LIVE REVIEW: Act Of Defiance @ The Live Rooms, Chester

Formed back in 2014 by ex-MEGADETH guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover after leaving the thrash icons, ACT OF DEFIANCE are a band for whom cult success seems to have come fairly easily. With both their 2015 debut Birth and the Burial, and follow-up Old Scars, New Wounds receiving fairly wide critical acclaim the band, rounded off by vocalist Henry Derek (SCAR THE MARTYR) and bassist Matt Bachand (SHADOWS FALL), the band seem to have been going from strength to strength in their native US, Now though, with the first anniversary of Old Scars… just a few months away, the band are finally hitting the UK for the first time for a short headline tour before playing Bloodstock Festival, and we were able to catch up with them at The Live Rooms in Chester to see how they’d fare.

Llandudno teenage three-piece MAD HAVEN are the ones opening up proceedings tonight, albeit to an unfortunately barely-there crowd of what can’t be more than 20 or so people. The trio’s distinctly classic rock sound definitely feels somewhat at odds with the metal-oriented remainder of tonight’s billing, but the band nonetheless manage a decent showing, dishing out a set of powerful oft-AC/DC-esque driving hard rock to a small handful of early-comers. Despite starting off slightly slowly and with minimal audience to interact with, vocalist/guitarist Tom Rogowski quickly manages to find his footing and, aided by the driving rhythm section of drummer Alex Rogowski bassist Joe Fisher, steers the band towards a short-but-relatively-sweet set that starts the evening off on a decent footing.

Rating: 6/10

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum are the evening’s next act, confrontational Merseyside ‘street-metal’ outfit OMV. Emerging in a variety of masks and balaclavas, the four-piece immediately set about reminding the crowd (many of whom actually seem to be clad in their merch) that tonight is about metal, as they launch into a crushing set of violent hardcore beatdowns that’s as fun as it is pummeling. Anchoring everything is frontman/guitarist Richie OMV, a man whose menacing stage presence and throat-shredding vocals seem absolutely perfect for this type of thing as he runs around the stage and leaps atop monitors with conviction to bellow directly at the front row; so much so that he’s able to drop in a cover of LAMB OF GOD classic Redneck mid-set like it’s nobody’s business and carry it off to near-perfection. It’s a set full of neck-snapping riffs courtesy of Richie and fellow axeman Ben Milford (more on him later) played with swaggering confidence, and by its eventual conclusion, OMV have clearly established themselves to the uninitiated few as a real force to be reckoned with.

Rating: 8/10

Unfortunately, things then come crashing down to the ground with main support, the ‘hilariously’ named PROLAPSE A.D. – a band who probably couldn’t be more irritating if they tried. Essentially dealing in MUNICIPAL WASTE-like thrash, only for people who think the likes of PSYCHOSTICK and ALESTORM are funny, the London outfit’s set manages to grate within moments thanks to the hammy on-stage persona of frontman and focal point Alex Lewis rendering them more akin to a bad stand-up comic act than a meaningful band, which is a shame given how technically-gifted the musicians appear to be. With a canon of songs including multiple grindcore microsongs and such ‘gems’ as Thrashing In The Church, the band undoubtedly have musical talent in their genre, but the wacky attempts at humour simply fall flat every single time and render everything about them more annoying than enjoyable. The only real moment of note comes when the band are joined by ACT OF DEFIANCE‘s Chris Broderick, making a cameo on the David Cameron-baiting Pigfucker, but even this isn’t enough to save them from an on-the-whole absolutely dire showing.

Rating: 3/10

There’s no such mucking about for ACT OF DEFIANCE tonight though, luckily. By far the standout act of the evening, as you’d expect from a group of musicians with such pedigree, the LA quartet have the entire room enraptured from the moment they emerge to the moment they leave tonight thanks to a tight and incredibly well-delivered set of precise, highly-technical thrash metal. Churning out an impressive spectacle of a set and drawing well from both of their albums, ACT OF DEFIANCE‘s blend of old-school thrash metal with elements of melodic death metal and speed metal proves an instant winner with the Chester crowd from the moment that M.I.A. gets things going. Having now been a band for four years, ACT OF DEFIANCE are a well-oiled machine of a live band at this point – something that really shows during the likes of the intricately-pacey Legion of Lies and the all-out thrash assaults of Overexposure and Rise of Rebellion. The real star of the latter two is of course Chris Broderick, a man whose dexterous soloing might as well put every other guitarist on the bill tonight to shame, such is his precision and power; however it’s vocalist Henry Derek who deserves a lot of the kudos tonight – his in-between-song banter and engaging personality keeping things interesting and drawing in the audience hook, line and sinker before he and his bandmates decimate them with red-hot blasts of scorchingly brilliant metal. Despite the club setting still being nowhere near to full in the slightest, the band still play with the intensity as if it were to a packed-out arena, and in doing so, put on a seriously impressive showing.

One surprise highlight as the set goes on comes when ACT OF DEFIANCE announce a cover song, bringing onstage a competition winner (in this case a returning Ben from OMV) to jam alongside Broderick on a masterful rendition of early IRON MAIDEN classic Wrathchild, which sees Derek joined by what feels like every other person in the room on vocals for the song’s anthemic chorus. It’s within this party-like atmosphere that the band are capable of conjuring where ACT OF DEFIANCE are perhaps strongest. Barely a moment goes by during the set where the band don’t appear to be having the time of their lives, and this infectious energy manages to carry their momentum through the entirety of their set, to the point where once they leave the stage, there’s a huge throng of people still begging for more. A true masterclass in live performance from one of contemporary metal’s most impressive new units.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Chester from Jacob Kazara Photography here: