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This is a new one for me, not deathcore bands in general but a UK Deathcore Showcase. Tonight’s line up for Oshia isn’t like any other gig that you might go to on a Tuesday. Osiah brings  along four other deathcore bands for fans which seems a tad excessive if you didn’t have the fact that it was a deathcore showcase.

The show was advertised as door opening for Rebellion at 7pm, but when getting to the venue 15 minutes before found that doors had opened early and the first band of the showcase, To Obey a Tyrant, were already on stage as we approached the doors; for how long I’m not sure as when getting into the venue the set times weren’t placed anywhere on in the room. Normally the stage times are placed around the venue but for this they weren’t which made it insanely hard to know which bands took to the stage and the times which could have been handy.

The room wasn’t packed out but that would’ve been due to the early opening times which hadn’t been placed as an update on any of the bands social media.

The merch stand was downstairs in the main pit area which was new for Rebellion considering merch tends to be upstairs where the main bar is located, and for a deathcore show this is something that I would’ve gone against due to it being an insanely bad safety hazard, with the mosh pits that later opened up in front of the stands. To Obey a Tyrant managed to get the reaction from the small crowd in all the positive ways, with fans reaching their hands into the air to shake as an intense breakdown hit, and the interesting hardcore moshing took place very early on into the night. Being on earlier than expected wasn’t the best start to the showcase, because it meant there was a lack of crowd for the first band but the ones who were in attendance cheered them on as if it was a packed out room.

Second on the line up was Existentialist and I brought someone with me to this showcase since they do prefer heavier bands than myself, and he personally thought that out of the entire lineup that these guys were by far the most impressive, they worked well with the crowd and sounded the best out of everyone that night. They’re someone I can see getting booked for bloodstock in a few years’ time and gathering a fairly decent following, they give me the vibes of Lorna Shore if they decided to be more hardcore with their sound.

The issue with this gig was that if you’re a person who decided to go to this showcase only knowing Osiah and none of the supports then you’d have a tough time knowing who was who. The set times not being around didn’t help and the posters not being accurate made matters worse, when it comes to writing about each individual band from this showcase its insanely hard to do without the information that you would need as a reviewer or as someone just there in attendance.

Osiah were the main band of the night, coming onto the stage at 10:15pm, which is not a good start. Some of the crowd from the night had begun to leave the venue because of how late their final set time was. The last two support bands had their set cut short by the looks of things because the time management was poorly done. They took to the stage to a smaller crowd than anticipated, the Deathcore band from Sunderland carried on regardless and actually did an impressive job on managing that kind of situation, the sound was pretty decent and the lighting situation was a major difference. I could see the band properly without smoke completely covering the entire setting.

I wish this would’ve been a better night, however it just wasn’t! If the venue was different i.e. smaller for this kind of show then that could’ve made the night more enjoyable but it wasn’t the right venue and for the future the planning of the show needed to be improved.

The bands that played during this showcase are:

Draconian Reign

Beyond Extinction

Existentialist

To Obey a Tyrant

Osiah

Images: Lauren Allard

Words: Jacob Robinson & Lauren Allard