Guernsey Press

Heavy heaven

ON AN island like ours, every now and again all members of a defunct band are back on our little rock and decide to play a few shows to relive old times, writes Tom Girard.

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ON AN island like ours, every now and again all members of a defunct band are back on our little rock and decide to play a few shows to relive old times, writes Tom Girard.

Which is exactly what Iron Cobra were doing last week.

Before them, however, another couple of bands took to the Fermain Tavern's stage for a night of heavy, southern-tinged rock.

Heave were first up and, while this was only their fourth gig, it would be hard to tell the duo hadn't been making their crushing brand of doom-inflected extremely heavy rock for longer than all the others on the line-up.

Despite a stint behind the drums with She Haunts The Roads it seems that, in Heave, Neil Etasse has found the perfect fit for his skin beating as he slides in next to Steve Lynch's guitbass and vocal rumblings.

This was probably the tightest and loudest I've seen Heave, who are fast becoming one of my favourite local bands– and with many in the audience nodding along to their slow, sludgy grooves, I don't think I'm alone.

Set-closer Tomahawk confirms this, seemingly gaining status among followers of the heavy stuff.

Following Heave was going to be a challenge and unfortunately She Haunts The Roads didn't quite hit the mark. Following on from what may have been a career best set at Chaos in July, despite their usual high-energy performance the band seemed to have trouble connecting with the audience until near the end of their set.

The brand of southern-style metalcore they ply relies on them settling into a deep groove and that didn't come across. The five-piece sounded messy and disjointed and had the air of a band with nothing new to say, which is a real shame as when they first appeared a couple of years ago they really felt like a breath of fresh air.

Heave may have got a good reaction from the crowd earlier in the night, but it was obvious as soon as the headliners took to the stage that most at the Tavern were there for Iron Cobra.

Playing only their second gig in more than four years, they took a couple of songs to get going, but once they hit their stride with original number A Parody of Actual Events (another local track about zombies), it was as if they hadn't been away.

All five band members put on a great show as they mixed originals with covers of songs by Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, all with their own swagger which occasionally veered towards falling apart, but stayed just on the right side of the line to be something great.

My one concern was that at times it seemed many in the crowd had come for the Bobby Battle show rather than Iron Cobra, which is a shame, as while the aforementioned guitarist does have his own unique stage presence and is a very good player, the band as a whole are a genuine highlight of local heavy music and proved it as they closed the show on the double hit of original song Dead Man's Hand and another Maylene cover, Caution Dangerous Curves Ahead.

While this may be something of a one-off outing for Iron Cobra, after this I really hope we get to see them again.

They have that special something that really sets them apart from many other bands – and it's not just Bobby Battle.

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