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NFD
London, Barfly, Camden, 21 June 2006

A warm night in north London, and a small venue above a bar, full of trolls in platforms with makeup and dyed hair. A worrying thought? Yes, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the enjoyable music, certainly by main act NFD.

Dark Horizon opened proceedings, with guitar and keyboards, and programmed drums. A little synthetic but this was heavy goth, the guitar providing as many sounds as riffs. Occasionally the bass sounded Waters like (no bad thing), and the vocals were excellent. Very heavy but the electric sounds, especially in the drum machine were off putting.

Saints Of Eden were next. Guitar, bass, electric drums (at least human powered) and a vocalist with short spikey hair who had a thrash like gravely growl to him. Some techno dance rhythms mixed in with the thrashy metal goth, was catchy, interesting and enjoyable. Sadly other songs were a little sludgy.

NFD were the main band and definitely a division or two above the support. Led by former Nephilim / Fields Of The Nephilim bassist Tony Pettitt (a solid and top bassist on this evidence), NFD also feature Tony’s former bandmate Simon Rippon on drums. Vocalist Bob White (red dreadlocks) is definitely hardcore, and you get a very metal end goth sound overall. Two guitarists too; one wears a hat while the other, with his long hair blowing in the fan, looked very ethereal.

A keyboard intro before 'Light My Way', a dark menacing song, and we also the excellent 'Unleash'. The band were on form, playing heavy gothic metal at the spooky thrash end. A live performance as strong as their new album (Dead Pool Rising) – well worth checking out.

Review by Joe Geesin