ASIWYFA @ Barfly
TheSprout was well impressed with And So I Watch You From Afar in their support slot with Clutch in TJ's a few months back.
So much so that we bought their debut album and kept our ear to the ground for any further rumblings from them around our way.
It was with great excitement, then, that we saw a date here in Cardiff's Barfly appear among the long list currently taking up a good length of their MySpace page.
As one of the better among the new wave of doom / stoner / apocalyptically heavy instrumental bands currently on the circuit, ASIWYFA are also good ol' Northern Irish boys with personality and unabashed stage presence, rather than demonic, puff-chested miserable gurners more interested in being rooted to the spot and trying to look like Satan's bass player.
A bang for one's buck saw three support acts, the first of which we'd especially wanted to see, namely Black Cesar. Unfortunately our leisurely pre-gig pint and burger over at the Rummer came back to bite us on the arse when we rocked up to find they'd finished their set by 8pm.
Next up were Caerphilly four-piece, Circa Regna Tonat (***), who offer a refreshingly melodic take on the genre with their eight-minute, vocal-free journeys. Rising guitars and soaring harmonies make for an uplifting set, and we make a point to catch them again soon at a headline gig of their own.
South London / Reading new outfit Chapters (***) are slightly misplaced as the only vocal outfit on the line-up, but considering this is one of their first gigs they show promise as a technical, balls-out metal band with a seriously angry frontman.
ASIWYFA (****) already feel like they've been around for ages. Even frontman Rory Friers introduces first album opener Set Guitars To Kill as "an oldie." But there's a reassuring plethora of new material tonight, from, we're told, their next EP which is scheduled for January and "features letters from the alphabet, so this is S For Salamander."
Most of the tracks on their self-titled debut album get pushed through Barfly's new PA system (part of the refurb which also saw the stage lifted and brought forward, and new flooring throughout) including If It Ain't Broke, Break It and the melancholic I Capture Castles, which all makes for a well-rounded, forward-thinking set.
It won't be long until ASIWYFA pass this way again. We recommend you don your best doom face and get front and centre.
