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Tonight, the moment I left the door to get to this gig, I could hear music. I live approximately 2.5 miles from the centre of Norwich, so it was a bit quiet, but still fully audible. What I was hearing was Elton John, who was playing at the Norwich City Football Club’s home, Carrow Road. The Ferryboat, being the pinnacle of all underground music in Norwich, is only a few hundred metres away from the ground. It is a pub which is under threat too, as the residents who live in closer proximity to it are trying to close it down as a music venue. You want proof of hypocritical, posh shit-heads with no appreciation for anything good? You’ve got it. Not one single complaint was made about the Elton John concert, even though the whole of Norwich could hear it. “It’s not the volume, it’s the music.
Anyway, that all past. Tonight was a prime example of why The Ferryboat is such an important place in its fans, bands, and general atmosphere, as little known York based screamo noiseniks The Final Sigh took their current tour there promoting new album "If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem". All the support being local, this was certainly going to be a showcase of talent and pride. Although gloomy thrash metal openers Dissention may not have agreed with that. They certainly did their best to make their voices/general noise heard, and do well with thrash riffs and strong screaming lyrics. An interesting use of rhythms and blast beats kept this fairly short set fresh, and good things may come for this band. Also, they provided an interesting treat in that if you were located in the pub garden, you could actually successfully combine Dissention and Elton John’s music.
Next were Submerged, a band with a fairly stripped down sound who sit right in-between hardcore and metalcore, an as-of-late increasingly bland genre. However, Submerged surprised everyone by playing a very impressive set of music you could well scream along to. The instrumental side was a fairly unique, but familiar, sound, with screeching vocals making sure everyone shut up and took notice. Although not providing anything too innovating, they looked extremely focused on the job and knew exactly what music they wanted to make.
If Fire Would Fall were next and were looking to carry on their recent form of extremely impressive gigs. And they did, in striking form, as they ripped through new and old songs and continued to look one of Norwich’s brightest lights.
Finally came The Final Sigh, who a lot of people were unaware of until now. But that soon became irrelevant as they ripped through a fantastic set that borrowed from hardcore, math metal and grind. They energetically thrashed through their set like men possessed, were beautifully tight, and a genuinely impressive band. Think Eden Maine but with more thrash. They showed the signs of a band that are going to be getting a lot of hype after this tour, and particularly as they announced that their first video is “to appear on Scuzz by next week” and it’s clear that it’s very well deserved.
Adam Turner-Heffer |
| Coding: Darren Burrows