Soilwork/ Lyzanxia/ Exit Ten
20/09/2006, The Mean Fiddler, London
By James Willcock
Once again, London’s public transport system has failed to get me were I need to be in an even vaguely sensible amount of time, so once again I have gotten to the Mean Fiddler well after opening and have hence missed
Exit Ten, the opening band. However, having checked out their MySpace page prior to their appearance at Download this year, my flatmate and I lumped them into the “shit emo” column (haha, which implies there’s emo that isn’t shit), so - fair or otherwise - I am far from being disappointed at having missed them.
By the time I had got there the near impossible to pronounce French band
Lyzanxia had just taken to the stage. They play a modern form of melodic death metal with a fairly aggressive edge (so yes, I suppose you could argue the case for hardcore influences being in there somewhere). To be honest, I don’t have a hell of a lot to say about this band. Although technically fairly accomplished, they simply tread the ground that better bands have already forged into,
Hatesphere being one the group that immediately comes to my mind. If
Lyzanxia wrote more interesting riffs, or used more unusual song structures, or at the very least did more on stage beyond more or less standing there and playing, they might be more worthy of note. But as it stands I have to say they were just alright - not offensively bad, but far from top notch.
As for
Soilwork, I am happy to say it was a different case all together. Despite having heard maybe half a dozen songs by them which, although good, never really grabbed me enough to go out and buy/ steal/ otherwise obtain more of their material, I immediately began to enjoy the set from the first moments of the song (which I’m sure is nothing to do with the amount of beer I’d drunk by this point). It wasn’t just me that was immediately grabbed by the energy of the band, as the rest of the crowd, which had showed fairly little real interest in the bands so far, soon got into the swing of things.
Soilwork continued to tear through a set with a degree of aggression and conviction sadly lacking from a lot of the live shows I’ve been to recently. Songs were interspersed with short breaks where vocalist “Speed” Strid talked to the crowd, another thing that I have noticed lacking in a lot of live sets these days. The intensity and pace didn’t slacken for the duration of the hour long set, which I and the rest of the crowd enjoyed, with a good size pit being sustained for much of the time, with everyone staying in good humour. The band played a good, tight set, with
Speed’s vocals in particular sounding impressive. Good use of the keyboard parts, which usually get either under- or over used (often to extremes at live shows, even when they sound right for the music on record) were welcome.
Despite not knowing any of
Soilwork's material very well, I enjoyed their set, and they proved a decent live act.
8/10 - let down a bit by the support, but worth it for
Soilwork alone.
