MERCILESS FAIL

Gigging in their hometown of surfer Southend-On-Sea, the Heavy Thrashers kick off the headlining slot with a slab of the heaviest material unearthed in this seaside resort. With their second demo being used as the sound wave strike force, this is a promising sign that the Essex Metal scene is just as brutal and intricate as the rest of the British Metal scene. Somewhat an intuitive but non-ignominious combination of Iron Maiden-esque vocals mixed with the embodiment of the European Thrash Metal sub-genre. Interestingly enough Melodic Metal rests in their back-room but is easily whacked in at key points, solos, riffs, the sweat excretion from the band-members, etc. Hardly any errors tonight, musically and vocally at least, generally in fact, it is also interesting to note that these Southend stalwarts have been in the Essex 'Metal to the masses' competition which eventually leads to playing at Bloodstock Open Air. A little moshpit came around, for a brief cameo none the less, but this isn't Extreme Metal, nor is it watered down trash - furthermore they aren't Jesus rockers (Jesus was a rocker), but Merciless Fail are Heavy Thrashers. Fundamental difference in that Metal is seen as the devil's music, not in this band's eyes it isn't as they batter and disconnect hearing galore. This Southend ensemble is truly in the next wave of British Heavy Metal.

[9] RHYS STEVENSON

http://www.myspace.com/mercilessfailthrash

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FAINT YOUNG SUN

A sextet playing Metalcore with Thrash influences and no long hair? This has to be Faint Young Sun, a Wickford-based band who are more or less full of different aspects - style, musical composition, height. This really is Thrashcore, a genre that takes you right to the 'core', but this band do much more, they even get the balls to do a cover - whether the original was metal or not does not matter as this is a decent cover. Even the crowd got lost for words, more so the band are far more livelier than the attending crowd, so what did they have that the crowd doesn't? Apart from instruments and an insane screamer, this is probably Chinnery's heaviest Thrashcore to date (though the genre is comparatively young). For such a short performance they certainly addressed the crowd, blew speakers and highland-danced on stage. Again another promising band in the Essex Metal scene - but one of the lower graded ones - still a certified band that is young and promising.

[8] RHYS STEVENSON

http://faintyoungsun.com/

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ENTOMB THE WEAK

Out of the cold comes Thrashers Entomb The Weak with a careful onslaught of Metallica-like numbers, rampaging riffs embedded on a cast iron sheet of blastbeats and mega-sounding pulsations. Gritty and ingenious spring to mind with this mob, but populous dominae at the same time (Latin slang for the win). With a cocktail of genres to keep Chinnery's alive, namely the subtle whiff of Groove Metal, but not as insane as Cavalera Conspiracy. More so this is a band with no comparison, a stigma of the Essex scene unborn, but with that in mind this is just as heavy as a ten ton weight. Even so they closed their set-piece on a classic note, namely a cover of the Metallica song 'seek and destroy' and that's what they did to Chinnery's. A fruitful basket of Groove, Thrash, Heavy and Essex Metal in one band. Another hot contender for the Essex 'Metal to the masses' competition.

[9] RHYS STEVENSON

http://www.myspace.com/EntombTheWeak

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BREATHE NEW LIFE

Closing up the night is Heavy Thrashers Breathe New Life, with a scintillating armament of brain-raping tracks which culminated in the riverbed of the Thames only to blow this place apart with kick-ass style, a testament to the extremity of the Essex Metal scene - could this be a mockery of Brutal Thrash? (P.s. no such genre exists) - but for this quartet, it is more than an average show, when the vocalist can sing like a goddamn banshee in its mating season, but that's what makes this band good - an odd mix of soprano vocals with heavy guitar distortion and a sense of musical collision - no wonder Experimental Metal became the next big thing. But all in all this band are channelling themselves down a road, no one dare follow for the brutality comes with a health and safety warning, but that only applies to non-metal fans, for those metal fans of any kind, this band are almost certainly another good representative of Essex Metal.

[8] RHYS STEVENSON

http://www.facebook.com/breathenewlife