There’s competition out there tonight. Over in Hitchin there’s “Extremity” featuring Must Kill and others. Elsewhere Enslaved, Swallow the Sun and Nordic Giants are scheduled to put in appearances according to the listings (most cancelled sadly Ed), and Grimsby would have been playing at Southend tonight but I decided to stay local and go and watch these four “up and coming” bands. What they’re coming up I don’t know but I have seen two of these bands previously, and they both fire my imagination and get my juices flowing, as I was sure the other two were going to do too. So much to look forward to. The Cambridge Junction is an iconic venue, but not really for metal music so in spite of living less than 2 miles from it, I’d never been here before. Not having to use unreliable and smelly old public transport in order to spend three or four hours in a sweaty room was a welcome bonus, I have to say. And the biggest competition of all was Storm Eunice, which was raging outside, so credit to the bands and organisers for overcoming the challenges of that one to make this event happen.

Being terminally boring I suppose, I always tell my Malaysian friend Leon about British grey weather, and he listens in wonderment, or at least diplomatically pretends to do so. We do discuss the impact on weather and landscape on music, which is possibly more interesting. The first band on takes on this moniker. This is The Grey. Do they live up to their name? Well, they certainly peddle darkness. The stage was misty. This trio of instrumentalists launched into a deep, sludgy post metal vibe. The patient build up was hypnotic and heavy, punctuated by the bassist being prone to violent bodily spasms. This was the music of rumbling rocks, oceans and devastating scenes. There are moments of quiet but it’s always atmospheric and sinister. The smooth and solid drum patter is part of the hypnosis. Isis band type soundscapes emerge from the gloom, while ringing sounds stand above a consistent black backdrop. Above all this is moody. The music that The Grey purvey doesn’t stand still and there’s more colour than the band name would suggest. A dark tone was set but in line with their last song whose message the bassist explained, The Grey reached out to us and maybe there was even some optimism in there.

Darkness of a different kind comes from Akilla. The images that I associated with this band were ones where we are led through forests, scorched earth and tragic grandeur. It wasn’t like that this evening. But it was still big and growly and ferocious. Akilla’s music is probably not for the Cambridge tourist office promotional video. It’s weighty fare and these guys certainly know how to wield an axe. There was an element of harsh battle metal about this. By the third song however I felt that the band had lost their way and it sounded a bit of a mess. For me the day was saved by the fourth song “Winds of Winter”. Now we had a big epic sound and real purpose.

We were indeed transported to frozen, wintry lands. As The Grey had done earlier, Akilla transported us to other places with their harsh, heavy and melodic metal. This is a live show of course, so there is the look: bent knees, combat trousers, hair thrown back and all that kind of thing. “Winds of Winter” took us back to that known epic power and melody which Akilla communicate with great skill and impact. The final song, the single of the band’s new album, the man with the hair told us without telling us the name unless I missed it, had the makings of another epic battle song, but as earlier in the set for me it fell short and fizzled out to provide an uncomfortable and unsatisfactory ending. I was at least pleased that Akilla branched out from the pure epic melodic metal that they are known for, but for the most part this didn’t work for me and I was disappointed. Yet they’re a personable bunch of guys and good musicians and maybe on another day I’d appreciate it more.

There was a planned fifth band tonight, but the band concerned Shoot to Kill couldn’t make it. That was a shame. Hopefully they’ll come round again and we’ll see them next time.

For the third time, I was getting to see Akkadian and their brand of multi-directional groove and theatre. I greatly looked forward to it. They started as ever with a bang. A rumbling bass line, twisty instrumentals and a solid punch served as a substantial foreground to the roaring antics of Danny, he of flowing white shirt and ripped trousers. “I know you, I know your fucking name” he bellowed at us. We were duly warned. There’s no escape from “Prisoners”. We went on to “Second Sight”, a new song. Formation Akkadian lined up with the guitarist and bassist at an oblique angle on the right, and the impassive guitarist to the left supplying his colourful rhythms. Heavy riffage pumped out like a waterfall. For a worrying moment it looked as if Danny was going to strangle himself on his mic cable, not that we would have noticed because we were too busy banging our heads to the thumping rhythm. I’m pleased to report that Danny survived, and was able to continue dance-hopping and doing his aeroplane impressions. The instrumentalists meanwhile continued to create their own storm. Un véritable tremblement de terre. What a great song. Christ, we’re only two songs in and even as a spectator I’m exhausted.

