Show In Review: Sworn In, Noble & More

Another adventure down to Henderson, NV on October 13th for the exclusive show with Noble and headliner Sworn In.

First band up for the night was a local band playing their first show together, FAULT. At first I thought the mumble rap segment was actually part of their set but soon realized it was just the sound dude’s playlist that was still going up until the last second. Since this was their first show and they just formed this year I hadn’t heard any of their music and didn’t know what to expect.

I really dug the poetic aspect of their sound. It’s like a poetry reading meets metal. Hobo Johnson and the Love-makers have some competition here and I don’t say that lightly even though they are separate genre’s. Their lyrics are deep and relatable to a lot of the members of their audience regardless of age.

“With intricacy, dig hate right through me.
I feel it in my veins like you told me.
Growing broken seeds with the need to abuse substance.
Do you seek value out of feeling self righteous?
And I am in pain.”

~Lyrics from F.eel //ault by Fault

Check out their lyric video on YouTube and keep an eye out for more music from them on Spotify and BandCamp.

I’d like to see the vocalist get a little more aggressive with certain lines in his future live gigs. Not quite into deep growling but that dig in gut wrenching from his soul scream really amplifying that pain that is being expressed for that extra wave of emotional syncrasy with the crowd. Word on the street is they are working on getting an E.P. out pretty soon. They are definitely a band that I will be keeping an eye on to see how they grow musically and within the scene.

Circles of teenagers sat on the floor waiting for the next band. You could tell which ones were at their first metal show. Their nervousness when they accidentally bumped into me and expected me to be furious at the invasion of my personal space.

Eagle’s isn’t exactly the rough and tumble moshing crowd. It’s more the flailing hardcore dance kids aka crowd killers type scene. You’re more likely to get kicked in the face here between sets by the flailing during the randomized genre clash-tastic playlist than in the actual pit. If you do get hit in the pit it’s probably because they lost their balance while fighting the invisible ninjas or were purposely aiming for you. It is rare that any semblance of a circle pit actually occurs at this venue.

Silence Speaks, slotted for 2nd, utilized bass drops to add some additional flare and make this show stand out from those they had played previously. I have been lucky enough to watch them grow over such a short period of time. After speaking to a few other members of the crowd, there was consensus on this being their best live performance so far. Proving they have had continuous cohesive creative growth that has a positive impact on the crowd. The ladies gathered around the front of the stage were head banging in unison like a waive of multicolored hair that could violently whip you in the face if you got to close.

I did some headbanging myself. And then all of the sudden half of the band started stripping. First Noah, then Aaron, followed by Shawn complaining about the temperature and me heckling him to a taken-aback crowd calling him a “pussy.” It was all in good fun. At the end of the day these kids are awesome and musically very talented. I’m excited to see what they come up with next.

I ran into Leah who broke her arm at the last Silence Speaks headlining act during the Oscillation set. Her arm is still healing but she has no more cast and her surgery was a success. THIS CHICK IS A BADASS!!!!..if you don’t agree…fight me. She didn’t cry or make a scene when it happened. She simply walked outside with security and patiently went on her way to get the appropriate medical assistance.

As it turns out the Oscillation guys went on the extra down to earth level by texting her every day after to make sure she was doing okay. They also hooked her up with some merch. She expressed an extreme level of shock and humbling gratitude that they went out of their way to check in on her. Super commendable to those guys. Confirmation of the fact that the world is not completely full of self serving heartless douche-bags.

3rd to go on was Dredge the Lake, and they are still very much not for me. I understand that they have a following. However, I would really like to see them focus less on a gimmick and more on making their time changes fluid and their sets tighter at their live shows. If you don’t sound close to your recorded stuff live I am going to be a stickler about it.  Maybe that is how they want to sound and if so to each their own.

It doesn’t matter to me how many hardcore dance kids you get in the crowd,  I’m going to continue to call it like I see it. This band has a lot of room to grow. Pick a style per song and stick with it, you do not need to fit every piece of music theory into one song. There was no real noticeable in sync headbanging. Why? The lack of consistency makes it hard for fans to follow any song for more than 15 -30 seconds at a time. Its a harsh truth but I’m not going to sit here and sugar coat it for anyone.

Noble from Los Angeles California kicked off next. To be honest, I had just come to the show to support Silence Speaks and pick up some tickets for giveaways. But I never turn down listening to new bands (new to me). Keep in mind my main sub-genre is Melodic Death Metal and Thrash Metal but I love pretty much all of it.

Reading up on a some of their past interviews, I was impressed with the background of the bands that the members came from. The collective of metal nobility, if you will,  consists of Scott Barnes on Bass & Vocals,  Tyler Ruehl on Guitar, Zac Mayfield  on Drums from Oh Sleeper, Jeff  Helberg on Guitar from Confide & At the Skylines ,and Mark Barela vocalist from At the Skylines.  Arin Illejay was the fill in drummer for the show as Zac was not able to make it for this performance.

Their first song popped on and I was pleasantly surprised. At first i thought maybe there was a sound issue and that’s why they paused during the first song but then the breakdown hit. My heart started to race and my mind was screaming “FUCK YESSSSSSSSS! ” The dual clean and dirty gritty vocals between Scott and Mark fit into the melody symbiotically. The teenage girls in the crowd were swooning for Mark. he started off their set in a hoodie and then transitioned into a cut up band t-shirt. Even I had to question myself for a moment and then the lack of facial hair knocked the sense back into me.

Recommend you check them out on Spotify. Deadset , Eighty One & Filth from their E.P. are some ragetastic numbers both live and recorded. they hit you hard and fast with a lot some transitional breakdowns. You can hear the emotion written into the guitar parts just ever so subtly. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with when (not if) they release a full length album.

Closing out the night, Sworn In played quite the energetic set. Allowing swarms of fans to help sing along and invade the stage space area. Eugene Kamlyuk the vocalist brought some massive energy jumping up and down off of a platform while being swarmed and interacting with fans. It was surprising that Derek Bolman (Bassist) & Chris George (Lead Guitar) were not knocked down in the chaos. Kyle Cholewinski (Drums) just kept going, not skipping a beat or having to beat anyone off of his gear.

Their set consisted of a couple of guest vocalists in addition to the swarm of fans. I can’t help but say that I was more distracted by the kids behind me in the pit that were hitting people in the back of the head and waiting for them to give me a reason to knock them down on their asses.

One in particular decided to get a little aggro with me after I wouldn’t let him through while he tried to push past me. He could have pointed to his friend’s glasses on the floor and I would have been glad to pick them up and hand them to him. However, he decided that wasn’t the way he wanted to go about it. I had no problem getting in his face and telling him to fuck off.

One young lady got kicked in the rib cage. I helped pull her up and took her off to the side away form the chaos, grabbing her belongings that were still on the floor in the process. She had the wind knocked out of her and a piercing was ripped out of her ear. She later came up to me and thanked me for pulling her up.  I wouldn’t say I am a mama bear by any means but I am particularly protective of the young ladies that end up getting hurt by these little flailing punks that don’t care who they hit (she was standing in front of the “stage” area not in the middle of the pit. I would have less of a problem with some of these hardcore kids if they had helped her up after kicking her in the ribs and apologized.

Overall it was a great show and I was glad that I stayed the whole way through. New bands to watch and new music to add to my ever evolving and expanding playlist to share with metal lovers around the world.