Live review from Underground Heavy #5
Setlist:
1. Wai Han
2. Trees of Life
3. Countdown
4. Crying Rain
5. Your Smile
This was the fifth time that the Underground Heavy carousel had taken a round, and it was time to up the ante. And that it was, right from the very first band. TPB are one of those rarest of metal-influenced bands, in that they have a female singer. And, lest you think that she does the whole Amy Lee—faux-opera-shtick, let me say that: NO – they have a female singer who screams. I mean out-and-out post-Slayer metal screaming – i.e. she’s good at it, too. Just for that, they rack up a bunch of points for their novelty. Plus, the guitarist fills in with singing-portions, so that the screaming doesn’t become tedious. Once you get past this fact, though, you may begin to notice that their style is not flawless. Their songs tend to sound conflicted, because of the blatant differences in the (broadly speaking) two houses of metal they inhabit – early 80s, with thrash just developing and still having a strong Sabbath and classic rock influence, and that of the Noughties, with greater polish, more zipping melodies and less sharp-sounding guitars. Development between these two distinct styles was sometimes lacking, and after a while you begin to consciously hear the switching between them. Which can get a little clunky in a live show, when you’re trying to concentrate on the performance. Countdown was an example of this, in which the different bits didn’t quite come together. Trees of Life was lacking groove in the drums, and the bass sounded (to me) a bit more hardcore than was appropriate. However, instead of the archetypal metal tempo-changes, it featured changes in beat, which was a nice change.
Having said that, this is typically a feature of a band that’s still developing its signature, and improvements can be anticipated. In fact, within their set itself, there were some songs that were clearly better-structured and filled out than others. And, as musicians, they appear to be quite competent– for which, when referring to metal, there is a high threshold, unlike punk or hardcore. Crying Rain was just such a song, more Zombie-esque in its approach, and a true success in what they were trying to achieve musically. There were some delightful speed metal solo portions in Your Smile, which melded excellently into the more grinding, rebellious 90s-metal sections towards the ending, and the song-structure just worked. Despite the fact that they can be underwhelming sometimes, and I would like to see them play a longer set, they seem to be going down the correct path. And the best thing to be said is that they do not need sympathetic judgement just because they have a female singer – they’re good enough that you can judge them just the same as other, good metal bands.
– Shashwati
Performances:
