Tight show, but not their crowd
It has been a busy year for the guys in Empress AD; new music, line-up changes and a name change has all culminated in what looks like the start of an exciting new chapter for this band. In supporting Turbowolf they were handed the duty of preceding one of the most energetic live shows around at the moment, but they stuck to their guns and brought a bit of the 'epic' to the Dingwalls audience as they pounded through their breed of heavy, proggy tunes. There are still a fair few filing in to the venue when they hit the stage but there is no mistake that they made a good few stand and take notice.
Sound issues plagued the early part of the show, as the mix ended up sounding a bit muddy, but by the end the real power of this band was able to shine. The majority of the set list consisted of material from Still Life Moving Fast and allowed front man Ollie to show off his vocals both in the harsher and softer categories. It is fair to say that the heavier, more riff fuelled, tracks went down the best tonight as it left many heads slowing nodding in trance like movement right back towards the bar. This impact was lost on most of the audience as some of the softer tracks were brought in, with some of the sound issues being far more apparent during the more 'spacey' tracks which also didn't really help. Musically the band are so different to the energy of Turbowolf you can see why they didn't exactly bring the walls down tonight, but there is no doubt that at their own headline shows they would due to how tight a unit they are live.