Altsounds - Chimaira and Unearth - Electric Ballroom Camden

It was a temperate Monday evening in mid October and with a long night of metal ahead of them the metalites with their long hair, band t-shirts and camouflage, were queuing in abundance along Camden’s dimly lit high street. Our friends across the sea are often treated to line ups of a similar calibre to this one, but very rarely do we see one of this quality in a venue like the Electric Ballroom.

First on are Daath, whose style is somewhere in between death, industrial and thrash but which doesn’t really stand out as being anything unique. Daath play their songs and the fans seem to enjoy them. There are likeable moments and the band are very technically able and lead guitarist Eyal Levi’s solos are simply shred-tastic. I would describe Daath as being solid, their playing is good, but the songs don’t stand out enough to really grab me enough.

Next on are metalcore quartet Throwdown. I always think of Throwdown as a full on hardcore band, and with a name like Throwdown who could blame me, but then it all comes back to me and I realise how metal they are. Dave Peters vocals are drenched in Anselmo, but with such power and conviction that you can fully let him off the likeness. Throwdown put their energy out there from the off and make sure that the fans were active and happily obliged. Tracks like ‘Forever’ and 'Burn' really got the crowd and bodies moving.

With such high profile bands on one line-up you’d expect them to have to shorten the sets they would normally headline with. This was not the case, Chimaira and Unearth both got an hour and Throwdown and Daath had about 40 minutes. This meant that it was a long evening. Following the energy of Throwdown is not easy but Unearth are old enough and experienced enough to be able to cope with that, and come out fighting. Their fast past technical metal seems to please the crowd and get heads nodding and eyes glued at the intricacy of some of the lead riffs. Whilst all the favourites pleased, the length of the set seemed too long and maybe the approach of leaving the fans hungry for more instead of gorging them may have been appropriate.

Last on were Chimaira. It was a long night and you could excuse the fans for maybe being a little tired after a few too many rounds in the pit, a few too many beers or maybe a hard day at work, but I can’t understand why the band appeared so static, glued to their spots like the queens guards. We all know that you are a great band and have been around for years but I really wanted more energy. The playing was solid and the songs great but their movement definitely had something lacking. The energy wasn’t there for me. I’m not saying the evening was bad, far from it, I just felt that the evening peaked earlier on with Throwdown and whilst energy was maintained at a good level by Unearth, it continued to drop towards the end of the night.

Was it because people were tired, had work the next day or maybe it was that the bands were tired after a long tour around Europe. Who knows? But on the night it wasn’t the massive metal showcase I was hoping for, whilst I was entertained for a good part, I wasn’t held throughout.