03 Ganza
Eternal Struggle
Petrichor
Up until now, the only main reason I ever had to venture down to Rishon LeZion (a city just a little south of Tel Aviv) was for a teaching job I was doing. I haven't had to go back there in quite some months. Tonight, I find myself in a section of the city I've never been to before, on the edge of a cross section next to pretty much nothing else except this skate park/youth centre/music venue called Teder. I have come here to finally support Eternal Struggle and 03 (Efesh Shalosh), as well as finally check out Petrichor and Ganza, who have all come to play in front of a crowd of, what looks like, mostly 15 year olds.
Up until now, the only main reason I ever had to venture down to Rishon LeZion (a city just a little south of Tel Aviv) was for a teaching job I was doing. I haven't had to go back there in quite some months. Tonight, I find myself in a section of the city I've never been to before, on the edge of a cross section next to pretty much nothing else except this skate park/youth centre/music venue called Teder. I have come here to finally support Eternal Struggle and 03 (Efesh Shalosh), as well as finally check out Petrichor and Ganza, who have all come to play in front of a crowd of, what looks like, mostly 15 year olds.
Petrichor
Photo by ANON
I've already checked out a bit of Petrichor beforehand via some of their music videos. From what I gathered, it was basically a kind of metalcore/easycore with clean vocals. Tonight, there is that but also with more of a hint of hard rock simpleness.
I managed to just come in during opener One Of A Kind, which is jumpy and fun enough but a bit weak lyrically. It's fine for the very young crowd that's here tonight but doesn't quite resonate for me. This goes for most of the band's material. The musical style of hard rock meets fairly watered down metalcore mixed together with the lyrics just brings to mind something you might see on a coming-of-age tv show. It borders upon the likes of softer Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu.
There's a hint of metallic riffing here and there, such as at the beginning of Take It Off and final song Hate Me, which generally brought to mind both Alice Cooper's 18 and Nirvana's Rape Me due to its chorus. A circle pit breaks out for Desperate Call, despite it not really being heavy or fast enough to be worthy of a circle pit. But that's just the kind of crowd we have tonight; kids desperate to get their frustrations out. I remember those days...
The band themselves are talented musicians. Frontman, Gal, manages to hold some fairly good notes but it's bassist, Yuval, who is the most impressive. Not only is he solid throughout, but he even manages to slip in some cool bass solos, like on Paranoid (not the Sabbath song). Whether the band will make it in Europe and the States, I'm not entirely sure. The sound and songwriting needs to mature a tad more but in the meantime, I think both the very young and more old school fans of rock and hair metal will dig them.
2.5/5
Photo by ANON
I've already checked out a bit of Petrichor beforehand via some of their music videos. From what I gathered, it was basically a kind of metalcore/easycore with clean vocals. Tonight, there is that but also with more of a hint of hard rock simpleness.
I managed to just come in during opener One Of A Kind, which is jumpy and fun enough but a bit weak lyrically. It's fine for the very young crowd that's here tonight but doesn't quite resonate for me. This goes for most of the band's material. The musical style of hard rock meets fairly watered down metalcore mixed together with the lyrics just brings to mind something you might see on a coming-of-age tv show. It borders upon the likes of softer Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu.
There's a hint of metallic riffing here and there, such as at the beginning of Take It Off and final song Hate Me, which generally brought to mind both Alice Cooper's 18 and Nirvana's Rape Me due to its chorus. A circle pit breaks out for Desperate Call, despite it not really being heavy or fast enough to be worthy of a circle pit. But that's just the kind of crowd we have tonight; kids desperate to get their frustrations out. I remember those days...
The band themselves are talented musicians. Frontman, Gal, manages to hold some fairly good notes but it's bassist, Yuval, who is the most impressive. Not only is he solid throughout, but he even manages to slip in some cool bass solos, like on Paranoid (not the Sabbath song). Whether the band will make it in Europe and the States, I'm not entirely sure. The sound and songwriting needs to mature a tad more but in the meantime, I think both the very young and more old school fans of rock and hair metal will dig them.
2.5/5
Eternal Struggle
I have only managed to see Eternal Struggle once before. Technically twice, but I don't really count their awful sounding support slot for Biohazard. They may have had some of the same material and band members, but i just don't remember even sounding near as good as they do now.
Eternal Struggle basically play the sort of hardcore I grew up on. Very NY influenced groove hardcore, with some beatdown parts and gang vocals. Although there's a few bands out here that fall under the hardcore banner, Eternal Struggle currently fill the space that was previous left empty since maybe Instinct or You're Next!
