FAINT YOUNG SUN - WICKFORD - POST HARDCORE / POWER POP

Wickford crew Faint Young Sun brought the armored sounds of Post-Hardcore / Soft Rock with the sauces of breakdown HP, funk-out Ketchup and Heinz 666. This is their first time they played their as of yet untitled song, with the fruitiest of breakdowns bearing a apple and cream of the crop, in tandem with a rotten pear in relation to a steamed out drummer. None the less they brought their 'A' game with them, whipping in a formidable ballistic missile of unprecedented audible sound-waves, echoing their name in their own sound of which is incomparable to other bands. Wild Wickford wizardry whips whirlwinds of wondrous wreckage around to calm the anti-carnage which seems to have stalled the crowd, but for Faint Young Sun, they may as well have won the hearts over on this one.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

FREE A.M. - ASHINGDON - PUNK ROCK

Sounding like a estranged mix of acute pop / post-punk rock this band have a screechy vocalist, but with that sounds the sensational audio noise of punk being booted out from the speakers. This is the sort of band that ups the ante from recording to live performances, whilst the guitar strumming is synchronous and the solo was insanely mental, this band brought in a party / funk feel and raised the poker stakes in that heat of the Rayleigh Battle of the Bands, musically they are similar to that of Sum 41 and Madina Lake. Free A.M. are a band bringing back the old traditional foundations of Punk Rock found in The Who, Sex Pistols and The Clash. Free A.M. however made their own sound and something new, just old roots are used as a foundation for this.

[7] RHYS STEVENSON

IT KILLED HARPER - SOUTHEND - PUNK ROCK / METAL

This quartet unleash a torrential downpour of rock infused hardcore or so it would seem as their genre seems to be somewhat undetectable in it's easiest form, however the music itself is a semi-whitewash, coming from a progressive influence by embedding it on a watered down version of hardcore. Creating eccentric solo's, outrageous riffs and a hellbender humdinger of a matrix-cocktail from which involves mixing both rock and metal into the musical cookery pot and brewing something sensationally non-comprehensive in it's penultimate stage. It Killed Harper burdened a decent stage presence, but sadly they were the least promising of the night. There is a long way for these chaps to go before they can think of making something sound-breaking or record breaking. They brim with potential but lacked on the harnessing of the power and enthusiasm they tried giving.

[6] RHYS STEVENSON

ALL FOR YOU - WICKFORD - POP PUNK / HARDCORE

Armed with a female vocalist, bringing more than a Pop Rock sound to the stage All For You delivers a sound that sounds far better than Paramore meeting Rolo Tomassi and The Pretty Reckless in one hit. The vocalist's vocals are left unchallenged, being one of unique sound and different to modern female-fronted bands. All For You is one of those bands that should easily be on Kerrang Radio and in Kerrang Magazine under the 'soft rock' tag, however they caused a rapture of which unleashed a chasm of interlinking musical craftsmanship with the underbelly of a meshed collection of Pop Rock, Riot Grrl and utmost intellect. Whilst the dress style clearly reflects a Post-Punk image, the music does the talking, ripping up a parallel streak of notes to awaken any nearby graveyards, so whilst the dead lay waiting  to be awaken (no pun on the Swindon Metal band) by a band with enough explosive sound to challenge the British Army, the living are always awake, but in this case stand emotionally attached to this band's music. Definitely a band to watch out for, one of the more promising bands from the Essex music scene and definitely Kerrang material for sure, what with having the guts to do a cover of Jessie J's 'do it like a dude', this made JJ look like a poseur in music.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

SOME WERE SATELLITES - ESSEX - ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Climaxing on the vibes of Post-Punk / Hardcore is The Satellites, a quintet with more stomach-churning power than the Saw 'goreology'. But that's a little bit of a non-intellectual statement, in mere sincerity this band have a sack of balls more than ball sacks (no rude pun intended, unless you think that way), sounding similar to Enter Shikari munus the trance music, this quintet finalises a night full of ups, downs and the wide array of genres that have been exerted this night - even if the crowd resembled a home match of a local non-league football match. Even if they had a bout of trouble with the drums and a pun-after-pun sexual-related verbatim, this is a band with MTV stamped on their backside and a record label deal possibly in sight, mixing the best of soft popcore with hard hardcore. The Satellites are a  promising upcoming band that could grab Kerrang's attention, all that's left to say is watch this band closely.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

