Mojos local metal night review by Liam Williams

The night opened up with fbom, a modern metal band in the veins of under oath, as I lay dying, perhaps some from Autumn to ashes in there, opened up the night. There power trio is solid, with a full sound, musically there very talented young men, good songs, tight break downs, great energy, some solid head banging riffs and enough lyrical content to make it interesting even though you cant always make out the words. These boys are good, but there not phenomenal yet. It feels as though when they're on stage together they're moving around each other. Doug does a good job of getting low but frankly crab core from only the front man looks a little out of place. If they can get there energy up just a bit more from all members they will put on an incredible show, but they did open this night up well.

Next up was Amplitude, I’m pretty sure these kids were still in high school, which I only say because they're a hell of a lot better than I was in high school. I’ve always loved that mojos is a venue that allows young musicians to cut there teeth in a pretty relaxed environment, where they don’t get ridiculed or face harsh criticism. Right when I first met these kids I was worried they might be trying a bit to hard with there appearance. Normally bands who put that much effort into there appearance are over compensating for poorly written music, however it turned out that they were more than face painted stitches, and ripped up shirts. They're front woman 'star shine' has one hell of a set of pipes on her, from clean vox to screams to growls. Unfortunately while the band was skilled, and the crowd was loving there wasn’t much show to the band. It’s called shoe gazing, where musicians stand on stage, play well and admire there shoes. When this band gets into their music and starts rocking out to the music they make, They will be great. There is a lot of potential there.

The Dark Past got me very excited. Music is a skill you develop with practice and these guys have years under there collective belt. They were exciting, their music was well written, technical, energetic and heavy. The trio had such a full sound they had no room for other members, and used every bit of space afforded to them. At one point bassist/ vocalist nick stepped out into the crowd and played a bass solo. Guitarist Adrian made good use of the be awesome here platform, and all while playing great technical death metal with a touch of grind core without the chug chug. I couldn’t tell you a single word of their songs, but I could tell you what their mosh pit felt like. The crowd had been amped up since fbom played their first note. The skill of dark past built that energy and numbered with the dead carried it out till there last note.

Numbered with the Dead are metal heads from bountiful. There’s a quote in the movie slc punk “when we are free rebellion comes slow, we grow complacent. But in an oppressive religious state, where the majority doesn’t even belong to said religion, it comes like fire.” These boys brought the fire, heavy growled vocals, screaming guitars, a touch of punk, a great dollop of anger at their oppression, and you have numbered with the dead. They put on a great show with every member taking a little time to show off, bring the energy of the crowd up even more, but not taking away from the music. Im not a huge fan of growls, I like screams at points but growling through the entire song every song isn’t my thing. They did a good job of it, but I would have liked to hear a bit more punk influence to see what it adds to them. All in all it was one hell of a metal night and on the day before Easter Sunday, even better.

Labels: blog, events, indie, mojos, music, ogden utah metal, reviews