See all you folks tomorrow night we start our trip down at Midnight in my car lol.

I've got new earplugs that make me look silly, so be careful.

Well cheers Jamie, that was another grand night you put on.

Here's a quick overview of the evening.

Empathy were great fun. Very much a not-so-original take on Kill 'Em All style Metallica, but done well. I enjoyed it a lot, this band have a lot of promise, if they stick together I reckon they'll become really great as they grow older.

I had great fun with old Damnas, I thought it was a cracking show. There was a really great vibe, and even though the crowd weren't moving much, it was sizeable enough and I felt a nice atmosphere. Therefore I had lots and lots of great fun, many thanks.

Circle of Tyrants were awesome and insane. Very heavy and fast and punishing to the face. I will most definitely hope to see them again!

This night, as well as some encouraging words from Tom, showed me that thrash can be, and still is, very great. I may not listen to it much a home, but I do love it live, and tonight was particularly fantastic. Cheers to everyone for coming down, it was really nice. Great.

Such a great gig! Everyone was so cool and I really dug all the bands, they were great! Damnas were STORMING.

Empathy were indeed great. Their lead guitarist can really solo! There is a lot of promise in that band. Kill 'em All style Metallica still works for me

Damnas were very impressive but it really wound me up that the bassist kept standing front and centre... it was cool that the singer used the floor to move around (too many bands are afraid to leave the stage) but it would have been so much better if the singer had room for his obvious talent ON STAGE!

Circle of Tyrants were fast and heavy, I just feel they weren't at their best. It was a good set that felt like it was cut short a little.

Overall I had a great time, how can you not have a great time at a thrash gig? I would definitely check out these bands when they are playing near me. Thanks to everyone involved.

Last night was great, all the bands were really cool to hang out with backstage, and had a great time!

Safe Jamie for putting us on, and the sound was great for all the bands as well! Lovely stuff.

The only thing I hated about last night, and it really pissed me off because I just kept on going back, was that Guiness was £3.50 for a CAN!

Gah.

jonny_boy34 wrote:This night, as well as some encouraging words from Tom, showed me that thrash can be, and still is, very great. I may not listen to it much a home, but I do love it live, and tonight was particularly fantastic.

I totally agree, it's easy to love thrash when there is a really good band playing and you're in the mood!

Cheers for staying to check out C.O.T. last night people we has a great time in London and would love to come back down again at somepoint.

Cheers to Jamie, the Empathy and Damnas lads for kicking up a storm and Uber thanks to Donny for putting us up for our time down there.

I'm now off to my bed cause 15 hours driving and playing a set is knackering lol.

Great night.one of those rare nights when all bands were worth watching.a great combination.
nice one Jamie.
it felt a tad less filled in bar monsta than usual.i blame that on the curfews/drink prices going up. £3fucking50 a CAN!outrageous.i refused to buy any more after my first one.(although i did take 2straws,i tried to have my moneys worth,badass ay)

enough about the bar monsta policies.lets talk about the bands.
Empathy:great opening set with some amazing solos from the guitarist with the silver draincover design guitar.

Damnas:the highlight of the eve,always great to see more than one member jumping off the stage/using the space at the front to their advantage,so nice one John.besides its a small stage for a 5 piece so i thought it was worthwhile even if metaldezza doesnt
great new stuff and cant wait for the ep launch party Damnas announced.im already there!

Circle of tyrants:first of all respect for coming down all the way from scotland,and they played some brutal thrash and cracked some funny jokes.the austrian one cracked me up. and good to see the singer start up a mini mosh.

hopefully the next one will be a teeny bit fuller/busier,but i enjoyed rockin at the front with whoever else was game,next time a little bit more "movement" would be cool for 1or 2 more spectators when watching the bands if possible!(it felt a bit too spaceous in my opiion)
anyway enough nitpicking.
overall a great night.

Just a quick one to say thanks to everybody who came down last night (Bands and Audience). it was a good one!

Great to meet Empathy - good fucking band man! will be interesting to see what these boys do in the future...

Damnas were rubbish as always, i dont even know why i bother hanging out with them.

Circle of Tyrants were heavy heavy monsta monsta! totally fast and brutal in a truly Scottish manner. Thanks for coming down guys, maybe next time we should invade your turf!

