On Friday February 4th, 2005 Ataglance (NL), Cult of Luna (Swe) and Bleeding Through (USA) played in the Goudvishal in Arnhem, The Netherlands. While a collegue editor enjoyed the CD-presentation by progressive rock band NoVact and their support act 7th Circle, yours truly decided to head for the always pleasant venue Goudvishal.
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Ataglance had the honour to open the program. The formation with David van Toor behind the drum kit, started early 2004. Several months later, in July 2004, the band recorded their first demo. Ataglance names Shai Hulud, Poison The Well and BoySetsFire as musical influences.
Their demo contains beautiful guitar riffs while brutality dominates when the band plays live, especially because of the raw throat of their lead vocalist. Fortunately some striking melodies stood out during their show. As more and more people entered the venue, Ataglance successfully tried to make the people in the front move. The audience responded positively to the energetic stage act. The young band seemed glad and joyfully took the opportunity to play with Cult of Luna and Bleeding Through, which was infectious.
A huge part of the audience had not come for headliner Bleeding Through, but preferred the second band this night: Cult of Luna. These people had to find satisfaction in a gig of a mere forty-five minutes. In this short period the Swedish band proved to be well capable of playing their special blend of metal and stretched, carefully constructed atmospheric post-rock in the vein of Neurosis and Isis in a live situation.
2004 saw the release of \"Salvation\" on which Cult Of Luna sounds like a metal variant on Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky. Long songs with melancholic walls of guitar sound and extensive passages.
New drummer Thomas Hedlund does his bit towards this sound. His drums sound much more varied than previous skinsman Marco Hildén, with a strong emphasis to the groove and a choice for unsuspecting and creative percussion patterns. A very atmospheric gig that musically did not really fit between the first band and headliner Bleeding Through.
American act Bleeding Through started in 1998 as Breakneck, with a line-up that differs almost completely from the current one. With the numerous line-up changes their sound evolved as well. In 2003 Trustkill Records released the third album of this six-pack: \"This Is Love, This Is Murderous\". The hipsters quickly gained in popularity. Last year, in 2004, Bleeding Through played on Ozzfest with great hardcore bands like Sick Of It All and Converge.
Bleeding Through fuses the well known chuggah chugga metalcore riffs with faster neo-thrash, death and black metal influences. Last mentioned elements stem from Martha\'s keys.
How did the band manage live? Very self-confident the sextet claimed the stage. The many musical influences and its resulting diversity on the album changed into a bit of a mess live though. De band puts so much in every song that it is quite hard to define all elements when executed live, something a band like Cradle of Filth suffers from as well during their live shows.
Those who had not primarily come for Cult of Luna but for Bleeding Through seemed not to care. Drummer Derek Youngsma played like a pro and showed routine. He knows how to play all sub streams in the hard \'n heavy segment. Apparently he can play any style he wants. An energetic show, with singer Brandan Schieppati as charismatic front man, confirmed the status of this hip band.