Chaos 8 – ‘She Is Coming’ EP Launch

Chaos 8. Launch the New EP “Out Of Control” with a live show in Sunderland.

Arriving at the Ivy House Pub in Sunderland in the pouring rain after a pretty simple drive up from Teesside we entered to the the sound of locals and music fans getting what they thought was the start of a Slalom D set, but what actually turned out to be the most keenly watched sound check I’ve witnessed for a while. A pub that was pretty much full to burst even an hour before things were due to kick off, this was my first visit to this venue and the vibe from the get go was friendly and welcoming, bar staff wearing Slalom D t-shirts kind of said it all. 

Hailing from Sunderland and with a fairly recent (forced) lead vocal change since the sad and very untimely loss of the brilliant Craig Macbeth, Fiona Duncan has taken on the challenge and with out doubt has moulded into the band and is carrying on the amazing work Craig had laid the foundations for as the front man. They hit the floor running with a huge song that sets the tone for their whole ethos as a band “No Pasaran” delivered with all the belief and conviction that it deserves, Iain Murray thumps away at the drums with every ounce of his worth and feeds the band with the all the power you could wish for, Tony Lindstedt Bass player with a deft touch and Gary Christopher’s wonderful lead guitar, The crowd have all squeezed so tightly to the front and are now creating a heat and intensity that is being fed off and thrown back at them in the form of a stage presence and strength of will that oozes from a lead singer with every right to be there,  song after song the set gets stronger the noise from the back of the room tells you the whole place is getting what this band are about, during the set they also thank the whole place for all the donations that have been brought in or the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen which filled the back room of the place! 

Finishing the set with songs such as “Jerusalem” with its truly iconic Bass line and “Chelsea Bonfire” about the injustice and state murder of the victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster. And this was just the warm up band? All gigs should have a band like this! 

And now to the main event, Chaos 8 Formed in 2012 and having 2 full albums to there credit 2 years apart “Burn” and “Cause & Effect”  Made up of Beki Straughan (Also the front for Loaded 44) Steven Naisbet – Drums, James Oz Bowey – Bass and Paul Williams – Guitar/Keyboard.

The atmosphere is one of sweaty palms (gladly not from fear, but from the heat of a packed audience) and anticipation for this one, Smashing straight into a brand new track from the EP “Darkness & Dust” has the same deep rolling synth backdrop delivered throughout a majority of their tracks with the grungy thrashing guitar and bass that can only described as punchy but moody too, if that’s doesn’t sound possible then you haven’t heard Chaos 8.  Becki has to be one of the the! Strongest front women in the business and this is certainly not lost in the performance giving the audience no time to catch breath she owns the stage and moves around like a Panther spitting and clawing its way out of a cage, all this energy directed into songs with chilling apocalyptic undertones mixed with dark industrial punk sounds like “4 Minutes”, “The Witch” and “Make Me Believe” then your frantically thrown into the wonderful “Do You Remember” this song kind of dredges all the way down to the depths of the psyche and rolls along with an amazing almost Killing Joke thumping drum beat and grungy bass line all tied together with a huge guitar thrashing over the top, all with Beki’s slow but purposeful deliverance of a vocal that quite frankly gives you that tingling hairs on the back of the neck feeling.

Only half way through! The bar is now dancing and feeling every inch a part of this moment in time as Becki attacks every song with all her being, “She’s Coming” a highlight and taking note of the intro to this track it has to be said this is a song dear to all their hearts and a stronger anti hunting song as you will ever hear!.  

Even as the guitar amp fell silent half way through “Make Me Feel the Heat” the rest of the band carried on and never missed a beat, with perfect timing the problem was solved as next up was “Out of Control” from the new EP, needless to say the whole band and audience sweating profusely with all that energy spent still kept going as Chaos 8 just demand that you stay with them, but how can you not when you are so totally consumed by the moment.

So after all the hype leading up to this event, was it worth being smashed into  by this steam roller of a band?  Hell yeah!

A night full of great music and wonderful people, we will be back here at the Ivy House soon.

Self Released, you can get the a digital copy at their BANDCAMP

Or check out FACEBOOK for Chaos 8 

For Slalom D check out their Facebook HERE

For all the photos of the night, go to my Albums HERE