'Ascend to the Skies Co-headline Tour' Andromedous, Skies Turn Black, Jack Brodie - Bannerman’s Edinburgh Monday 14th April 2025

The Ascend to the Skies Tour features Skies Turn Black with their hyper-melodic, keytar-driven and danceable power metal plus the loud & aggressive, even more danceable, metalcore / EDM turbo gimp mask-wearing band Andromedous in one hellacious, loud and energetic package.

But before all that there was Jack Brodie. Jack is a talented and thoughtful local acoustic singer-songwriter, so his presence on this bill might have been the biggest musical mis-match since The Blues Brothers movie when they played at Bob’s Country Bunker, but somehow it all worked out just fine. It must have taken some balls for young Jack to take this one on but he’s keen to grab all the chances he can to perform and he seemed to bring in a few of his own supporters too.

The metal crowd embraced him and the headline bands also showed support as he ran through a selection of his own self-penned numbers, including ‘Tell Me’ – his latest release which he described as a “sex song” (not that sexy though), an obligatory heart-break song, plus a few covers including ‘Candy’ by Paolo Nutini and ‘Champagne Supernova’ by the Brothers Grim. His best song ‘Take Me Away’ even got an enthusiastic sing-along.

I’m sure Jack was relieved to get a good reception and he seemed to enjoy the rest of his evening too, joining in with the head-banging through both co-headliners’ sets and even venturing into the ‘pit at the end. I hope the expected hearing loss does not impair his own future song-writing.

Glamorous, gravy-loving Northern lads Skies Turn Black book-ended their set with two great numbers that I recognized from their performance at Wildfire Festival previously; ‘Playing with Fire’ and ‘The Skies Are Falling Down’. Their debut album is about six years old and they are a different band now but good numbers like ‘The Sickness and the Cure’ still hold up well.

Jamie Jordan handles the vocals cleanly and stylishly but with some growls thrown in and Xander Isles is a big presence on the keytar and backing vocals, alongside the handsome dancing bass player Danny Woodhead. The band sound a bit like a Dragonforce single but played at 33 rpm instead of 45 rpm and with extra harmonies thrown in. There is even an occasional hint of an 80s synth-pop vibe but with additional ass-kicking metal stylings and classic rock grooves, their style went down really well and would appeal to fans of bands like Beast in Black.

The newer songs are even better and there is an album on the way. ‘Sweet, Sweet Solitude’ was good, there was one that might have been called ‘Stand with Me’, a very new one called ‘Witness’ and of course their latest single ‘Angel’ was a stand-out, although sadly there was no sign of the pole dancer who stars in their current throwback promo video.

I thoroughly enjoyed their performance once again. The band are an excellent live proposition and with this line-up and an album to follow, they will hopefully get the credit they deserve in due course.

Andromedous are an imposing proposition with two (usually three) masked performers plus harsh but spot-on growling vocals from the unmasked Elliot Harrison. The band specialise in aggressive electro-core with dance beats, dub step and beat box grooves mixed in with the metal in an effective and striking package that is just a little outside of the comfort zone but all the better for it.

The only song I really recognised was the brutally good ‘Tyro’ – one of several songs that might have been recorded instrumentally originally but now with a lead vocal from Elliot, but this band are more about the overall vibe and the mix of rave and mosh atmospheres. With the dim lighting, nightmarish sounds and Squid Game-esque masks, the show could blow anyone out of a trance and actually reminded me of that time I visited a Rage Room in Glasgow and got to smash shit up for fun. On both occasions, I came out feeling better for having blown off a bit of cathartic steam and no one got hurt. Even the mosh pit at the end was the happiest and danciest one I’ve ever seen.

With Ghost playing the sold-out OVO Metha-drome in Glasgow on Wednesday, another avant-garde masked rock outfit have monopolised the rock dollars this week, but with the £10 ticket here being £2 less than the cost of two pints at the bar in Bannerman’s (and a lot less than the tariff imposed at the Hydro) I was very happy with the bang for my buck this Monday evening.

Andromedous have an EP called ‘The Ascent’ due out shortly and a home gig in Weston-Super-Mare at the end of this short tour. All of the acts at this show did themselves proud and are well-worthy of further investigation for those with open minds and a willingness to try something a bit different. Check them out.