Unto Others, Zetra & Eulogy - Live at Fuel, Cardiff - 17th March 2022
After a raft of tour cancellations at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 it is very heartening to see international acts starting to tour the country once again. Hitting U.K. shores for an extensive tour were Portland, Oregon gothic metallers Unto Others. Originally this show was meant to be at Hobo’s in Bridgend but unfortunately the venue has been extensively damaged during the recent storms and this is one of many shows scheduled at Hobo’s which has had to be moved to other venues in the South Wales area.
Opening the show were Cardiff based hard rock outfit Eulogy (7). With the other bands on the bill leaning on the gothic side of things Eulogy did stand out a bit but this did not seem to bother them in the slightest and they got up on stage and rocked the hell out. Eulogy plays a very workmanlike style of hard rock which has nods from classic rock, classic metal as well as some more contemporary hard rock bands. It is honest hard rocking music and despite playing to a sparse crowd the band played like they were performing to a massive crowd. A nice way to open up the evening with some good old hard rocking music.
The main tour support was London “synth-gaze” two-piece Zetra (6). Zetra are a very unique outfit blending synthwave and shoegaze with elements of doom and gothic metal. It is a very dense keyboard driven sound with a drum machine providing the rhythm section as well as dense, doomy riffs that brought to mind Type O Negative. The room had filled up a fair bit before Zetra hit the stage but it was clear that most of the crowd did not know what to make of them. There were elements of their sound I loved with the mix of dense, distorted guitars and retro synths being an effective combination but I didn’t like the use of a drum machine and I found the vocals a bit on the weak side. Maybe this is a band I need to give a chance to on record.
Headlining the evening were the mighty Unto Others (9). The band had traveled a long way to do this tour and were determined to give us all a very overdue rocking for the bands first ever Welsh show. If you’ve never heard Unto Others they are the perfect union of 80’s gothic rock, post-punk and traditional heavy metal with a perfect marriage between the three styles. The band immediately got brownie points from some in the crowd by using the Rush classic Subdivisions as an intro tape but things were only set to get better as in the live environment the band are far heavier and fierce than on record. They delivered a fantastic set with material drawn from their two albums and E.P.’s with gothic metal belters such as Heroin, Give Me To The Night, No Children Laughing Now, Nightfall, Downtown And Dragon, Why Do You Cry getting flawless renditions and rapturous applause from the crowd.
After a raft of tour cancellations at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 it is very heartening to see international acts starting to tour the country once again. Hitting U.K. shores for an extensive tour were Portland, Oregon gothic metallers Unto Others. Originally this show was meant to be at Hobo’s in Bridgend but unfortunately the venue has been extensively damaged during the recent storms and this is one of many shows scheduled at Hobo’s which has had to be moved to other venues in the South Wales area.
Opening the show were Cardiff based hard rock outfit Eulogy (7). With the other bands on the bill leaning on the gothic side of things Eulogy did stand out a bit but this did not seem to bother them in the slightest and they got up on stage and rocked the hell out. Eulogy plays a very workmanlike style of hard rock which has nods from classic rock, classic metal as well as some more contemporary hard rock bands. It is honest hard rocking music and despite playing to a sparse crowd the band played like they were performing to a massive crowd. A nice way to open up the evening with some good old hard rocking music.
The main tour support was London “synth-gaze” two-piece Zetra (6). Zetra are a very unique outfit blending synthwave and shoegaze with elements of doom and gothic metal. It is a very dense keyboard driven sound with a drum machine providing the rhythm section as well as dense, doomy riffs that brought to mind Type O Negative. The room had filled up a fair bit before Zetra hit the stage but it was clear that most of the crowd did not know what to make of them. There were elements of their sound I loved with the mix of dense, distorted guitars and retro synths being an effective combination but I didn’t like the use of a drum machine and I found the vocals a bit on the weak side. Maybe this is a band I need to give a chance to on record.
Headlining the evening were the mighty Unto Others (9). The band had traveled a long way to do this tour and were determined to give us all a very overdue rocking for the bands first ever Welsh show. If you’ve never heard Unto Others they are the perfect union of 80’s gothic rock, post-punk and traditional heavy metal with a perfect marriage between the three styles. The band immediately got brownie points from some in the crowd by using the Rush classic Subdivisions as an intro tape but things were only set to get better as in the live environment the band are far heavier and fierce than on record. They delivered a fantastic set with material drawn from their two albums and E.P.’s with gothic metal belters such as Heroin, Give Me To The Night, No Children Laughing Now, Nightfall, Downtown And Dragon, Why Do You Cry getting flawless renditions and rapturous applause from the crowd.
The band mix up their setlists every night to keep them on their toes and included a couple of brilliant cover versions in the form of London Dungeon (Misfits) and Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy) which gave lead guitarist Sebastian Silva the opportunity to go into full shred mode. This is a band well worth seeing should they hit your town or city in the near future and the hope is that Unto Others will be gracing the stage at festivals this summer. Unto Others are certainly a band destined for great things and this show was definitely proof of it.