The Sheffield Scenester

On yet another freezing winters night I ventured down to The Plug, this time in search of good metal, for tonight was a metal only gig, which as far as I’m aware was a first for Soundclash, for me it was long overdue as having grown up with Maiden, Sabbath and Purple this was my kind of night! And to top it all off the headline act was Decode, whom I’ve always rated, but tonight was special as they were due to try something new, luckily I arrived in time to have a quick chat with Decode’s front man Daniel Jeffery’s and ask him about what this ‘something new’ was:

Daniel: We’re going in bit of a new direction really and have started using a load of backing tracks, so big vocal harmonies, synths and strings, all sorts of things like that can be used in the live set giving everything a tighter sound. They’re a bit rough right now cos the stuff we’ve been using is from recordings we’ve been doing for the new EP that’s going to be out in the New Year, when we’ll be headlining The Plug in April. So come February time when we’ve got the proper tracks sorted, it’ll be really tight and really deep, it’s a bit rushed this one actually! This is the first live show we’ve done using this so it’s gonna go really well or really bad!

Scenester: Are these just orchestrated versions of previous tracks or are they whole new compositions?

Daniel: We’re using them on our old material like the single ‘Fingertips’, there’s loads of strings and stuff in there, like a big kinda vocal harmony at the end...so we’ll play that live see how it goes, it should sound really good we’ve haven’t put backing tracks to everything like ‘Blackstar’, that’s all band stuff. ‘Far Too Late’ has massive kinda string sections so that’s gonna sound really cool, but I’m still a bit nervous and worried about the whole thing!

Scenester: Where did you get the idea for all this?

Daniel: Really just so I could take the stuff that we do in the studio and use it in our live shows, it gets to the point when you can do so much with strings and synths, like backing and extras and stuff on the recordings, that you realize it’s a shame you can’t replicate it, so we thought, just throw it in there, see if we can do it! When we rehearsed it sounded alright in the sound check....but we might start slipping out of time with the backing track, hopefully though it will go really well!

Scenester: You’ll still be jumping and screaming about on stage though as this is one of the Decode trademarks that we love?

Daniel: Yep absolutely, I hate going to see bands that stand still, so I’ll be very much jumping and screaming, so yes, it’s gonna be the same old Decode but with a bigger, fuller sound and a lot more depth. In fact there is a lot more depth of field because as well as a raging kinda guitar sound there will be beautiful light string parts backing it and surrounding it so it sounds really, really nice. In fact the last song we’re doing ‘Mirrors’, has a massive chant at the end, which we recorded about forty people doing that and that’s on the backing track as well so that should sound really good.

Scenester: Did you actually work with an orchestra and choir to set this up?

Daniel: No, no, no its just programmed and then we got some friends roped in to do extra vocal parts, but otherwise its all programmed strings, it’s a shame really cos we’d like to get some real strings in there to mix in with it since it would sound a lot more real, but they sound alright as they are, a bit chemical.......but still really pretty, I’m excited, really excited!

And so was I, thanking Daniel for his time I headed back on down to the gig just in time to catch the first band of the night, Voice Of The Silenced, a four piece from Chesterfield who have only been together a year and this was only their third ever gig. They also claim to play straight out metal, but when you consider their influences include Machine Head and Lamb Of God I was dreading the worst. With rasping, grinding guitars, verses constructed around what can only pass for incoherent growling, while the drums and bass fought for pounding dominance you may be forgiven for thinking that this as close to hell on Earth as I could get tonight. But despite all this negativity I couldn’t do anything but enjoy it, whether it be the primitive beast within or just an unquenchable thirst for the masochistic, it had everything I love about good metal. It was tight, rhythmic and loaded with a sh*tload of grating bass, melody, who cares about melody when this just hammers straight into the cerebral cortex, suffice to say I was hooked! Mind you with songs like ‘Conflict Your Faith’ which I was informed is about priests getting away with unspeakable crimes and using the cloth to protect themselves, then I can’t really fault them. I look forward to seeing these guys again.

