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As if we don’t already rave enough about
unsigned bands through our live, album and single reviews, as well as
giving bands a chance to sit In The Hotseat and tell us what they’re all
about, we couldn’t help but want to do more.
So we did. The result is ‘Unsigned Exposed’, cropping up in ‘Best of The
Rest’ whenever the occasion calls for it, we’ll be reviewing demos, EPs
and everything else we can get our hands on. Without further ado, let’s
cut out all the waffle and head straight into it!
 Without Motive – Live and Loving It
Cast your minds back, if you will, to earlier this year. In March to be
exact, when we ranted and raved about a great new bunch of metal
warriors we’d caught live in Preston by the name of Without Motive.
Truth be told, we enjoyed that night so much that we just had to relive
it, and, as soon as was humanly possible, got our hands on ‘Live and
Loving It’, the band’s new live EP partly recorded back on that storming
night of musical madness in March, and partly recorded at a second gig a
month later.
Kicking off with an epic intro unashamedly pinched from European
favourites Manowar, things start properly with ‘Fire of the Phoenix’, a
rough and trouble rocker that mixes serrated riffs with a an
impassioned, wailing vocal from frontman Liam Armstead and solos that
threaten to escalate into dramatic proportions before swirling back down
and all over the show.
If we’re being bluntly honest, the production values could do with a bit
of work, and occasionally the drumming reminds us of Lars Ulrich
rattling his dustbins on Metallica’s ‘St. Anger’ album,
Yet such criticism is quickly discredited for a number of reasons;
firstly, it’s only noticeable on occasion, secondly it’s only ever
noticeable when we’re listening on a knackered old laptop, and finally,
it’s probably the man behind the desk rather than the one behind the kit
who’s letting the side down.
After all, catching them live, as we were lucky enough to do for a
second time before this review was published, it’s clear that Without
Motive are a solid unit with weighty drums that sound nothing like St.
Anger leading the way.
And as track two, the viciously venomous ‘Sharp Side of the Knife’, lets
loose with a maelstrom of metal monomania it serves as a great reminder
of the intensity and insanity that makes up Without Motive’s live
performance.
If we had to pick favourites, we’d probably go for ‘Bitter Sweet Agony’,
which gets underway with a screeching, piercing solo that lashes about
like some untamed beast before easing into a skewed groove and going
like the clappers towards a climatic finale, slowing down only slightly
for a monolithic breakdown and build up part way through.
Yet as the EP continues, it’s clear that there’s much more to be
enjoyed. Take ‘In The Dark’ for example. Perhaps far more accessible
than anything we’ve heard so far, and with a haunting chorus the lyrics
of which we probably couldn’t get away with printing here, it comes
across like the sort of thing you might imagine Iron Maiden sounding
like if they were a bit less pristine and polished. Heck, listening to
this, you can almost imagine the Without Motive clan stalking an
gargantuan stage with some big mummified-skeleton type thing looming in
the background ala Bruce Dickinson & Co.
Seven tracks down, and one to go, this blistering collection of live
performances finally wraps up nicely with a mammoth fifteen minute opus
apparently titled after some fat bloke from your history text books with
a penchant for getting married.
Still reminding us much of Iron Maiden in the power, force and sheer
weight thrown behind this decedent monster of a tune, you hardly realise
that a full quarter of an hour has passed by the time you’ve finished
banging your head along to a breakneck drumbeat and a whiplash riff,
both of which slow down, speed up, rock out and chill out at
interspersed intervals yet ultimately raise two horns high in the air
and a swift size 10 to the backside of all that sucks about music today.
Like your heavy metal fast, powerful, raw and altogether brilliant? Then
check out Without Motive, you probably won’t regret it.
• Want to see your band featured in ‘Unsigned Exposed’ or any of the
other music related features here at ‘LINC Online? Simply drop us a line
at linconline@wlct.org.
• We’ll review practically everything we get, however, due to
constraints, we must have something physical as we can’t review tracks
from Myspace or elsewhere on the internet.
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