Callous Daoboys are the biggest explosion of colour onstage, every box ticked and a few you didn’t know needed ticking. It’s hard not to grin like a maniac, even when they do the Neil Diamond thing (if you’ve seen them live, you’ll know this set piece) ‘Waco Jesus’ is sounding particularly awesome. Tight and frantic, totally in control of the chaos at all times and did we mention they’re really funny too. The grins onstage are infectious and it’s hard to process how much awesome is being launched at you. Simply put Callous Daoboys just slay tonight. ”If you don’t dance, bad things will happen!” Is the warning, I don’t think anything bad will happen at least to the portion of the crowd throwing shapes like manic ravers. Next, the command is, “now I want to see some very ignorant violence,” as far as onstage patter is concerned Callous Daoboys have that nailed as well as proving math’s (at least math metal) can be fun too!
Airtight is the word I’d use to describe Unprocessed and their frantic highly technical staccato attack. The slapped guitar technique they employ so often is incredibly impressive and boy is it fast. Sonically speaking this music is truly state of the art with only Polyphia occupying a similar space when it comes to hyper pop savvy heavy technical virtuosity. They’re also a lot heavier live than on record, benefiting greatly from the edges the live environment can give their music’s sometimes robotic nature on record. Vocally as well (often forgotten under all the instrumental pyrotechnics) the singer really shines, and it’s easy to forget this sometimes. If you’re a fan of this flashy technique driven style of metal, few do it better, there’s a lot to love here and there is a healthy dose of funk to speak to your waist, if you’re feeling that way out, and many of this crowd certainly are!
Note perfect and dowsed in Sci-Fi lighting and pyro, Tesseract have certainly come a long way in this last year since dropping the seismic, ‘War Of Being’ album to universal rapture last year. The biggest crowd they’ve had in Manchester are sold out and here to pay tribute to a band clearly in a league of one. New tracks shimmer and shift against old favourites and the crowd are utterly besotted with the UK progressive metal legends, here given a full hero’s welcome. ‘War Of Being’ ‘Legion’ and the wonderful fan favourite ‘Juno’ sounding huge with crystal clear sound, the bass punching right through with bite and width letting the incredible guitar playing soar. The drums too, sound massive and punchy as a prize fighter. The vocals are pitch perfect, in fact everything here is perfect, not a hair out of place! You absolutely cannot fault a thing here musically at all!
Tesseract tonight are masters of their craft, honed through years of experience being at the very top of their game. ‘The Grey’ sounds just as apocalyptic as it did when it was unleashed like a war cry last autumn. It feels like the thunderous drums and tight percussive rhythm guitars are driving into the earth’s core and into our collective psyche forever. In giant monolithic style Tesseract encore with both parts of ‘Concealing Fate’, (Pt 1- Acceptance and Pt 2 – Deception) and yes, its epic, twisting, full of light, shade, it’s dystopian and it requires you to concentrate just a bit.
That’s the beauty of Tesseract in a world where so much is throwaway, here is a band that demands a level of commitment and passion, in this day and age that is a very very precious quality indeed!
Review & Photos By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Callous Daoboys
Unprocessed
Tesseract