Although things did get a bit feistier during the song Lost, which more people are probably familiar due to the video, I feel that this kind of hardcore was lost on these more metal orientated youths. That said, I wasn't totally alone on the spin kicking and arm flailing front; I did spot a few others. I don't mean to say that you need to do all the kung fu in order to enjoy hardcore, but there was a fair bit of standing about and unsureness of what to do in the slower parts.
Although the band's own material, such as Lost, Pride Kills and Repeat Nothing, hold up well on their own, it was nice to hear a Sick Of It All cover. Maybe not my favourite SOIA song, but Take The Night Off is more of one of their modern classics. They actually played this the very first time I saw them but it was almost unrecognisable for the most part. This time, however, it was a spot on. With a mixture of two step and bouncing parts, it did get some people moving, but judging by the fact that really only I and the 03 guys cheered when the band said Sick Of It All, it's safe to say that the crowd here were not all that familiar with the band or the song.
When Eternal Struggle's album finally drops, I am hoping that it's interesting and fresh enough to get them some interest at least over in mainland Europe if not also the UK and USA. Those markets are hard to crack but it's not impossible.
4.5/5
I have only managed to see Eternal Struggle once before. Technically twice, but I don't really count their awful sounding support slot for Biohazard. They may have had some of the same material and band members, but i just don't remember even sounding near as good as they do now.
Eternal Struggle basically play the sort of hardcore I grew up on. Very NY influenced groove hardcore, with some beatdown parts and gang vocals. Although there's a few bands out here that fall under the hardcore banner, Eternal Struggle currently fill the space that was previous left empty since maybe Instinct or You're Next!
Although things did get a bit feistier during the song Lost, which more people are probably familiar due to the video, I feel that this kind of hardcore was lost on these more metal orientated youths. That said, I wasn't totally alone on the spin kicking and arm flailing front; I did spot a few others. I don't mean to say that you need to do all the kung fu in order to enjoy hardcore, but there was a fair bit of standing about and unsureness of what to do in the slower parts.Although the band's own material, such as Lost, Pride Kills and Repeat Nothing, hold up well on their own, it was nice to hear a Sick Of It All cover. Maybe not my favourite SOIA song, but Take The Night Off is more of one of their modern classics. They actually played this the very first time I saw them but it was almost unrecognisable for the most part. This time, however, it was a spot on. With a mixture of two step and bouncing parts, it did get some people moving, but judging by the fact that really only I and the 03 guys cheered when the band said Sick Of It All, it's safe to say that the crowd here were not all that familiar with the band or the song.
When Eternal Struggle's album finally drops, I am hoping that it's interesting and fresh enough to get them some interest at least over in mainland Europe if not also the UK and USA. Those markets are hard to crack but it's not impossible.
4.5/5
Ganza
Like Petrichor, Ganza is another band I was only partially familiar with beforehand. From what I could tell from the first few listens, is that it seems to be a more classic hard rock band compared to many of the other Israeli bands around at the moment. In actual fact, Ganza's live shows portray them as a band that hasn't quite discovered its own identity.
From the outset, the band have a stage presence of a classic rock band who would have fit perfectly in clubs along Sunset Strip during the 80s with the likes of Motley Crue and Poison. As the band play on, the material is a bit of a mixture of genres, touching upon hard rock, grunge and metal. To be honest, I spent most of the set wondering if they were a covers band. As well as covering Alice In Chains' Would? in memory of Layne Staley and Pantera's A New Level...just because, I guess..., the rest of their repertoire sounds familiar and brings to mind other songs. The song Junkie has an Immigrant Song style riff and generally has a bit of a Living Colour feel about and All The Love has a riff which I was so sure I had heard before but I could not put my finger on it.
When now Canine vocalist and temporary ex-Ganza vocalist Ben (Saada) joins the band on stage, everything takes a bit of an over theatrical turn. Deciding that he's now American and speaking to the crowd mostly in English, Saada manages to get the crowds attention before singing along in a pretty Axl Rose style manner. Again, there isn't much originality to the track. As great as the vocals and musicianship are, everything still has a sense of "college band" about it. Frontman, Ari, acts like he's been in the business for decades. Having that sort of strong attitude can be considered both a good thing and a bad thing. Every performer should have confidence and bring a mindset of "this is going to be our biggest show ever" to a performance. That said, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and that line is often blurred during tonight's performance. The rest of the band seem to be pretty modest, but it could just be that he has such a strong stage presence that it was hard to really notice anyone else.
