It’s always good when you don’t have to travel far to get to a decent metal gig and the latest Conclave Of Metal show at The Compass in Chester delivered in all ways.
Openers Ne Va got the night off to a blistering start. Wonderfully heavy with a great thick tone you can’t help but bang your head along to, they dominated the stage from start to finish. Their frontman was such a performer, even if he did look like he’d just wandered in off the street due to keeping his coat and hat on from start to finish, but he worked hard at getting the crowd onside, even venturing from the stage area at times! An awesome start to the night.
OMV, who were launching their brand new album Loyalty & Honour, were up next, playing an earlier slot rather than a headline shot. The sound quality was great, just the right way to showcase their new album, and the crowd, although perhaps a little subdued, were supportive right from the start (some members even moving about at the front on a couple of occasions) and they played their mixture of hardcore/groove especially well and kept the pace going throughout. It was a decent performance from the fivepiece and the music was excellent – if the live show is anything to go by, the album should be excellent – keep an eye on the site for our review!
Headlining the night was the awesome Nihilism Incarnate, who were my personal highlight. Quite simply, they struck gold with their frontman because not only did he have a good set of lungs on him (despite him saying he wished the band had shorter songs so he wouldn’t have to sing as much!) he also knew how to entertain and between songs it was almost like stand up comedy – I’m not sure I’ve laughed so much at a gig in a long time and a particular highlight was when he spoke about supporting the local scene, and how they support everyone from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers to Wormrot – and the band launched into a brief improvised grindcore song before proclaiming it was the new theme song of The Compass! It wasn’t all fun and games, however, because the band was technically brilliant (all the more impressive considering they’d recently got a new drummer and bassist who had learnt all their songs in less than no time) and it was just a highly enjoyable set as a result.
An all round excellent night with three great bands!
8/10
