Saturday 12th March 05 - Soulflame at the White Room By Michelle Dee

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Soulflame have strong Puddle of Mudd influences in both sound and song construction. The E.P. is more melodic and measured than the live performance. Nic's vocals are at times quite balladic. He reaches for the high notes with a fresh enthusiasm that lends the voice colour and texture. Sands of Time conjures up imagery from romanticism and flows along with Nic bemoaning the very nature of existence. The repeated riffs ease you into a false sense of security then assail you with the next track.

Quit the Addiction sounds a little loose vocally and needs to be worked on if it is not to stand out for the wrong reasons. You can almost see him spitting out the line get back to reality to stay in time with the guitar. There's a sound like a crazy kettle whistling that opens You're Safe, this one features some vocal harmonies. This is always a good idea to lend the song more depth, sadly these sections appear to be tacked on almost as an afterthought, and don't really work. The two voices don't appear to compliment each other.

Last Cowboy has some kind of sunset/sunrise analogy that sees Nic living out his wild-west fantasies. The quality and tone of his voice reaches new heights, previously unheard, towards the end of the song. The middle section shows flair and the minimalist percussion is a welcome change to the diet of formulaic drumbeats, pumping like a giant oil head from many Metal bands. There are touches of something greater on this E.P. Every so often you can see something developing but the band need to reach a level of consistency if they are to grow from where they are. This consistency only comes through endless practice and much gig experience.

Soulflame have recently had to take on a new bassist Davis - ex member of Pave- and need to now grow again as a Metal outfit. He has been with them five weeks or so and played the White Room gig last Saturday, which is where a first saw the Soulflame live show. There were issues with continual feedback through their set, which blighted an otherwise good sound set up. The in house engineer sounds like he knows how to get the best from the equipment. They could perhaps do with more stage space to enable more free expression and rock routines; it's hard to thrust guitars etc when any sudden movements could put someone's eye out in the front row.

The highlight of their set was a slower soaring track called Safe. It is also popular with the crowd as I heard one goth expressing to Nic afterwards, I walked in and you were playing my favourite one...again! Apparently the same sequence of events had happened with much the same response at a Soulflame gig earlier.

The White Room is out in the middle of the Industrial Quarter, it is a fairly small venue with a capacity of about an eighty strong crowd. It is known as a Heavy metal venue but surprisingly Paul books many different genres in between the metal acts. The venue itself looks like every living room/bedroom of all my Goth friends in one space. With eye-catching Vallejo style dragons on the walls and eerie skulls and candles draped with cobwebs in corners. The décor could easily grace the front cover of an Iron Maiden record; indeed there are a number of album covers decorating the purple walls. Thank God or maybe not Him, that they got rid of the White walls, which gave the venue it's misleading name.

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