Ganza may have some songs that can get a certain crowd singing along and interested, but in the general scheme of the type of bands that exist in this generation, Ganza don't quite seem to stand out or bring anything incredibly new to the table. Obviously, finding a unique sound is an incredibly difficult thing to do but it could just take some time and harder work to get the right ingredients.
2/5
From the outset, the band have a stage presence of a classic rock band who would have fit perfectly in clubs along Sunset Strip during the 80s with the likes of Motley Crue and Poison. As the band play on, the material is a bit of a mixture of genres, touching upon hard rock, grunge and metal. To be honest, I spent most of the set wondering if they were a covers band. As well as covering Alice In Chains' Would? in memory of Layne Staley and Pantera's A New Level...just because, I guess..., the rest of their repertoire sounds familiar and brings to mind other songs. The song Junkie has an Immigrant Song style riff and generally has a bit of a Living Colour feel about and All The Love has a riff which I was so sure I had heard before but I could not put my finger on it.
When now Canine vocalist and temporary ex-Ganza vocalist Ben (Saada) joins the band on stage, everything takes a bit of an over theatrical turn. Deciding that he's now American and speaking to the crowd mostly in English, Saada manages to get the crowds attention before singing along in a pretty Axl Rose style manner. Again, there isn't much originality to the track. As great as the vocals and musicianship are, everything still has a sense of "college band" about it. Frontman, Ari, acts like he's been in the business for decades. Having that sort of strong attitude can be considered both a good thing and a bad thing. Every performer should have confidence and bring a mindset of "this is going to be our biggest show ever" to a performance. That said, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and that line is often blurred during tonight's performance. The rest of the band seem to be pretty modest, but it could just be that he has such a strong stage presence that it was hard to really notice anyone else.
Ganza may have some songs that can get a certain crowd singing along and interested, but in the general scheme of the type of bands that exist in this generation, Ganza don't quite seem to stand out or bring anything incredibly new to the table. Obviously, finding a unique sound is an incredibly difficult thing to do but it could just take some time and harder work to get the right ingredients.
03 (Efes Shalosh)
Alongside Eternal Struggle, 03 are a new favourite of mine in the Israeli scene. Where I once thought of them as hardcore metal by numbers, their grooves and heavy riffs have taken a hold of me over time. Seeing as I did not make notes for them during the set, it's hard for me to recall their songs. However, the likes of No Racism and Something To Talk About, the band's currently only available track, gets people going.
They are great to watch. Guitarists Lemmy and Oren and bassist Misha spin and jump around while playing as vocalist Jenia runs about constantly as his harsh Born From Pain-like vocals jump out from the speakers. There is the odd metallic cliche, such as fist pumping and encouraging circle pits with the international finger twirling symbol, which don't settle with me too well but it seems to do the trick for the metalheads here tonight.
Being the end of the night, there is not as many people here as there was for the other bands. Those who are there include more of the band's closer friends, and the others are still the younger crowd who might not be used to his kind of hardcore. That said, their Hatebreed-like sound may have got them some new fans.
I'm still eagerly awaiting 03's album to come out already. Not saying that their songs sound the same, but it would make it easier to hear the distinction between them on record than in a live setting. Especially as tonight's sound wasn't all that clear.
4/5
Photos come courtesy of Miguel St Labao, Sharon Shapira and one anonymous photographer.
Alongside Eternal Struggle, 03 are a new favourite of mine in the Israeli scene. Where I once thought of them as hardcore metal by numbers, their grooves and heavy riffs have taken a hold of me over time. Seeing as I did not make notes for them during the set, it's hard for me to recall their songs. However, the likes of No Racism and Something To Talk About, the band's currently only available track, gets people going.
They are great to watch. Guitarists Lemmy and Oren and bassist Misha spin and jump around while playing as vocalist Jenia runs about constantly as his harsh Born From Pain-like vocals jump out from the speakers. There is the odd metallic cliche, such as fist pumping and encouraging circle pits with the international finger twirling symbol, which don't settle with me too well but it seems to do the trick for the metalheads here tonight.
Being the end of the night, there is not as many people here as there was for the other bands. Those who are there include more of the band's closer friends, and the others are still the younger crowd who might not be used to his kind of hardcore. That said, their Hatebreed-like sound may have got them some new fans.
I'm still eagerly awaiting 03's album to come out already. Not saying that their songs sound the same, but it would make it easier to hear the distinction between them on record than in a live setting. Especially as tonight's sound wasn't all that clear.
4/5
Photos come courtesy of Miguel St Labao, Sharon Shapira and one anonymous photographer.
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