It had been quite some time since I had last been to Studio 24 in Edinburgh and as per usual when going down to that neck of the woods I ended up running late and just managed to catch the very end of Man Of The Hour’s set. I hadn’t seen them before but the crowd were enthused by this boisterous old school sounding metal outfit and they certainly weren’t taking any prisoners. I certainly need to check this band out again and catch a full set as I do enjoy a real balls to the wall metal show and Man Of The Hour came across like a full on bar fight between Viking Skull, Motorhead and Pantera! There were two other earlier bands on in the shape of local acts Runemaster and Dog Tired which I was informed also went down well and garnered good crowd reaction and hopefully I will catch these acts on the local scene sometime soon. 

Onto the main act and a band I have been following for sometime now and have always enjoyed their live set. They have not long released their follow up album to the successful “Bitter Part Of Me” with the highly acclaimed “What Doesn’t Kill Us”, a CD that has spent a lot of time in my hi-fi since I got my sweaty mitts on it. After previous excellent live performances I was very interested in seeing how the new material would fit into the set. 

The band fired up with the new track “Human Traffic” and right away the crowd started bouncing to this Jagermeister fuelled onslaught. In Luke Bell Panic Cell have a ferocious and charismatic front man who knows how to work an audience and for such a chilled calm dude off stage this mohawk sporting fellow cuts an imposing and manic figure on stage. Next up was another new track in “Calm” before reverting back to the first album track “Shallow”. The set then ripped through a mix of old and new with “Dead To Me”, “Walk Away”, “Damn Self Pity” and “Fallen” flashing by. Mr. Bell is a rare breed in that, whilst being a very melodic singer, he loses none of the bite or aggression that one would expect from a band as heavy as Panic Cell, an area that a number of musically excellent bands fall down on.  

Not unexpectedly the set finished with “Away From Here” and “Save Me”, two tracks that have received quite considerable airplay and have become fan favourites. The set seemed to hurtle passed and even though a ten song set for a two album band is par the norm I still would have liked to have seen a couple of other numbers in there as the balanced and powerful set lent itself to carrying on further into the evening. Bell’s repartee with the crowd and his and the bands stage persona add to the powerful aural experience and a lot of bands could take notes from the professionalism that Panic Cell exude.  

The crowd left happy after what was a very entertaining evening and Panic Cell again reaffirmed my initial thoughts on them that this is a very talented band that appeals to a wide range of rock and metal fans. In Mr. Bell they have a front man who raises the bar and could challenge as one of the elite metal vocalists. If this band comes to your town then it is a given that you must see them as one day they will be huge and you will kick yourself that you missed them in your local club. If they can put a smile on my cynical wizened mug then they must be onto a winner. Grab a hold of their new platter as well “What Doesn’t Kill Us”, definitely one of the best current metal albums around, it will surprise a lot of people.

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