Live Review: The Colony – Glasgow

Rounding of the year nicely, ‘The Colony’ headlined The Attic in Glasgow with support from Beyond Ties, a London based band who sit nicely within the metalcore genre and Hopes Avenue, a fellow Scottish band taking on the pop punk, post hardcore scene.

When arriving, I was taken aback by the number of stairs to get into the venue but then I remembered the name. The Attic is part of the larger, Glasgow Garage venue which host gigs throughout the year, and many big names have found themselves gracing the stages here before moving on to bigger things. Once I had made my way up the narrow staircases and entered the venue, it struck me as being the perfect place for a band to have an intimate set for their fans.

Kicking off proceedings was Hopes Avenue, a proudly Scottish band from Ayrshire who were newly formed in 2021. Since then, they have wasted no time making an impact on the Scottish metal scene, with their debut single ‘Revive’ reaching over 50,000 listens to date. The band put on an energetic set and got the crowd excited and pumped for the night ahead. They also did a great cover of the 2002 DJ Sammy version of the song ‘Heaven’ which they have remixed in their own pop punk, hardcore style (great for any fans of the ‘Punk Goes Pop’ series of albums released by Fearless Records). I had not heard of this band until this gig but, I would happily pay to see them play again and will be keeping an eye on what they have planned for 2025.

The second band to take to the stage were Beyond Ties, a metal band from London which consisted of three members, singer and two guitarists it seemed. What they lack in having a live drummer and bassist on stage, is quickly made up by their heavy tunes and enthusiastic stage presence. I can’t say that it really bothered me that they were using programmed drums, however I could see some hardcore metal enthusiasts perhaps taking time to get their heads around this. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed their set, and the singer certainly knew how to work a crowd. Their sound is reminiscent of metal bands from the early to mid-2000’s, with cleverly timed breaks, heavy riffs and powerful vocals, they would not go a miss amongst bands such as Bleed from Within, Spineshank and Bring me the Horizon. If they keep up this vibe and keep performing the way they do, I can see them being one to watch for the future!

On to the main event and we find ourselves back with headliners, The Colony, a band that formed in 2006 and have been making waves in the Metal scene ever since. A good representation of this would be the fact that they were picked to support Machine Head back in June at Glasgow’s SWG3 Galvanizers venue, a night I am sure the group of five and the singer’s dad, Geraldo will never forget (it was his birthday that night and he received a huge cheer from the crowd, courtesy of his son pointing him out).