Sacred Mother Tongue, Losing Sun, Imicus, Wolflaw - 24th November 2006
Reviewed by Martin Stapleton
The One For the Underground gig tonight featured, amongst others, the first appearance on the Level 2 Stage for the Bedford four piece Wolflaw. Wow, what an impact and impression they created. The sound, their look and demeanour and general all round musical skills benefited enormously from the spacious surroundings. Backed by a raucous fanbase, Sean (vocals), Roy (guitar), Antony (guitar) and Phil (drums) gave it their all and swept everybody away with their turbo-charged post punk sound with a Wildhearts influence. Each song is enthusiastically received. With the almost self proclaimed anthem 'Obey The Law' best capturing the essence of Wolflaw's set. Even a hoary old cynic like me couldn't fail to be lifted by our very own strong arm of the law!
A ram rod metal spine ran through the rest of the evening, which featured firstly Imicus. Incredibly, this was the Luton bands first appearance at Esquires. Long awaited for most of the crowd, as they have quite a glowing reputation in Bedford. New songs 'Invisle' and 'An Isolation Dawn' immediately grab us around the throat and the grip never loosens. With a bruising vocalist and incisive guitars, detonation drumming, their metal mantra is powerful and to the point.
To follow were Welsh metallers Losing Sun, who return here for the third time this year. However, I always feel they get a raw deal from our crowd, and tonight is no exception, as the partisan fans fail to respond to the bold explosive sound perpetuated by our visitors. It's a great shame as Losing Sun have shown in a short time a great affinity with the venue.
Headlining tonight, after injury forced them to cancel earlier in the year, were the wild and wonderfully monikered Sacred Mother Tongue. Even playing with a replacement guitarist does not dent the snarl and intensity that the bands fierce and dynamic sound projects. This is a band who are not going to perform in front of a static crowd as the vocalist asks for more movement prior to 'Something Isn't Right', which is at least partially reciprocated. One of the newer songs 'Don't Suspect Your Own' is now beginning to fit more comfortably into their repertoire. With a new EP 'Revenge is Personal' in the pipeline, things are looking good for this band. As the evening draws to a close the crowd are urged to go crazy for one last time as Sacred Mother Tongue's final song 'Force Fed' cranks up the volume.