VOLA playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Opening up tonight were Nevada three-piece Four Stroke Baron, a band who are difficult to classify. Heavy slabs of groove-laden prog smash funkily across a packed audience. The set is marred only by the fact that in a couple of songs the singer notably loses his voice and the band without missing a beat goes on to deliver their first instrumental set from the dark smoke-laden stage of Rebellion and its notoriously bad lighting. Handling an awkward situation very well indeed they still delivered a solid and enjoyable set that had the audience’s heads bobbing along in time.
4 Stroke Baron playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Following along were Voyager from Australia, a band seemingly incapable of standing still, which suits their enthusiastic brand of prog-metal. It comes as no surprise when listening to their wonderfully catchy sound that the band was close to representing Australia in the Eurovision song contest. As singer Danny Estrin states the crowd wanted them, but the judges said no almost without a hint of bitterness.
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Voyager playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
This was a charismatic performance, with catchy guitars and plenty of hooks and commercial sensibilities, but enough metal infused to satisfy all but the die-hards. They suffered less from the bad lighting as they had bought their own stage lights, but still, after having watched their live shows on YouTube elsewhere, their visual show was quite notably hampered. Still they put on a great set and were met with protracted chanting and applause after the set. They went down very well indeed.
VOLA playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
VOLA playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
VOLA playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price
Headliners VOLA from Denmark take to the stage in front of the uncomfortably rammed venue. The most notable thing is that Asger Mygind’s voice is unreal, it sounds great on record, but live, it’s even better. The set is a remarkable, and incredibly tight performance, slowly getting heavier as they go along. They had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand, singing along to the choruses. Despite the visual aspect suffering with Rebellion’s poor lighting, halfway through the set and in combination with the band’s own lighting rig started working together and it was spectacular. Finishing on a wonderful version of straight lines, which absolutely brought the house down, before returning quick time, for a two-song encore.
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY RICH PRICE