"Gig Report: Next Gen Blood | Project Renegade & Lazy Man's Load"

episodes of the Next Gen Blood Festival, an event driven by the younger generation's love for the metal scene. In this first act, Project Renegade and Lazy Man's Load gave us a wonderful night of music!

Lazy Man's Load: A band that blew us away!

Having very little familiarity with the band's music, I didn't have a clear picture of what exactly to expect from their performance. However, Lazy Man's Load win you over from the very first second. With a powerful entrance onto the stage and impressive stylistic choices, they managed to get the whole club moving to their rhythms. This is a band that shows tremendous ease on stage, an ease that transfers to the crowd and becomes a lever for the band. Sound-wise, the band moves in heavy territory with a strong rhythmic element and groove. The aim of their music is to make you move your head and body to the rhythm their songs set. 

With a very lavish sound

I only have good impressions from what I heard from Lazy Man's Load. With the guitars really delivering a series of riffs pulled straight from metal's golden bibles, as a listener you have no choice but to give yourself over to the torrent of their songs. The sound overall was very lavish, but never overly bass-heavy or intense. All the instruments were very properly spread across the frequencies and the result did justice to the expectations of even the strictest critic!

If I had just one remark, it would concern the guitar's lead sections, which weren't as high in volume as I personally would have liked, a fact which of course may have been affected by where I was standing. Beyond that, every note was distinct and made you feel it. Wrapping up, Lazy Man's wonderful performance was rounded out by Andreas with his excellent vocal timbre. He empowered every song and had us hanging on his every word.

Project Renegade: Picking up right where they left off at Release Athens!

For Project Renegade I knew what to expect. After all, this is one of the acts that, in my opinion, is very worthy and capable. Their music and their perspective are very distinctive, meaning they always offer something unique. The hosts of Next Gen Blood Festival made an impressive entrance with Liber8, a track that I've singled out from Order of the Minus. During their time on stage, the quartet from Athens had the crowd going wild over their songs. Their sound was once again very tight, while the groove elements they're bringing into their new songs are even more pronounced. Songs like Bloodwitch and The Fix Is In, are built on excellent rhythmic elements and show us that metal takes on a different aesthetic with a whole lot of groove!

With a special tribute to the importance of health

Beyond the band's excellent showing, special mention must also go to Ody's choice of mask! The band's drummer chose to appear with the signature white mask with the red cross, a mask that pays tribute to the doctor, the artist's grandfather (as he himself has mentioned in an interview on The Fuzzy Hound Show). This same mask was also used during the recording of Order and underscores the importance of health for us as human beings.

With an eye on the new generation

The Next Gen Blood was a live show with very solid backbone. Having focused on the presence of a new audience, in terms of age, Project Renegade wanted to create a series of gigs aimed at triggering and drawing in even more young people to the metal genre. Their determination to pass on their love for the genre also showed at the end of the show, when Ody brought two kids up onto the stage and announced that this is metal's new blood. 

Together with Lazy Man's Load, they managed to create an explosive musical mix, one we'll remember for a long time. For our part, let's hope we'll soon see more gigs like this, aimed at both the younger generations and the older ones.