Drum roll please
Was lucky enough to catch metalleeka live at the Black dog in Ossie over the weekend and I must admit I was impressed , first off Im not a massive fan of tributes , however I am a Massive Metallica fan, and I have seen the band about 18 months ago when they first started out with a different line up, and I enjoyed them but it was early days.
the line up of Scott on vox guitar, James on Guitar, Kev on Bass and Tai (Hope i spelled it reet) depping on drums.
Scotts nailed Hetfields guitar tone to a Tee, lesser mortals would have just wound up the gain and scooped the mids but Scott has that distinctive rectifier "Bark" very thick and plenty of bottom end without being muddy at all , it looked like he was using a line six pod XT live and a Berhinger head and cab (from Memory) and ESP explorer, I noted that he also has formidable guitar skills.
Kevs has the bass lines and general tone of the band exacly right, Ive seen Kev before with BYD and theres no denying he can "do the business" and again superb tone without being too boomy or muddy .cleanly delivered lines and Locked in with the drummer.
James, - its pretty obvious James is a fan, he pretty much has Hammets quircky style sussed, again Im not a massive line6 fan but James has got the Hammet tone nailed, which is cleaner that youd expect with a fair dash of reverb, and wah wah as well as hammets flurrying, staccato picking style his leads are accurate and very very cleanly delivered, and to the audience its obvious that James is loveing every second of knocking out those classic metal tunes,
Tai, im not an expert on drummers, but I do know that Lars Ulrichs style of drumming is an integral part of the Metallica "sound" -again Tai has this boxed off, his drums sounded huge through the Peavey PA system , astonishingly he was depping and seemingly didnt put a stick wrong, and gelled with the rest of the band .
its great that the guys dont try and copy visually Metallica, quite often tribute bands fall down , and on occasion look ridiculous with wigs and poorly made costumes, in saying that Scott certainly has a look of Hedfield.
All the classic tunes are delivered accurately but not clinically or slavishly , the guys still manage to inject a bit of themselves into the music without detracting from it, this definitly adds to the experience.
It would be unfair to critique the guys just for the sake of it and to be honest there is very little, if anything to critique, of course, the lights had a couple of gremlins and maybe someone could deliver a bit of banter when the guys are switching guitars but Im spltting hairs here!!!
the crowd had a lot of "rockers" but a lot of people that you wouldnt expect to be attending a Metal badn tribute, the vast majority of whom stayed and appreciated the music.
i have to say as well, unlike a lot of people, the guys dont come on here trumpeting what a great band they are, what great players they are and rapturous self reviews and all that bull, I must say these are four of the nicest guys you could meet and a great band as well.
If youve not seen em , I suggest you do ASAP