REMEMBER DECEMBER - CANVEY ISLAND - ALTERNATIVE / POP ROCK

With essentially melodic female vocals in the vein of Paramore at the frontlne, Remember December drags the best of Pop Rock into the Essex atmosphere, aligning a feeling of riot grrl in the repertoire they single out an illusive atmospheric backdrop of Punk Rock influences, the sort of music that's pretty much in your face. So if you like Paramore / Sex Pistols in their darkest respective forms, Remember December is for you. Almost nearly a heavier and punk-laden Madina Lake, without any emo infringement. In an overall nutshell Remember December excavated the hidden dimensions immersed within the unchallenged combination of riot grrl, Pop Punk and the infamous Essex brutality. Whilst this is clearly not Metal, Remember December clearly has the attitude of Punk and Metal but retain themselves from hitting Hardcore Punk status - more so this is a good reason on the basis the music they play would not click onto the Hardcore genre. Genre tagging these guys and girl is a tricky one but in Metal terms, they reside within Alternative Metal and in it's driest form - Heavy Metal. For the benefit of the doubt they are not your My Chemical Romance either, but drag influences in from the latter - precisely the latest MCR album - exactly the 'na na na na na na na' song. It would seem Hayley Williams has an Essex rival - in musical quality simply as she brings much more than her soft vocals to the stage, she brings a bag full of explosive vocals. None Miss Williams could ever muster. Even having the brilliance to whip in a Pink cover song - 'lets get this party started' and so for Remember December, this is the future of Pop Punk Rock.

[10] RHYS STEVENSON

CURBSIDE HOTEL - SOUTHEND-ON-SEA - ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Bringing a slaughter of Pop Rock / Blues infused Pop Punk, or just rock? Rhetorical question. This band delivers a sumptuous cataclysmic algorithm of Melodic vocals, pop tinged vocals and progressive drumming, even diving into a soft rock sound dominated by the depths of the bass on 'my faith' - one would also convert this tune into soul without losing any rock power or momentum, this quartet know how to unleash a torrent of ever-changing genre sounds, a ballistic onslaught of female-fronted pop rock. The sort of music BBC Radio 1 should whack up on their broadcasting and dislodge the mainstream infectious diseased crap we have to suffer with. Rock and Metal is the way forward and with bands like Curbside Hotel, that could easily be the case in years to come. One thing is for sure that this band definitely knows how to unleash a different wave of noise - likeable noise at that - with every different song, catering for nearly all tastes, nearly because it is impossible to see Black Metal fans moshing to this, unless they go camp, but this music isn't camp, not on the life of Freddie Mercury is it, they're lean, they're mean, they're in their teens.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

BOY CRIES WOLF - LEIGH-ON-SEA - FOLK ROCK / POWER-POP

Kicking into overdrive and emerging into a bizarre mix of Celtic style rock, evident with the drumming, flute and violin, this septet brings a clear Folk Rock stabber to the stage, forget the Guinness and Irish cos-playing, for this band take Celtic Rock to the absolute peak of leprechaun mountain, fat geography. Inevitably this band has made the audience go bloody wild,Pop Rock immersed by the traditional Irish Celtic music, it would be a surprise if this lot aren't picked up by Kerrang. The boundaries are broken with this band, cursing Celtic Rock with powerful Pop Rock and absolute funk galore. Party music none the less, that is one way to describe it but at the same time this is proper old school rock, possibly in the vain of Oasis or Feeder. But one thing for certain, is this septet is bringing the rock roots to their former glory. The embodiment of this band is so unique, a flautist / violinist, a keyboardist, a drummer, a vocalist, a bassist and two guitarists, one can only imagine them at V Festival.

[9] RHYS STEVENSON

CIRCLE THE ATLANTIC - SOUTHEND - HARD / ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Hardcore or Post-Hardcore, the genre is the question, the answer is something of a dispute. But for this quintet, a fair succinct sound devours the atmosphere, sadly even the crowd who just split in two. Maybe they blew them away, or maybe blew up the speakers, however the band seems to have a good beat to set as an example to other similar bands. Balls of fury and bags of sweat incur on this very period of un-heavenly composition array. A brutal tantalizing array of fruitful beats, vicious vocals and bone-breaking riffs, this is the sick shit storm we were waiting for, pardon my French. A slick blast of intellectual heavy music and funky intuition, fists raised, heads bobbing, a truly brutal band.

[8] RHYS STEVENSON

FALLEN ARCHES - WICKFORD - POST-HARDCORE

Bombarding the room with a blitz of maniacal hardcore is this sextet, sifting a sieve full of brain-shattering blast-beats, spine-raping riffs and venomous vocals. Fallen Arches break all sound barriers in the most violent of ways, in theatrical stage form not The Who (er-hem). But enough to crush craniums with the flick of the amp switch, even if they deviate from heavy to soft, the atmosphere is totally nucleated with audio atomic explosions and extreme hardcore / deathcore (or metalcore) - but definitely a band to watch out for, not bad for a small town like Wickford to be fair.

[8.5] RHYS STEVENSON

WINNER: BOY CRIES WOLF