Swindon Music

Heavy snow rolling in at 6pm did nothing to dampen the spirits (or attendance) at The Furnace last night, as Reading based metal band, Malefice absolutely nailed their return to Swindon.

Presale tickets matched the MECA show, which in honesty was a little disappointing as they were 1/4 of the price, but we had over 115 paying guests which covered all my costs as the promoter, with each band going home paid and *moderately* happy.

Last time Deliverence played, it was for Status, and they did well enough to surprise the venue with a large early doors crowd, again they managed to muster a decent crowd, but probably being first one and most the audience being cold and wet meant there was little gusto from the crowd, though they were warmly appreciated. The band thanking me for sticking them on a bill they clearly loved playing.

Kinasis had teething problems with their sound, apparently they synth is a major part of their set, not a problem I had experienced with them before, but this time was an major fail. The band were livid at not having it present, but despite this played a ruthlessly hard and energetic set, possible bought on by their frustration. They were the heaviest band on the bill, and it showed. Tech fans would of loved their tone and style, which was intricate and sounded ultra crisp. Frontman Tom is crazy to watch, he has this awesome twitch he does in time with the music, and it's just awesome to watch.

I DEFY are obviously Swindon's own boys, and rightly fitting they had brutal slam dancing and those wavy armed pitters knocking s**t out of each other. The melodic parts to the music came as a decent rest bite to the unprecedented heaviness the two set's previous. Unfortunately their set was cut 1 song short due to over running by 15 minutes bought on again by synth problems for their introduction. That didn't dampen the reception they received. I was really impressed.

MALEFICE headlined to what seemed like heroic proportions. the whole crowd squeezing stage front, and from what I could gather the average age in the room would of been about 25-30. This is mature metal for proper music fans. Not quick to pass fads, or scene hair cuts.

They started by stating they would play a shortened set of 30 mins, yet still ended up over the 40 minute mark. It was tight, concise, well executed and extremely well played metal. A super hands on frontman, really got the crowd pumped (more than I Defy!) which set out a night where they couldn't of done anything but be considered champions.

They treated us to brand spanking new song OMEGA, a track they recorded with well documented "metal loving" Everton goal keeper Marcus Hahnemann, which went down a storm.

The fact that the room had people from Guildford, Oxford, Reading, Chippenham, Bridgewater (minibus!) and LOADS from Devizes, left me wondering that this gig and line up would of probably worked where ever it was put on... And what did I miss in Swindon not to get average Swindon-metal-fan-joe to come along?! More local supports probably would of done the trick!

Anyway, I am super happy that my first Furnace night ended in success, was lovely to work with Emma on the show, and Darren Dust and everyone who helped promoted via their blogs and Newspapers (Cheers Dave Franklin!)

If all the upcoming shows like the Decade and The Headstart shows are half as good, then the Furnace looks like it's back to where it was a few years ago! Long live the Furnace!


Malefice's OMEGA soundcloud

Had loads of fun spinning tunes inbetween all the bands - cheers for the slot Mr K...