Garden Of Bedlam/Skeyes Of Seven Concert Review!!

For our second post of the day, it's time for our last concert review of April, and with The Rockstar Bar Battle of the Bands concluded, it's nice to be back in a spectator capacity again for a full concert review! Of course, last night was the Garden of Bedlam/Skeyes of Seven return gig there, which is the sole content of this post, but check out a bunch of major upcoming concert updates & announcements, plus the identity of our next CD review, in the post below this one! Now, what went down yesterday? The review lies below!

Opening last night's show was local hard rock quintet Skeyes of Seven in their Rockstar Bar debut, and their first show since launching at last July's Anvil concert! Their set included most of the songs from their first gig, along with a bunch of newly unveiled tracks, including covers of Slipknot, Stone Sour, Breaking Benjamin, and Tool songs, the previously unveiled original "Destinations Unknown", 4 brand new originals, and in a surprise addition, a cover of Sense of Truth's "Crawling" (as 2/5ths of Skeyes of Seven were in S.O.T.) Aside from the obviously longer set, Skeyes of Seven sounded & looked much better and tighter, and if there was rust from their 9 month layoff, it was hard to detect! Cory Murchison's vocals were hard edged and melodic, the riffs were on point, and they had good energy! Also, I like that they didn't cover last year's Avenged Sevenfold covers, as I found they didn't fit their style well.

The only main problems I had were that Jonny Amendola's drumming was often muffled (especially on some of the covers), and I'd like to see Alain Fletcher throw some more guitar solos into the originals, especially on ones that used the 8 string guitar. Overall though, Skeyes of Seven had a great first set back, and here's hoping they come back with even more at more shows in 2013!

Headlining last night was prominent local metal quartet Garden of Bedlam in their first show in 6 months and despite their own recent layoff, they were on fire as well! Though their set was abbreviated due to sharing the bill, fans ate up their 14 song selection, which included 7 songs from "Everything Will Die", a couple from their debut EP, and 5 covers, including Metallica, Pantera, Tool, and Volbeat renditions! No new originals, sadly, but no one seemed to mind either, and the good will was quite visible for their return! Musically, Garden of Bedlam were as strong as ever, despite an early guitar issue, and the guys all shown their talents nicely, especially with how well Buzz's vocals hold up (but  he wasn't as clearly audible on heavier songs.) Josh & Evan Belleau were as good as ever on guitar & bass, and Derek Turner's drums blasted through the music as you'd expect! Gotta love the crowd sing-along for "Ænema" too, that's always an awesome moment!

Overall, this was an awesome concert, and a nice cap to a busy month of metal and hard rock shows at The Algonquin Hotel's two bars! Hopefully we'll see Garden of Bedlam back later this year with more big shows, but for now, click here to see our photos from last night, or visit our Facebook page! And yes, I did get a couple of videos, so here's Skeyes of Seven playing their new original "No One Cares", and Garden of Bedlam covering their second of two Metallica classics, "Of Wolf & Man"!





That's all for today, but stay tuned TOMORROW for a new concert featuring a notable metal band return, new videos of Woods of Ypres at the Juno Awards, and more! Thanks everyone!