While She Sleeps & Wovenwar @ The Ritz, Manchester Review
Two of metal metalcore’s hottest new wave of talent have been touring extensively over Europe supporting In Flames these last few weeks and finally, they bring their flavour of chaos to UK shores. Despite the October chills, legions of fans await to what hopes to be a thrilling night of adrenaline-fuelled carnage. But did both While She Sleeps and Wovenwar live up to the great expectations?
From the ashes of As I Lay Dying arise Wovenwar, with all former members of AILD enlisting frontman Shane Blay from Oh, Sleeper to create a new band delivering a new style of metalcore. With one full length record under their belt and performances at Reading & Leeds Festivals earlier this year the band have been creating quite a name for themselves and that was certainly evident throughout their performance as each song’s closure was met with thunderous applause. Musically, Wovenwar were on absolute top form; with every riff and solo executed at pin-point perfection accompanied by consistent rhythm of Jordan Mancino’s drumming. For example, the rapid riff and rising drum beat leading to the breakdown in Death To Rights was absolutely sensational, showcasing the band’s sheer talent.
The real stand-out element to Wovenwar’s performance however, was the vocal performance from both Shane Blay and Josh Gilbert. Singing cleans in metalcore in a live performance often do not match the standards witnessed on studio recordings, but the combined efforts of both vocalists was incredible to witness. The dual vocal combination in Tempest was absolutely breathtaking, and yet despite the band not utilising any growls or harsh vocals of any kind, it still maintained one whirlwind of a performance. (8)
British metalcore act While She Sleeps have sky-rocketed in popularity over the last few years. The five piece act from Sheffield have built a solid reputation of menacing and energetic live performances, and that was crystal clear in their performance. Frontman Lawrence Taylor possess’s ridiculous amounts of energy; by simply diving into the crowd and around the stage he ensured the crowd was whipped into a frenzy from start to finish.
Despite a few technical difficulties involving microphones, While She Sleeps were absolutely phenomenal. Riffs came in strong, breakdowns were enormous and roars sailed above it all. Whilst it was disappointing that one of the verses to False Freedom was lost due to the technical issues, the crowd ensured the band raged on. When everything was in order, there was simply no stopping While She Sleeps. This is the Six and Death Toll saw host to enormous pits and legions of crowd surfers crashing over the barricades; all of which is responsible for the monstrous riffs and roaring vocals. Fan favourite, Crows, sent the crowd absolutely ballistic which the band lapped up with sheer delight. While She Sleeps are on course to becoming of Britain’s strongest and biggest metal bands and that was absolutely clear from tonight’s performance. (9)
