Live Review: Coldrain at Camden Barfly 31/1/2014

Cytota

Cytota are a very young band with a big sound. The band instantly brought to mind metalcore luminaries like Asking Alexandria, Rise to Remain and Bury Tomorrow and put on a great performance that was incredibly accomplished considering their years.

Unfortunately I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d seen this band before despite the fact I actually hadn’t. Cytota fall into the trap of being metalcore by numbers. The band have screaming, sung sections, double-bass drumming and breakdowns aplenty, but as we’ve said frequently on this website we’ve heard all of this before. Metalcore is a genre that has run out of steam and more needs to be done by bands like Cytota to add more interesting and unique elements to the existing formula.

But as I’ve already mentioned, these lads are only just beginning their career and there’s plenty of time for them to improve. A promising start.

Coldrain

Before we touch on Coldrain’s performance I need to address some concerns I had with this crowd in particular:

The Rising Sun flag is rather offensive to a large majority of Japanese people. Bringing one to a live concert featuring a Japanese band is an extremely bad judgement on your part.

If someone is in danger especially at a concert with a prominent mosh pit, don’t just stare at the individual. Alert venue staff as soon as possible.

If you’re going to drink, do it responsibly. Strangers don’t want to have to suddenly support you because you are now so drunk your legs can’t hold your own weight.

If you’re going to use your phone during a concert, doing so on the edge of a mosh pit is probably not the best idea. What did you think was going to happen?

If you want to mosh please consider that other people don’t want to mosh. Swinging your rucksack around your neck is not only inconsiderate to others but also incredibly dangerous to others in the mosh pit. You massive twat.

If it isn’t clear already, all these things happened during Coldrain’s performance at the Barfly and it greatly hampered my enjoyment of the evening. This is obviously not the band’s fault but come on people, this is simply out of hand.

Now, Coldrain; they were good. Despite this being the band’s first appearance on UK soil they commanded the audience in the Barfly like professionals. Vocalist Masato is a compelling individual who towered over the audience, singing and screaming his lungs out. Masato didn’t miss a note throughout the entire performance and his energy was extremely engaging.

Coldrain have a lot of great songs and tonight proved just how brilliant they are in a live environment. The set highlight had to be ‘Die Tomorrow’ which set the room on fire and sparked the biggest pit of the evening and rightly so. Coldrain deliver massive riffs and even bigger choruses by the bucket load and it was a joy to finally hear them live.

The band promised to come back for another run of dates in the future, but luckily they’ll be back this summer at the Download Festival. If anthemic metalcore/screamo is your cup of tea then you’ll definitely want to check the band out if you get a chance. Just be a little considerate to your fellow gig-goers in the future. You massive twat.