Orthodox – BEWARE OF DARKNESS CD & Tour

You know what it’s like when you stumble onto something and then wonder if you ever had life before it?

Yup.

BEWARE OF DARKNESS – Orthodox

I’d been hearing Howl on XM Octane. I practically fell on the floor howling in delight the first time I heard it. Only certain songs have gotten me on first sound out of the speakers. That one did it for me SO MUCH MORE THAN ANY SONG EVER on the radio. I have 46 years of radio history I’m speaking of.

In all of those years I had many songs, but some are forgotten, others not. History started up for me in 2005 when I found this and that from newer bands. I haven’t kept “in the know” about the industry, and kind of wait to fall into something when it opens up for me.

I have fallen into a chasm and I don’t think I’ll ever reach the bottom. That is BEWARE OF DARKNESS.

Their first full album came out on May 7th. I got a copy via my husband, no stores around were stocking it. I found one out further that said one could buy it physically, pick it up immediately. Thankfully my hubby was out on business and actually NEAR that area NW of Atlanta. I couldn’t wait for him to get home with it! (Sure I could have bought it digitally the day before from Amazon, for instance, but I want the CD in hand, and they didn’t have Auto Rip for that album, so I dismissed it entirely.)

Meanwhile all points were converging on me. The weekend before had us at Carolina Rebellion, we were there for the two-days of concerts, and on our way there I noticed that the pre-party for campground people had Beware of Darkness as one of the bands playing. I loved the song Howl but hadn’t yet looked the song up online, and I had a nagging feeling about it, but didn’t understand. Well we couldn’t be there anyway, we were driving to the hotel that night, weren’t part of the campground. I didn’t know what I’d missed until the next day when I looked up Beware of Darkness and realized fully that I missed the band that performs a song I love, but didn’t know anything else about them.

I live on the East Coast. What could I know about them? If I knew to know I would of, but I didn’t.

So because of this, or course it’s important to note that their first full album was going to come out very, very soon. I had to have the album. I had to find out more about them, and that would be through the album and I’d see then where that took me.

While my husband was out and about with my CD, I started looking, felt compelled to, and saw that they were performing in Augusta, GA that very night, not too far from where I live. Yeah, crazy, drive over a hundred miles. Well I didn’t think my husband would jump on it. Thought he’d turn me down. “Buy the tickets online,” he said. Whoop!

I knew then that they had an EP/Single or something, and that Howl had been out for awhile (if Octane doesn’t play it I just won’t know it.) I was onto it’s trail for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t stop singing “… My, my, my, I’m a hungry man …” and that’s not weird for a girl. No, no it’s not.

Something in the cover photo of Orthodox was pulling me in. I wasn’t quite sure, I grabbed that CD and ripped the plastic off. Flipped it over, ooooooo… another photo. Huh.

Inside, open the cardboard album and there’s a lovely full picture spread from edge to edge of the band. Perfect for getting it signed!

I got the CD into my computer and Google Music pulled it to the cloud. We got packed and hit the road. Listened to Orthodox via my phone connected to the vehicle’s sound the whole way, except for the times when I didn’t play anything at all just to reflect. Wow! I HAVE FOUND THE ALT ROCK BAND OF MY LIFE!

Really cool.

So we get to Augusta and have dinner nearby the Sky City venue. Mosey down to the entrance, go in and find a seat to suffer through Artemia first. Yes, suffer. Something was good about them, but the singer I wanted to rip the microphone from his hands (everyone would have thanked me profusely. I’m not tooting my own horn, really I had a future in singing, just didn’t go for it. I can sing, man.) I had to plug my ears, they were so loud.

Finally that group was done. Tear down, Set Up. OK hubby, we are going to the front. What a freaking good show! Kyle was right in front of me. Cool, cool, cool. Such artistry.

I had my little Sony Cyber-Shot up taking video the whole time. I snapped some photos via the shutter during video. Those aren’t the best photos usually, but I knew how I’d really feel later, which do you want, clear video or just photos. Or Clear Video and almost good, some better some worse photos. For me I WANT the photos, but the video works out better and my mind recalls it all in vivid detail anyhow (while I have sound mind.)

I’d love to be bold about how I feel, but I’m not, so shy. Somehow I ended up talking to Kyle afterwards. My husband says I initiated the first hug. Really? Wow. There were hugs a few times. It was so cool talking to him. The thing that we discussed was the guitar pick in the Best Buy version of Orthodox. I left it at home. When I had opened that CD it dropped out when I pulled out the booklet. How many times do I not take the booklet out first thing? Most of the time I only look at it later, or even never. Depends, but in this case I had done that after looking at the inside of the cover. It was really such a neat thing, I hadn’t expected it. I looked at the BB website and there was nothing about it there. I looked at the sticker on the wrapping, nothing about it. Nothing!

