Downcast
5 September 2004
The Borderline, London
I can`t believe I made this gig after the excesses of Bloodstock over the preceding days. However, there I was propped in the corner by Johan to review the gig.
The origins of Downcast hark back to early 2000 in São Paulo, Brazil. After two demos and an EP, in November 2002 vocalist Iam Peruzzo, guitarist Alan Banis, bassist Julio Baptista and drummer Màrio Conte made the brave decision to rebase in London. Tonight saw the return of the band to the live stage with their first British gig.
Although the flag draped over Baptista`s amp pays tribute to their Brazilian origins, the new Downcast line-up is now more multinational. On keyboards and samples is English born Neil Hester, whilst Finnish guitarist Pekka Saarinen has himself only been a resident of this country for 6 months.
Kicking off with Regrets, a Brazilian influence is immediately apparent in the down tuned guitars, rhythmic drumming and stomach wrenchingly low bass. This is verified later when the band cheekily commence their own song Social Disorder with the intro to Sepultura`s Slave New World. Cleverly this did the trick of tempting one fan down to headbang, though it was bizarre to see him vying for space with seven photographers stage front, indicating the level of interest in tonight`s performance.
Where Downcast differ from the likes of Sepultura is in the complexity of the songs, which ideally I`d like to have had chance to digest before tonight`s performance. Yes the songs contain some brutally heavy riffing but they don`t always follow the traditional verse chorus approach.
In Iam Peruzzo they possess a greatly versatile vocalist whose schizophrenic style can change from growl to scream to clean in the space of one line of a song. Peruzzo seemed very humble to be where he was today and uses a slight technical problem with Conte`s drums to thank those that have helped them to date.
Closing song Chaospiracy gives Saarinen a chance for some impressive guitar shredding, book ending the song. These were the only guitar solos of the night and on the evidence provided it would seem Saarinen`s skills should be exploited by the band.
This was of course the first gig by this line up and it would be wrong to say that there weren`t any nerves evident tonight, but their confidence should increase over further gigs. Certainly one`s to watch.
Downcast set list:
Regrets / Invisible Cage / Still So Angry / Slave New World (Intro) / Social Disorder / No Head Invader / Chaospiracy
Downcast
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