Cheers and Beers all round!

metaldazza wrote:Damnas were very impressive but it really wound me up that the bassist kept standing front and centre... it was cool that the singer used the floor to move around (too many bands are afraid to leave the stage) but it would have been so much better if the singer had room for his obvious talent ON STAGE!

Now I've criticised bands before for many things, but not for standing on stage.

Not that I have to really justify myself for doing what I want to do, but I'll explain it for you. Donny likes to go into the crowd a lot when he's singing, that's what he does and he loves it. I think it's great because it brings the crowd closer to the band and increases the interaction (when the crowd are willing to take part, at least). And, incidentally, Donny was on stage quite a bit here and there anyway last night from what I remember. Now me, I like to go mad and enjoy the music fully and have a great time, so I'll go wherever there's space for me to go, I don't care whether it's at the front or side of the stage or anything. It just so happens that Faraz and Pat stand at each side where their amps are, and I have a wireless kit so I can go, as I said, wherever there's space. I don't know if you noticed, but the stage at Bar Monsta is really quite small. It was either stand there or go to the corner of the room. Sorry if that 'wound you up', I hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment too much, because it was a very good night indeed! Cheers for coming anyway, it was good to see a decent crowd there, I had no idea what it was going to be like and was a bit worried there wouldn't be anyone there. But it was lovely. Nice.

That was a really fun night, Empathy and Damnas were both fucking amazing.

I only saw a tiny bit of Circle of Tyrants due to the fact I couldn't resist the drunken urge to go and buy some really shit take away food, but they did sound rather good.

jonny_boy34 wrote:

metaldazza wrote:Damnas were very impressive but it really wound me up that the bassist kept standing front and centre... it was cool that the singer used the floor to move around (too many bands are afraid to leave the stage) but it would have been so much better if the singer had room for his obvious talent ON STAGE!

Now I've criticised bands before for many things, but not for standing on stage.

Not that I have to really justify myself for doing what I want to do, but I'll explain it for you. Donny likes to go into the crowd a lot when he's singing, that's what he does and he loves it. I think it's great because it brings the crowd closer to the band and increases the interaction (when the crowd are willing to take part, at least). And, incidentally, Donny was on stage quite a bit here and there anyway last night from what I remember. Now me, I like to go mad and enjoy the music fully and have a great time, so I'll go wherever there's space for me to go, I don't care whether it's at the front or side of the stage or anything. It just so happens that Faraz and Pat stand at each side where their amps are, and I have a wireless kit so I can go, as I said, wherever there's space. I don't know if you noticed, but the stage at Bar Monsta is really quite small. It was either stand there or go to the corner of the room. Sorry if that 'wound you up', I hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment too much, because it was a very good night indeed! Cheers for coming anyway, it was good to see a decent crowd there, I had no idea what it was going to be like and was a bit worried there wouldn't be anyone there. But it was lovely. Nice.

Shame, Jon, you're shit!

jonny_boy34 wrote:

metaldazza wrote:Damnas were very impressive but it really wound me up that the bassist kept standing front and centre... it was cool that the singer used the floor to move around (too many bands are afraid to leave the stage) but it would have been so much better if the singer had room for his obvious talent ON STAGE!

Now I've criticised bands before for many things, but not for standing on stage...

Come on, I wasn't criticising Damnas for standing on stage, I even said I thought it was cool that the singer came off of the stage and I noticed (but didn't comment that you came off of the stage as well).

As you say you don't need to justify anything to me, you're in the band, I'm a punter, I know the rules I was just trying to offer some constructive criticism... but I didn't do it very well. For a lot of punters the singer is the focal point of a band. There were times that I thought he needed a little room and didn't get it. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. That's for you and the singer to decide. Don't let him know but he really is quite good and I wanted to see him own the stage.

Anyway I had a great time at the gig and I'll see you at the LSE I recon.

Don' worry, Jon, I love ya. I wasn't at the gig so I can't argue accurately but I consider a good thing when there is more than one person to look at on stage. When I have seen Damnas, I would not have said Jon was hogging the limelight or anything, he's just a passionate and amusing fucker. True, Donny is a quality frontman but I don't think Jon's bass-playing detracts from this fact. That's my view, anyhow...