[avatar =”Gary” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Here we are in one of Edinburgh’s best wee venues to catch up with Absolva. After catching Chris & Luke Appleton previously with Fury UK (ing Saxon) and last year as Blaze Baileys band I was looking forward to catching Absolva live. First up was local band Tergazzi who I have seen several times now and they are always a great live band.
Starting off with “One More Breath”, the trio of Andy on guitar, Dawn on bass & Steve on drums never fail to deliver a set of original classic hard rock/metal. Very much in the NWOBHM style complete with Andy’s great guitar playing on his Gibson flying V, they always goes down with the Bannerman’s crowd and tonight is no exception. Stand out track for myself is “Going Down” and all too soon their set is over.
The headliners hit the stage running so to speak with “Empires” from the Flames of Justice album – a cracking fast paced track to get things going and they did not slow down. This was followed by “Victimiser” from the harder edged Anthems of the Dead album from last year.
The band back on stage with Luke Appleton (Fury UK/Iced Earth) on guitar as opposed to bass along with brother Chris Appleton pounding away on his Gibson SG, the steady pace of Karl Schamm on bass with the beast Martin McNee on drums kept the pace going well. The band were obviously enjoying themselves as were the vocal crowd.
A pleasant surprise was a full on version of “No Tomorrow” from Chris Appletons solo Acoustic album Restless. If you have not heard the album then it is a fully recommended listen with Chris in fine form on it. The set list was a fine selection from Flames of Justice and last year’s Anthems of the Dead. Also in the setlist was a welcome Fury UK number “Call from Grace” from A Way of Life and a stunning cover of Iron Maiden classic “Fear of the Dark” with a great crowd singalong.
New track “No one Escapes” from the forthcoming new album made an appearance, which bodes very well for the album and went down well with this reviewer and with the crowd. All too soon the gig was over with the band off stage at the merch stand for gs and a good chat with fans. Everyone left off with smiles all round due to a great gig from a great band who put on one hell of a gig. Catch them on this tour, you will not be disappointed!!!