Danny kindly informed us that “Serpentine” was a song about snakes on acid. Now a djenty sound penetrated our souls. On we marched to war but with subtle guitar strains. I didn’t say it was simple. Imitating the eponymous snake, Danny crawled under the drummer’s platform or perhaps this was just normal behaviour on his part. Still, barring a head injury it was safer than jumping on an amp, which wasn’t a possibility here. Health and safety considerations apart, Danny re-emerged and jumped around like a hippy before giving it large. Then off we sailed into psychedelic instrumental dreamland. This was yet another hypnotizing song full of intrigue and power, and a visual feast to boot. To stick to the theme, this was a group of snake charmers at work. Danny had a lie down. Deep and soulful strains exuded from the guitars. It was a little bit sombre. And so as we headed into “Agenda”, Danny growled away, benefiting from the power of having two guitarists. I know I’ve compared the instrumental output to Uneven Structure before, and would echo that observation, but with Akkadian the atmosphere is more multi-coloured. Sheer power came from the quartet of instrumentalists. Meanwhile in all this darkness, people moshed. Others looked on in awe. Some swung their heads. There’s no template. Finally Akkadian played “Depraver”. We were greeted with a familiar rumble of thunder. Rock and roll time. Time to dance. As ever and like the weather outside, Akkadian swept us along like a storm. The guitarist and bass player headbanged in unison. Danny roared and bellowed. We, the audience, were dazzled. All in all, we had lots of thunder, earthquakes, storms, mystery and excitement. Oh, and snakes. I had wondered beforehand if the large stage and room at the Junction would swallow Akkadian up and diminish their infectiousness. It didn’t. The scene was rampant and Akkadian smashed it. I had just witnessed another brilliant display from these masters of musical power and visual art.

Before I came here, I saw a picture of tonight’s headliners Far from Refuge leaping like salmon. I could have concluded that they were gymnasts or circus artists, but all indications were that this was a bunch of young men responding to energetic music. Yes, that’s an old man’s way of saying they give it plenty. Sounding like a dish on Master Chef or what it says on the packet of posh coffee, “Far from Refuge are a metal band with metalcore, melodic death and progressive elements”. That’s the official encyclopaedic version. But in spite of this rather mundane description, I had flagged up that this is an interesting band. Well, so too this was an interesting show. It was unfortunate that the room had emptied after Akkadian’s set, not so much as the time I went to see Raunchy in Sweden and there were only 6 spectators of whom only two of us were interested, but here in the large hall at the Junction there was a big gap in the centre and the atmosphere was flat. It was up to Far from Refuge to fill that gap. Now this is where it became interesting. As I already knew, the band do mix things up well … technical melodies, a modern metal style with emotive clean vocals but not as ends in themselves. Their songs are well constructed. It’s fresh and youthful, but also sophisticated. In the recorded version and to some extent here I am reminded in certain ways of one of my favourite bands Mercenary but with a metalcore edge, and to a point of In Flames.

The songs have a certain simplicity on the outside but are anything but simple. Some of this was in evidence but the delivery was disarming, especially at the start. The rhythm section was holding it together and of all the good drummers playing here tonight, I thought this one was the best with his injection of sophisticated patterns and personal energy. Far from Refuge have a growler and a clean vocalist, but they seemed to get in each in each other’s way at first. In fact everyone got in everyone’s way as the guitarists weren’t getting much of a look-in either, and whilst there was aggression and melody, there was no sustained level of anything. Now I know that “Starseeker” and “Crystal Cove” are great songs, but I’m glad I knew them already because here they seemed to descend into a sea of nothingness, at least until half way through “Crystal Cove” when it burst into life and became the dramatic melodic metal song that it is. The growler decided to join the audience but this didn’t work out because it was a long walk down the steps and round the barriers, thus losing any dramatic effect, and when he got to the audience a while later, he found himself in a big void – good social distancing but hardly interaction with an audience which wasn’t greatly interested anyway. In fact I confess I missed the vocalist walking past me because I was concentrating on the guitarist who was checking his connections on stage. Now this brings me onto the visual side of the band. Great bands can look lopsided, witness Pagan’s Mind, and there was an element of that here, and that doesn’t matter, but what stood out for me was where the rest of the band looked well worn, the guitarist was of a different age and style from the others with his sharp outfit, comprising a black shirt and trousers and a gleaming white jacket. Not only that, this tall youthful looking gentleman was the spitting image of Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley when in his heyday. When he was finally allowed to play, as he did on “Kingdom”, he was able to prove what a great guitarist he was. Indeed from the second half of “The Crystal Cove”, Far from Refuge proved what a good band they are as it all came together. Progressive elements – they use the word “synchronicity” so it must be progressive – combined with Killswitch style elements. Here were inventive, commercially orientated heavy songs with progressive twists. And I love the purity and emotion of the clean vocals, which are not used as an explanatory add-on as some bands do, but are an integral part of it.

Where this had been part of the problem to start with, it now started to hang together. After “Kingdoms” came a bouncy, fun and melodic number. The mobility on stage was always good but now we had some rock and roll, something to spring along too. “Beings” came next and now I realized again why I like this band. Some of the vocals on this one had an element of Depeche Mode, the guitar lines were groovy and this whole thing was driven along by the drummer and these instrumentalists, whose talents were now on display. Far from Refuge raised the bar a further notch with “The Architect”, a melodic, mysterious, progressive, emotive thrash n roll audience pleaser. The crowd however had mostly switched off and largely ignored the pumping headbanging opportunity at the end, which was a pity, because this song was superbly executed and a great showcase of what this band can do. Far From Refuge finished the set with “Circuits” and got it dead right, regaling us with beating, bouncy, feel-good heavy metal to send us on our way. There are so many good things about this band. When they bring it all together, it’s a pleasure to be part of and I look forward to seeing them again.

I saw four bands for five quid and it was a fun evening for all. As I walked back home, treading over fallen trees, I reflected on stormy music, sartorial choices, snakes and the sense of adventure and creativity that all these bands displayed here tonight. Well done, everyone.

Andrew Doherty