Although the South Wales valleys have been spoilt by a plethora of metal bands, it hasn’t deterred a whole new flock of adolescent outsiders from sharing their world view to the masses. One band that looks nailed on to make the transition from local heroes to mainstream contenders is Caerphilly quartet Dopamine. Their sound is a hybrid of American sheen interspersed with edgy hooks and their early credentials have given the band the chance to open for the Lostprophets on their Japanese tour later this month.
The Barfly was crammed early to catch Cardiff prog-rockers Everfade. The ideas were definitely there - it’s just they’d all been thrown into the melting pot at the same time, resulting in a murky sound unsure in its destination. The mood severely lifted with Said Mike who band opened with breakneck Alleyways - a monstrous tune smothered in crunchy riffs and manic synth sounds reminiscent to Enter Shikari.
Dopamine were in no mood for meandering as their set sped head-first into a wave of punchy vocals and addictive choruses. Neil Starr may look nothing like the archetypal front man with his bespectacled face and rounded features but his raw enthusiasm for his fans and his band alike mark him out as maladjusted force to be reckoned with. The start-stop patterns of ‘Colour Of Comfort’ caused involuntary nodding from most the crowd whereas some fans uncoiled themselves into head banging aficionados.
The high-octane dynamics couldn’t last as ‘I Disappear’ did exactly what the title suggested by sprawling into a metal-by-numbers showcase. The set closed with Starr at his most exuberant - although looking jaded after half an hour of energy-sapping rock, he turned the microphone onto his loyal audience to hear the chorus “Do We Just Give Up Now” ring around the Barfly in military fashion.
With two low-key albums under their belt they’ve already got a sizable amount of tunes to carry them though the year - it just remains to be seen how much they’ll be wearing the tag ‘low key’.
The Barfly was crammed early to catch Cardiff prog-rockers Everfade. The ideas were definitely there - it’s just they’d all been thrown into the melting pot at the same time, resulting in a murky sound unsure in its destination. The mood severely lifted with Said Mike who band opened with breakneck Alleyways - a monstrous tune smothered in crunchy riffs and manic synth sounds reminiscent to Enter Shikari.
Dopamine were in no mood for meandering as their set sped head-first into a wave of punchy vocals and addictive choruses. Neil Starr may look nothing like the archetypal front man with his bespectacled face and rounded features but his raw enthusiasm for his fans and his band alike mark him out as maladjusted force to be reckoned with. The start-stop patterns of ‘Colour Of Comfort’ caused involuntary nodding from most the crowd whereas some fans uncoiled themselves into head banging aficionados.
The high-octane dynamics couldn’t last as ‘I Disappear’ did exactly what the title suggested by sprawling into a metal-by-numbers showcase. The set closed with Starr at his most exuberant - although looking jaded after half an hour of energy-sapping rock, he turned the microphone onto his loyal audience to hear the chorus “Do We Just Give Up Now” ring around the Barfly in military fashion.
With two low-key albums under their belt they’ve already got a sizable amount of tunes to carry them though the year - it just remains to be seen how much they’ll be wearing the tag ‘low key’.
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