Live review from Underground Heavy #9:
Setlist:
1. The Mask of Insanity
2. The Journey
3. 155
4. Drunk-Ass Anthem
The first Heavy show of the second part of the year featured a line-up of bands all of which were debutantes on our stage. The first of these was Follow My Voice, who had the classic lineup for heavy music – two guitars, and (in very hardcore punk fashion) a female bassist. And we found out in short order that they also had a singer who could both sing (well) and scream (also well). This wasn’t before, however, we had around two minutes of levels checks, there having been no soundcheck that night, and some problems arose. Understandable as they were, it was a tad unsettling as a way to start the show. Still, starting troubles, aside, the band moved into their set with aplomb. They have a sound that is quite typical of heavier bands from the Noughties; they scream and sing well and the guitars are fast, shreddy, yet smooth in contour. There are very anthemic-sounding, soaring guitars at times, interspersed with shorter, more headbangy bits, and the melodic nature of the tunes was constant. Pretty standard, but solid, stuff so far. 155 sounded like mid-era lostprophets, and there were shades of MCR from their second album throughout, with the Ray-Toro like guitars. They did have two points of difference from most such bands, however (or did that night at any rate). Their drummer quite often sounds like he’s from a classic rock band; the top heavy, thunk-thunk feeling of bands like Deep Purple was quite interesting to hear, set against the more polished, razor-sounding guitars, especially on The Mask of Insanity. Secondly, the band members did dance on stage, but in a very choreographed manner; the synchronized headbanging and pogoing was very Van Halen-esque, and not something one sees often. They do crossover to sounding like pop-metal quite often, especially during the non-screamy bits, and the music does get pushed aside sometimes in favour of the vocal acrobatics, during 155 in particular. However, this can be worked on with better composition, and they were quite entertaining, so a good job overall.
— Shashwati Kala
