'Insurgent' are the the newest metal band on the scene. With Mike Tabone on drums, Jake Brettle on bass, Joe Rowley on guitar and Katie Teitge, the neon queen, front and centre with the vocal, these guys are soon bound to up the game for Birmingham's music scene.
(Amy Demidow Photography - https://www.facebook.com/demidowphotography/?tn-str=k*F)
Last weekend (12th May) 'Insurgent' made their debut at The Victoria in Birmingham and they absolutely smashed it, The amount of friends and fans who attended the gig was pretty impressive and the band seemed a little overwhelmed by the support of the crowd, "Playing our first show as a band was an absolutely incredible experience. We were completely blown away by the amount of support we received".
Their first song 'My Sentence Awaits' featured intense reverb on her vocals giving me a 2000's metal vibe which carried on throughout their set, straight away I was in love with the music. The next two songs, 'Counterpoint' and 'Colours Bleed' further added this 2000's metal sound with big, complex riffs played with guitar tones crafted perfectly to blend with the vocal. The vocal is the stand out feature of 'Insurgent', you can tell that Tietge has some serious vocal training behind her and the powerful, near operatic style of singing compares to that of Howard Jones from 'Killswitch engage' or Myles Kennedy of 'Alter Bridge'. Joe Rowley told me, "Our influences are largely drawn from modern heavy metal, bands like Alter Bridge have personally influenced my desire to maintain a powerful/catchy melody but we are all also into the really heavy stuff, bands like gojira and periphery have made us want to look at using some different time signatures tastefully to increase the level of intrigue in certain song parts. Katie has been heavily involved with musical theatre so that will inevitably have influenced her vocal delivery.". Clearly their influences come across well in their music!
I spoke to Katie after the show and she raved about her role model Becca MacIntyre the vocalist from 'Marmozets' and after having a listen you can hear the resemblance between the two's voices, it's uncanny. But even with such a strong singing voice she says she wasn't always as confident in the blending of her vocal and heavier music as I am now, "I was warned I'd make the whole band sound like kids bop because I'd never sang metal before the band but I was so stoked to hear that that wasn't the case!".
Their first song 'My Sentence Awaits' featured intense reverb on her vocals giving me a 2000's metal vibe which carried on throughout their set, straight away I was in love with the music. The next two songs, 'Counterpoint' and 'Colours Bleed' further added this 2000's metal sound with big, complex riffs played with guitar tones crafted perfectly to blend with the vocal. The vocal is the stand out feature of 'Insurgent', you can tell that Tietge has some serious vocal training behind her and the powerful, near operatic style of singing compares to that of Howard Jones from 'Killswitch engage' or Myles Kennedy of 'Alter Bridge'. Joe Rowley told me, "Our influences are largely drawn from modern heavy metal, bands like Alter Bridge have personally influenced my desire to maintain a powerful/catchy melody but we are all also into the really heavy stuff, bands like gojira and periphery have made us want to look at using some different time signatures tastefully to increase the level of intrigue in certain song parts. Katie has been heavily involved with musical theatre so that will inevitably have influenced her vocal delivery.". Clearly their influences come across well in their music!
I spoke to Katie after the show and she raved about her role model Becca MacIntyre the vocalist from 'Marmozets' and after having a listen you can hear the resemblance between the two's voices, it's uncanny. But even with such a strong singing voice she says she wasn't always as confident in the blending of her vocal and heavier music as I am now, "I was warned I'd make the whole band sound like kids bop because I'd never sang metal before the band but I was so stoked to hear that that wasn't the case!".
(Amy Demidow Photography - https://www.facebook.com/demidowphotography/?tn-str=k*F)
The stand out song for me was 'Illusionary', the deeper vocal from this song gave a nice contrast to the other songs from the night while still blowing the crowd away. The band finished with the most angsty song of their set, 'Zero Sum' took me back to my angry teen days and gave the crowd the breakdown they were craving, there wasn't a single person that wasn't head banging which is pretty impressive for a first gig. The amount of confidence the band was giving off you would never have guessed this was the first time they had played in front of an audience, their set was polished and they held the audience in with immense stage presense and just killed it, they sounded fucking amazing.
I feel that sometimes people use having a woman in their band as a token and a way to market themselves in a better way but here you can clearly see how well each person works with the others, the four of them fit so well together and have created a sound that fits them perfectly, "Being a part of Insurgent was a definite for me (Jake) from the first moment I heard Joe's riffs. I've loved every single thing I've heard him write and knew that I had to be involved".
'Insurgent' will definitely be a name more and more people will be hearing very soon, "We have a single in the works at the moment and once that is out we aim to record our second single at the end of summer with the end goal being to release an EP this Christmas alongside a launch show". Keep an eye out for everything these guys are going to do - I've been told to expect "more monstrous riffs, more lush and haunting vocals and definitely killer music" so I get the feeling it's going to be pretty insane.
Keep up to date with Insurgent on their social medias -
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/insurgentmusic/
Website - http://www.insurgentband.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/InsurgentBand/
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