So Kyle said he hadn’t seen it yet, but knew about it, exclusive to BB. No, I didn’t bring it with me (I didn’t want to lose it!) So the next day when I got home I took a photo of it and tweeted it to the band. So sweet, they favorited my tweet. I like bands who like their fans.

I have been re-listening to all this music and FORCING myself to not constantly do that. I’ve racked up my scrobbles and they’ll be my most listened to band this week, and I’ll be their top listener on last.fm

There doesn’t seem to be anyone else on last.fm so hooked-on BEWARE OF DARKENSS’s music. What? Crazy.

I got an Orthodox World Tour T-shirt while we were at Sky City. The Sky City date wasn’t on the back, but it’d fit in second to bottom of printed dates. I bought the t-shirt before the show. The guy that sold it to me said I could have the guys sign it after. Well, I didn’t get that to happen, but I did buy a CD from them (even though I already had my other one in my purse) and each of them signed it.

We (hubby and I) talked to Tony, the drummer, for a bit too. It was hard getting Daniel, the bassist, to sign, he was occupied deep in discussion with someone. We finally just went up to him and got him to sign it. Chuckle. It’s a good memory.

I love going to concerts, even more than that I love seeing great bands in smaller venues. Even more than that, I love being in the front row in front of a younger band. (I’ve always been like this.) I got two of those experiences in less than a week.

Heaven’s Basement is an up and coming British Rock band. I fell in love with them after XM Octane played Fire!Fire! and I bought the one song digitally. Finally I ordered the CD from Amazon, it had Auto-Rip so I played it fully right away and loved it. I was trying to figure out what to do about going to a festival, and the main one that was closest and had the most bands that I wanted to see would be Carolina Rebellion on May 4,5. We got the tickets in early April.

My favorite viewings at Carolina Rebellion were Aranda, Hollywood Undead, Deftones, Red Line Chemistry, and Heaven’s Basement. (All bands I’d never seen live.) Heaven’s Basement tops my list because they were very accessible, I was right in front, and their show was flipping awesome. I love their songs. Aaron is such a dynamic lead singer. I was really jazzed up from expectation and fulfillment. The best show at Carolina Rebellion was there, Heaven’s Basement. THEY are the MAIN reason I wanted to go. I looked forward to them immensely. I had them on my list as the only band I couldn’t miss. Red Line Chemistry and Deftones were next in line, and they were both really good. Hollywood Undead, I wanted to hear Levitate, but they didn’t play it. I so enjoyed them anyhow, and they top my list for that, pure enjoyment. Aranda was fun to watch. They are so casual, but very gifted. Really fun play between the Aranda brothers.

The whole event was cancelled after waiting around for hours and hours for music to start up again Sunday afternoon. Rain, Rain, Go Away! But it didn’t. We missed Volbeat, but we got a CD signed. I didn’t, my husband did. Yes, I was too shy.

So who knew that one of the bands that didn’t play on Sat. or Sun. were at the pre-party, would be the one to spark my interest so highly later. I got more than I bargained for. I got a just released album, saw them live headlining for the album, got the CD signed, got to talk to each of them from just a little to a whole lot more. Got video and photos. But no photo of me with them. No great photo of any of them. But I have their music and signatures and the memories of a really great concert that happened lickity split for me. I didn’t have time to relish the coming event.

Now it’s time to settle down, do something with the video/photos, listen to their music, follow their success, and be a fan. I’m relishing the future.

Oh, at Sky City someone gave us the Howl EP –thank you so much! That’s the version of Howl that Octane is playing! Two versions of Howl. Mmmmmhhh

I love hard rock. I so much do. I just love “alternative” stuff more. BEWARE OF DARKNESS is cutting in on The Cure, Clan of Xymox, my other alternative passions. My hard rock love is taking a back seat too. (It’s still there, just not as encompassing as it has been the last few years.) So what other stuff is out there that Kyle was part of? I’ve seen some names, now I have the time to explore.

Kyle has got style, talent, and a voice that is just pure devilishly heavenly, the ultimate favorite voice of my lifetime (and I thought I loved Robert Plant’s voice, ha!)

Are there any other bands I can listen to? Yes, but I don’t want to right now. I’m so freaking enjoying this album too much!