with Graves, Dawn of Anubis, By Design and 28 Double
Reviewed by Yuki Hozumi.
Organised by Metal 2 the Masses, Leicester and Resin events
Despite the hard rain before the gig started, the notorious weather suddenly changed to a crispy peace day. Was this magic a divine act, or an act of the bands in Firebug? It did not take time to realise the answer. The bands summoned the rain in the venue and made the audience soaked. They regretted not bringing extra t-shirts and being frozen on the way back, however, the bands set massive fire in their hearts.
From the first act, Graves, a four-piece alternative, hard rock and grunge band from Leicester, they grasped our minds instantly. By the powerful and raging voice of Dan, also with a certain kind of his peculiar calmness lying on the bottom of his heart, the audience was thrown in the band’s dark world. And the members, Barlow, Mitchell, and Staggy (bass, guitar and drums respectively) were infusing fuel to the flame in the venue and made headbangers go crazy.
The second act, Dawn of Anubis from Leicester stepped on the stage, a 5-piece band with the evolutional background from alternative rock and rock/metal act to the current heavy metal band.
To begin with, the interaction with the audience was the most intensive and the harmonised gap between the smooth high and heavy metal voice of lead vocal, Billy, amplified the mood naturally. Especially, when the song, Broken Souls, was played, the strength of the three guitars composition was demonstrated melodiously and proudly.
Moving on to the third stage, By Design from Derby accelerated the heat by catchy up-tempo rhythms. As you can see, the lead vocal/guitar, Hamilton, and guitar/backing Vocal, Harry appeared in the matching red checked shirts, skinny jeans and the iconic spiky guitars. Furthermore, amazingly their performances were also synchronizing each other. With such cheerful performance and the decent heavy metal melodious mood, spontaneously the audiences rushed into intensive mosh pits. The perfectionist performance will result in increasing their fans.
Finally, the headliner, 28 Double, a five-piece hard rock/groove/metal band, from Derby, performed with fully energetic vibes. The variety of Nick’s (vocal) facial expressions and dynamic performance reminded me of the legendary singer Iggy Pop, however, the songs were more hard rock and metal.
By jumping on the step in front of the stage, he agitated the metal lovers to consume all energy on headbanging. This was the glorious finale of the rainy metal day.
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