AUSSIE METAL BAND - ALCHEMIST

The punters filed in to the Highbury Garage ready for a night of metal. The majority were there to see Cult of Luna who were the headline band, no one realised the glory they were about to witness in Alchemist.

First up on the bill however were Holland's Textures. Playing an interesting mix of melody and all out thrash attack, they entertained the crowd with a mix of songs from their debut CD. Whilst their set was throughly enjoyable, there was something about them which made me think that this might be as far as they will go in the scheme of things.

Next up were Alchemist. Kicking off with "First Contact", they instantly had the crowd's attention. A few of us crazy Aussies were going sick in the pit, the unsuspecting poms I believe were too busy picking their jaws up off the floor to mosh. A selection of some of the band's best moments was delivered with precision, including "Yoni Kunda", "Chinese Whispers" and "Alpha Capella Nova Vega". The only downside to Alchemist's set was that it was too short - only half an hour. As the band left the stage to chants of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi (led by yours truly), I wondered if the headliners would be able to up the bar on their suppot act.

Sadly Cult of Luna were not up to the task in my view. It mustn't be easy to come on after such a good performance, but it didn't help matters that Cult of Luna are in some ways a less interesting facsimile of Alchemist. Sure they had some interesting themes in their music, a couple of decent riffs but unfortunately not enough to hold my interest. Of course my opinion may be irrelevant because their loyal fanbase did seem entranced by their performance, heads banging as one. I ended up leaving before the end of their set, humming "Yoni Kunda" to myself as I made my way home.

Review by Gaw aka Evil G aka the Metal Master