Azlock

The final band of the night was “Azlock”, and they were not here to waste time. They opened with a sudden outburst of loud hardcore, and with so much energy it seemed like the building would start moving. With all members of the band going crazy and still playing perfectly, it was obvious that they were here to move the audience. The singer could scream so much that I thought his throat would explode, but then follow it up with smooth singing. This seemed to impress more than just me, as the entire audience erupted with arms and legs spinning everywhere. The singer did not stay in one place for longer than a minute, sometimes at the front of the stage, sometimes at the back, sometimes even on top of the speakers. This made for an interesting show, and kept us all watching intently. - Indent

THE search is on to find Sutherland Shire's best hidden talent in the 2010 Battle of the Bands competition.

The annual event run by Sutherland Shire Council has discovered talented shire musicians in the past, including last year's Australian Idol runner-up Hayley Warner, who won the competition in 2007 with her band Cloud 9.

The 2009 winners Azlock credit the contest for putting their rock metal band on the music radar. Since winning last year, Azlock released their first record and did shows in Sydney and on the South Coast. ``The exposure we received was a big boost for our band,'' said Azlock lead singer Tim Scott.

"The best thing about winning was playing our first set at Down At The Park last year, where we made fans and made friends with other bands.''

Azlock's first EP No Reflections, made its way on to Triple J radio when it was released last October, reaching No. 6 on the station's Unearthed chart.

Even with their success, the five friends from Kirrawee, Tim Scott, Tom Ellercamp, Sean Blake, Daniel Sandri and Sean Gynn, are holding on to their day jobs while they continue working on new material for their second EP.

"We all work during the week so we don't have time to rehearse every day,'' said lead singer Tim Scott.

"Until we are signed, we all still have to work to support ourselves, so we only have time to rehearse once a week.''

For contestants entering the competition this year, the lead singer has some simple words of advice.

"Just be yourself and stick to whatever you want to play,'' said Tim Scott. "Don't change who you are for the competition.''

Entries for Battle of the Bands 2010 close at 4pm on Friday, February 19. Band members must be aged between 12-25 years, and at least two band members must live in Sutherland Shire. - The Leader

A hard-hitting metalcore band from Sydney’s southern suburbs, Azlock have just released their debuet EP ‘No Reflections’. Dave Roberts tagged along to the album launch to Investigate.

I have been following this band for a little while now, and when I was offered the opportunity to tag along to their EP launch, I couldn’t resist the offer. In fact, it was not the band but the manager, Gav from Cigarette Factory that invited to along to the gig, meeting me at the door with a ‘he’s with me’ to the door minders.

Unfortunately I had missed the first band that was on, however as I soon came to realise that wasn’t such a bad thing as the two best bands were to come a little later in the evening.

The support acts were just as good as the main act. Loud, and able to set the room alight with their sounds. Some were plagued by technical difficulties including Where we Stand’s guitarist who seemed to have some problems that a decent guitar service could have avoided. Above the fallen seemed to have little stage presence unfortunately, for such a decent sounding band, most noticeably the bass player who seemed to have superglue on the bottom of his feet.

Buried in Verona stole the night musically. Which was a little bit of a bummer for Azlock. They were tight, well rehursed and well motivated, evident by their excess movement around the stage. They looked and sounded mean as well.

However, Azlock did a fantastic job. They played through most of their EP, and entertained a cover – always a good tactic for a crowd that doesn’t know all of your stuff. Their playing style was very heavily based upon entertaining rather than ability – which I thought to be a little bit of a let down, especially considering Verona’s style was more technical and powerful than Azlock’s.

Overall Azlock and the others did very well to entertain the crowd – but alas, there was something not quite right with the evening.

The venue itself was fairly well equipped to handle the task of these bands, with plenty of speakers, mics, and most of all room so that the children could mosh and pit it up. Drinks were on hand for $2 a can or bottle, and the merch stand was well placed to make sure that the people coming in and out would have to pass by it.

Yet there was something else that was niggling in my head, and after a little bit of analysis I figured out what it was. I like to think that my music taste is pretty versatile. I can listen to anything from rap to opera, metal to pop, and pretty much anything in between. Actually, let me qualify that. Anything at all, so long as there is a bit of variation.

And this was indeed the problem with the launch gig tonight. Not the bands. The bands themselves were particularly good at getting small children to flail their arms wildly, discouraging the crowd to move forward, and scare anyone else who wouldn’t normally attend these sorts of band romps (which was another problem – lack of crowd interaction).

The problem was, I suppose, personal. I can only listen to so much of drop-c and screaming vocal lines for so long. I mean it wouldn’t have killed them to do a ballad – and there were plenty of ladies in the room to sing to. However, all of the bands (all six and five that I saw) played the exact same things. It was as if they had a stack of CDs and had decided to remove all of the treble and mids so that there was only the indistinguishable thump of a bass drum for every song. I mean, even apple came up with the shuffle feature on the iPod for a reason. People like variation.

This was, unfortunately, coupled with the lack of crowd interaction, the killer of the night for me. The bands were all well-established and well rehursed and they all played well. But they all played the same.

Overall, the gig was good. Not great, not bad, just good. A little more variety would have helped, and more crowd interaction. Are they worth seeing? Absolutely. Just try to get them on shuffle.
- Dave Roberts