Angels Revolt were the next band up, a much gentler affair with the lead singer decked out as Santa and a slightly more melodic start to their set. If anything their sound was a bit of a throwback to the classic 70’s rock, the likes of Lizzy and Golden Earring. Asking a rather redundant question of “Anyone like Jimi Hendrix?” they went straight into an admirable cover of ‘Purple Haze’, the guitarist in particular did an outstanding job. When it came to performing a ballad they went for the classic approach, the progressively long slow yet rewarding build up, letting the music push in power, while the vocals reached an emotive climax. Of course no ballad would be complete without that solo and we weren’t disappointed.....whilst not quite as memorable as Slash’s ‘November Rain’ it did make for a contender in waiting! Finishing with a song called ‘The Count’ – as in Dracula we were informed – they went to a bassier style before slipping into a slightly heavier grinding rhythm so whilst I could pick tracks that tickled my fancy, as a collective set it seemed a bit miss-matched almost as if they are a bit unsure of their direction, but on the bright side their guitarist was certainly a talent to behold.

The third band thrown into the fray were G.O.I. which I was informed by one of the band members stands for Groups Of Innocence, mind you he didn’t seem too sure so don’t quote me on that! By now the crowd had swelled to quite a moshable size. Opening with a good fast punchy number, ‘Tumble In The Rough’, they seem to be some kind of hybrid spawn of Green Day and Nirvana. They have the speed and enthusiasm to hammer out a good tune while still carrying a slightly melancholy and disturbing edge to their material, well worth waiting for in my book!” It was the bass player John’s first gig tonight, but he seemed to have quite a following, because all throughout the set chants of “John, John!” could be heard, so he obliging stopped and shook someone’s hand creating an even louder round of cheers, all good fun from an obviously enthusiastic band. So with a couple of Nirvana covers and oddly enough a Vaseline’s cover (which incidentally was also covered by Nirvana) they only produced two original songs, the opener and ‘5 Across The Eyes’ which had only been written a month prior to this gig. Still if their originals were anything to go by then they do show a lot of promise with enough short sharp gut pummeling rhythm to kick the cr*p out of any wannabe that comes their way!

Now the first question when it came to Bramboline‘s set up was “Where’s the drummer?” but not to worry they use a drum machine instead which took some time setting up, basically this was a three piece of guitarist, bass and singer, the drum machine made four! Opening with quite a cutting guitar they delivered ‘Crack Snackers’ and from the very off the singer took it upon himself to leap about every available empty spot on the stage. In fact his enthusiasm for this went beyond control and half way through the second track ‘1 Man Conga’ he jumped on the drum machine and so had to start it again. As to their music well it’s not exactly heavy, well it is in a way...and it isn’t......the guitars are there and believe me it’s a pretty good guitar...but without the creativity of a real drummer to back it I just can’t fathom how it can be metal. The vocals are more of a rap style chant which I can accept after all, metal is a genre that is not adverse to a bit of experimentation, but at its core roots are bass, guitar and drums! Anyway in terms of entertainment, yes they do put on a show, full of energy, good riffs and an extremely watchable singer so fair play to them, what they do works!

Here at last was decode, and after the earlier interview I was eager to hear the new improved sound, and with Daniel on top form from the first note, any kind of disappointment was kicked straight into touch! Opening with the traditional ice-breaking combo of guitars, drums and screams, Decode announced their arrival in classic ear shattering style. With a typical, psychotically pounding set consisting of their strongest songs such as ‘Fingertips’, ‘Enemies’ and ‘Blackstar’, to which one girl screamed out “Oh I love this one!” As for the backing tracks on ‘Fingertips’, well I remember on the single itself thinking this really is an interesting direction and on the studio recording it worked, but the problem with reproducing it live, is getting that level of delicacy just right. To be fair it was its first live run, so now and then as the harmonies began to filter through they did achieve the required subtlety, but part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it was because I was deliberately listening out for it! When it came to the final song ‘Mirrors’ I could barely hear any of the arrangements that had been promised, a pity really but when all is said and done, with these guys it doesn’t really matter as their set is well worth forking out to see with or without the trimmings! Not one person in the room that night complained as everyone was treated to a bonus seasonal track, Decode covered Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ in their own fast, fun and exuberant style, you can’t knock that level of class! Decode did in fact end a hyper-fun fuelled night with a brilliant set regardless of backing tracks, as the one thing that can always be said of these guys is that they know how to entertain!

This gig turned out to be an early Christmas present really with a host of good bands totally new to me, I’d like to say thanks to Daniel for taking the time to be interviewed and I look forward to seeing Decode in the New Year. Also thanks to Joolz, tonight’s promoter and DJ, for putting on The Ramones ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, and revealing his philosophy on staging gigs by saying, “One of the reasons I started putting music on was so that I could come down here and put this on (Free’s ‘Alright Now’ was playing at this point), I could play it on a real system without sitting at home thinking it’s too loud! Music, music, music, that was my first love!”……………….True!

Words and photos by Geoff Buckthorpe