Not so long ago Funeral For A Friend announced they were going to play three smaller venues in what can only be described as a mini-tour. I was shocked to hear one of them was going to be Leicester, the city that I live closest too. It was to be at Sub 91, a new venue in Leicester where Jongleurs comedy club was (it’s now Highlight). A new venue with a great band in my city!!! (There’s also an Academy in Leicester now but I’m not going until December)

Having queued up in Walkabout (by that I mean sat in Walkabout until the queue was ending outside the door) we entered and all of 10 minutes later the first band started up. Hope it’s always like that at Sub 91.

Boy With X-Ray Eyes were first. A screemo band. I’m not a huge fan of screemo even though Funeral For A Friend were pretty much at the start of the screemo movement. They were actually quite enjoyable and had a mix of singing and screeming. Doubt I’ll make an effort to listen to them again but they were good at what they did. 

Next up were Rise To Remain who are fronted by Bruce Dickinson's (Iron Maiden) son. I was told these were rubbish and they are only here because of that relationship. Rise To Remain were pretty good. Again not a band I will make much of an effort to listen to again. Their music was solid, and clearly inspired by Iron Maiden and like. The lead did have a bit of his dad’s voice but I think that’s only because I knew there was a connection, otherwise I wouldn’t have noticed. Decent set overall.

Funeral For A Friend were up. Having seen these Welsh boys 5 or 6 times before I knew what to expect. A cracking set, well preformed and the whole crowd singing their hearts out. It was the crowd singing away during the first song that stopped me noticing that Matthew Davies-Kreye’s voice was really off. Poor guy had a very sore throat but still tried his hardest and that’s what I come to expect from Funeral For A Friend. In the end his voice not being at it’s strongest really showed why live music is the best and that’s because of the crowd. The crowd had Matt’s back and sang every word to every song. Matt wasn’t really needed! Of course he is!!! Recently they released a new EP called The Young and Defenceless which I hadn’t heard anything from. They played a few tracks from that and I instantly loved them. Some heaviness I’ve not heard from FFAF before. Funeral For A Friend played my favourites too... All The Rage, Roses For The Dead, Into Oblivion (that intro has such a lovely feeling to it) and the rest...

Funeral For A Friend, regardless of Matt being able to sing, still stay as one of my highest rated live bands. 

Sub 91 is a cool little venue too. Sound is OK but my ears are still ringing.

It's time for another Sonisphere announcement. It promises to be a good one. Why? Because I was told two bands about a month ago and having seen them both before I can say they are great.  @Sonisphere said that the special guest will be announced along with 10+ other bands and one possible curve ball (here's the tweet).

The announcement is at 9am. I'll be up and will post my first impressions.... with my completely unbiased opinion (haha!). I WILL be totally honest about what I think.

Update: The announcement consisted of:

• Pendulum
• Alice In Chains
• europe
• Dir En Grey
• Lacuna Coil
• Renegades
• Sick of it All
• Therapy?
• Terrorvision
• Municipal Waste
• Rise to Remain

The announcement has come and gone. Pendulum who I was told are in but the other band wasn't. They might come later as they hadn't been officially signed up at the time. Hopefully they will.

As for the rest of the announcement I've heard of half the bands but never really listen to. I've heard of Alice In Chains, Europe, Dir End Grey and Lacuna Coil. I think I'm slightly out of touch with the current rock/metal scene right now. So day I'll be checking these bands out on Spotify and no doubt I'll have heard songs by most of them, just without knowning who they were by.

I'll report back again later.

Update: So today I went on Spotify, banged the top 5 songs from each of the artists announced today into a playlist and pressed play. Couldn't find Renegades on there so all of the others I listened to. I listen each song Here's what I thought.

Well firstly I should do this more often. Normally I just dismiss bands I don't know unless recommended by a good friend. Today was quite enlightening.

Pendulum: I've been a Pendulum fan for a few years now and have seen them live three times. Once at Leicester University, at Projekt Revolution and last year at Download. So I didn't actually listen to these. Definitely looking forward to seeing these again, hopefully that'll be on the Saturn stage as last year that had some pretty good bass.

Alice In Chains: These guys played Sonisphere last year but I didn't get to see them. They sound alright but doesn't seem to be my kind of thing. Maybe a grower but at the moment not my cup-of-tea.

Europe: How did I forget Europe did The Final Countdown? Seriously! Of course these will be good. The Final Countdown will go down a treat. The other songs I heard all sounded good to.

Dir En Grey: Not sure on these. Might help if they spoke English or were pyrotechnicians (ala Rammstein).

Lacuna Coil: I'm undecided on Lacuna Coil. I'll have a bit more of a listen another time. First thing I noticed is the female vocalist sounds like Shakira at times.

Sick Of It All: I quite liked Sick of it All. They are a heavy sounding punk band, "hardcore" so I'm told. Made me think of Black Flag and Henry Rollins, who is doing spoken word at Sonisphere and would highly recommend listening to.  I think they'll be a pretty decent crowd for Sick of it All and knowing the words, or at least the main parts, would be an advantage.

Therapy?: Diane... where have I heard that before? This was the first song I heard and I know it but I really don't know where from. I really liked what I heard here and after finishing the playlist I then went on to listen to Troublegum in full as I hear they'll be playing this in full at Sonisphere. Again I really liked.

Terrorvision: Tequila it makes me happy... oh yeah what a sound. Terrorvision were quite enjoyable and I'll check them out at Sonisphere.

Municipal Waste: My first thought was "they sound like a heavy Sum 41". I do like Sum 41 and Municipal Waste seem all right, a little samey but I only listened to a few songs so shouldn't judge yet. Another one for the listen to more of list.

Rise to Remain: The final band I listened to was Rise to Remain. Their vocal are a mix of singing and growling/screaming. Screaming puts me off bands normally but I gave them a chance and it was worth it. They've got some really good sounds going on and the screaming was excessive. I away like Killswitch Engage in respect to the good sound and not screaming all the time. I'll be checking these out some more.

Now I've listened to the announced bands I can appreciate it much more and will definitely listen to more bands I don't know.