Seven Day Story / Skeletal Embrace
Week 21 - 7th July 2005
By Majere

A queue, sir? Yes, a queue has formed outside of Rosie's tonight, and my, there's a lot of black on show. This vermilion throng are already buzzing with anticipation for tonight's BOTB, and no small number of them are wondering how Skeletal Embrace are going to fit on that stage...

SEVEN DAY STORY - But first, Seven Day Story are up to strut their stuff. With the proto-Hives look once again in evidence, they adapt well to the club setting. A wise policy of letting the frontman leap about largely as normal whilst the rest of the band just move enough to stay out of the way allows things to still look pretty animated on stage despite the small size. Sadly, 'small size' does largely sum up the crowd at the front, though those who do come forward to show their appreciation do so in a variety of inventive ways, from sitting down waving their arms around, to lying on their backs waving their arms around in a slightly different way, to skanking (oddly) and jumping about. This eccentric performance seems to largely mystify the rest of the room as much as it entertains them, but the rest of the reaction is oddly muted. "Are you in a bad mood because of us?" asks the frontman plaintively at one point. Nonetheless, Seven Day Story put in a very strong performance, with a good, clear sound and finely-honed vocals, and the response to the end of the set, if not ecstatic, is at least warm. Much like The Divide, Seven Day Story seem to have played a set for which the audience wasn't quite there, but they have at least done it well.

Thought for the day- if you find a discarded cigarette lighter in a position where it looks likely to cause trouble, it is wise to pick it up. It is, however, unwise to then entrust it to the care of a younger sibling with a mild case of pyromania...

SKELETAL EMBRACE - Ah. So 'barely' is the answer to how they'll fit! Skeletal Embrace dominate the Rosie's stage from the word go, their monstrous drumkit lurking ominously behind a well-drilled midfield of guitarists, whilst their more fun-sized vocalist prowls the front of the stage like a wolverine with a microphone. Much like Seven Day Story, the Embrace are content to let their frontman do the legwork whilst everyone else keeps largely still, but such is the titanic torrent of riffage on offer that the energy level is sky-high. It must be said that there probably aren't that many devotees of this particular brand of extreme metal in Yarmouth- but it's also fair to say that most of them are here on Rosie's dancefloor. Dispelling once and for all the notion that hard-core metal fans explode in a puff of sulfur when exposed to nightclubs, they mosh vigorously, though once again the effort is too much for some to sustain for the whole gig, and the mid rows of the pit-ette soon start working a rota system. Tonight, though, Skeletal Embrace are more than just good- they're contagious. People crossing the floor to the bar find themselves suddenly nodding along, or walking with a rhythm and purpose not entirely their own. Others jump onto the floor for a quick faux-mosh and suddenly find themselves doing the real thing. Yes, the bony fingers of the Embrace are reaching out tonight, all right. Mustering shouts, claps, gestures and roars from the crowd, Skeletal Embrace are clearly in charge as they storm through set-closer 'Crown of Pallid Shadows'. The potentially tricky maneuver of re-arranging the stage positions of the band for this finale passes off without a hitch, and when things finally crash to a tight stop Rosie's, the Hollywood Cinema and just about everything else in reach have been well-and-truly rocked. Nightclub, small stage, outrageously heavy metal band. It shouldn't work, but it does.

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