I hope all your Halloween's were filled with debauchery and everything else fun.
This post is a bit late coming (heh), and I can only apologise to everyone involved -insert lame excuse here-.
It's honestly just because I've not been sober in my free time.
ANYWAY.
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On Thursday I took to The Forum in Hatfield to watch Black Peaks (formerly Shrine) support Arcane Roots on their very short tour. I initially had two thoughts, one was, what the fuck is a Hatfield and two, please, PLEASE, don't let Black Peaks be shit live.
The quartet; that has some of the strongest hairstyles and facial hair I've encountered in a while (see picture above), is made up of Will on lead vocals, Joe on guitar and vocals, Liam on drums and Andrew on bass and vocals. These boys have been on my radar for a while, my first encounter with their music was the Say You Will video which I fucking loved. I've had a hard time with music recently, and almost lost my faith in the future of the heavy/alternative rock scene as a hell of a lot of bands being signed lately are diabolically wank. But Black Peaks are different. Say You Will had a hint of Thrice - Circles about it, if Circles was full of some of the best screaming you'd ever heard in your life. Zane Lowe (too soon? Have you all put your pitchforks down?) has been playing Say You Will a bunch of times, and the support they're receiving from Arcane Roots is something I imagine even the boys can't comprehend themselves.
Say You Will, taken from the boys EP, "Closer to the Sun"
As I stepped into The Attic at The Forum, I was genuinely surprised at the lack of audience. Although one thing I did notice was everyone was transfixed, nobody was leaving for a smoke break or loudly chatting to their mates, we were all mesmerised. It was like everyone in the room had just inhaled some shrooms and Black Peaks were all lava lamps. Lava lamps that can play their instruments really fucking well.
In my honest opinion, Will Gardener is one of the best vocalists I've heard in a long long time. I think what impresses me most is he screams better in real life than on a recording. To be able to scream as high AND low as he can is mind blowing. As a collective though, the band is tight as fuck. Being together two years, I don't know if I can still label them under the 'new band' demographic. I'm gonna anyway, for arguments sake and because in terms of attention, they are a 'new band'. These guys are crazy good for how new they are, the bromance on stage is visible to everyone in the room, and they are genuinely entertaining to watch (is it just me or is there something oddly satisfying when you see two members of a band lock eyes and head bang in sync?). The stage presence is great, the guys aren't cocky when talking to the audience because the music speaks for itself and things are very quickly picking up for them. SOMEBODY SIGN THEM ALREADY.
Black Peaks are proving themselves in a big way, they're making a lot of fucking noise, you all better start listening.
Like the boys on Facebook
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Buy their EP, Closer to the Sun
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