Raveneye - Live at Islington Academy 2

I wasn't expecting to like Raveneye not being a fan of blues based rock and metal but by Jove the album is rather listenable. It has a good sense of melody and front man Oli sounds very energised. When I saw they were playing a headline show I thought I'd give them a shot to see how they sounded live.

Two support bands were in the offing before hand. One was a local band Rough Justice who I've never heard of. They were a suitable warm up act but I couldn't say I was blown away by them. They played regular modern heavy rock similar to Raveneye in many ways. Some decent grooving here and there but nothing that overly impressed me but they were ok.

Next up were Americans Cairo Son. I think I've actually heard their songs before but they obviously never made a strong impression on me at that time as I had no recollection of their tunes. The sound was really heavy and groovy with decent vocals from the amiable front man. It was all a bit too heavy going for me and lacked the melody and bounce that I require. They were still better than Rough Justice and I'm sure there's a place for them in the modern rock market.

Finally it was time for the Raveneyed ones to take to the tiny stage in the Academy 2 and strut their stuff. For a three piece they have a big groove thing going on and they know all about how to make a song work by adding oodles of melody to that groove. The crowd was loving the band too and it was actually quite surprising to me how well attended the show was with about 200 people there at a guess.

The band sounds tight and has a very engaging front man in Oli who whilst singing also rips out his blues solos and riffs like there's no tomorrow. The band is on a long UK tour at the moment and it seems they've honed their songs to perfection. Like I said those slow blues sections send me to sleep so I was less interested in those but when I heard the cool tunes like Hero and Inside I was a happy camper. Raveneye will never be a total fave of mine but I look forward to see how they progress from here and maybe to a bigger venue next time as they slowly build their fan base. They don't lack, energy and confidence that's for sure and they can only get better as they become better songwriters and musicians.