delivered.
For such a nice bunch of guys, they certainly have some real angry music, and if anyone knows their vocalist, Jack, it’s quite the opposite to his personality.
These guys yet ANOTHER on the bill I would keep my eye on, if I were you. Their energy is next level, and they really know how to keep the audience moving.
Finally, we ended the night with InVisions.
Now, like I said at the beginning, I was pretty pumped to see these guys, even after the review I read in Kerrang! Magazine.
With a sold out audience, they did not disappoint.
They played new songs and older songs, and no matter what, there were still people singing along.
I think there could have been a little bit more energy on stage from some of the members at first, but vocalist, Ben’s, stage presence made up for that.
His “godawful attempts at rapping” were actually quite satisfying to hear, because he never missed a syllable, and the quality of the raps and screams were at a top professional level and sounded non-damaging, which bodes well for the future of the band!
It took a little for the audience’s energy to kick in, and that may have been because On Hollow Ground had just knackered them all. But then the older, more well-known songs started to flow around a quarter way into their set, and that really pricked the ears of their fans.
Circle pits, mosh pits, wall of deaths all started to happen. More crowd surfers went over our heads, the pit kept getting wider and wider, and it didn’t stop until the end.
The lads in InVisions really grasped the audience and went as hard as they could, and with that came an influx of crowd contagion.
All the audience were on the same level, whether in the pit or stood at the back. Each and every person in that venue were loving what the band were producing.
You can knock InVisions all you want, but the talent each of these lads have is beyond excellent.
They’ve already toured with the likes of Our Hollow, Our Home and played at Download Festival.
There’s really no stopping what these guys can do, and If they don’t end up on some huge metal tour within the next year, i’ll be utterly confused as to why not.
Keep your eyes and ears pinned to each of these bands. They turned up, they played incredible sets, and they brought the Leeds local music scene to the forefront of the UK metal scene, proving that anything is possible for emerging talent.
Support your emerging artists in your local scene, get out to see these bands AND MORE, because they could be the next big thing.
FACEBOOK LINKS
InVisions: https://www.facebook.com/InVisionsOfficial/
On Hollow Ground: https://www.facebook.com/onhollowground/
Captives: https://www.facebook.com/Captivesofficial/ Cutting Teeth: https://www.facebook.com/cuttingteethuk/
Elicit Music: https://www.facebook.com/elicitmusicagency/