Live Review : Cassyette + Bambie Thug + AlienBlaze @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester on February 22nd 2022

Us old guard are pretty protective of our music. We look with a mixture of derision and superstition at those that try to take it in different directions. All of this is highly ironic as the only reason Metal has survived fifty plus years is the fact that it has absorbed and integrated into its super-structure various other genres and styles. Ours is parasitic form of music, wholly reliant on continually assimilating all around it. Tonight, is a prime example of Metal’s ongoing evolution. At pushing fifty I may look like someone’s dad (or to be honest grandad) come to chaperone them, but ladies and gentlemen this is the future.

Opener AlienBlaze is initially plagued with nerves. At first, she seems rather like a rabbit caught in headlights when faced with an expectant crowd looking to be entertained. This, apparently, is her and her two fellow musicians first tour, so we can forgive her for having the jitters and she does grow into her set as she gains confidence. Alien (if I can call her that) and her backing band are young, painfully young to be honest. Usually in this set up (singer, drummer, guitarist) the lack of bass is at best highly obvious and at worse painful, but a clever use of samples means that they actually feel like a coherent whole. The best way to describe them is The Cure meets Bring me the Horizon and, in many ways, this is goth rebooted for the 21st Century. There is very much something here and hopefully more shows will hone her stagecraft.

There is no worry about Bambie Thug being phased as she burns off the stage like a bat out of hell. She is motormouthed rapper who throws down her verses with equal parts passion and venom. She has attitude to spare and works the crowd well, prompting an instant reaction from the gathered hordes. Her lyrics are gritty and direct and seem to either be about sex and drugs or drugs and sex. She may push the boundaries of my personal taste-based envelope, but you can’t deny that she is a highly talented human dynamo. She also gets the now thronging crowd bouncing all the way to the back and to be honest that is a much better indication of her worth than my jaded musical preferences.

Cassyette is a Tick-Tok sensation and the fact she has interactively built a rapid following solely from that medium is one of the three highly interesting things about her. The room is heaving, sold out and packed to the gills with thoroughly modern teenagers that don’t do magazines or radio. Social media is their medium for communication, interaction and musical consumption and it is there that they have bonded with Cassyette. At the heart of her appeal is the fact she feels less like the remote detached rock stars of my youth and much more like a hyperactive big sister, that knows exactly how everyone of her congregation feels about their lot in life.

Her sound is a boiling pot of punk, pop, metal and rock poured into the mould Lady Gaga. Nu-metal on crack with added ADHD. It is that swirling maelstrom of influences and differing genres that is the second thing that piqued my interest and curiosity. Cassyette is an artist firmly of the Spotify generation. She has the whole world of music at her fingertips and has decided to pilfer all that she can get her neon painted hands on. In my day there were walls, rules and no-go areas, these do not exist anymore. Instead Cassyette has made a highly proficient carrier of going musically where she wants and the result is both intoxicating and rather mind-blowing.

The third issue of note is the subject matter. When I discovered metal in the eighties, my idols were emotionally repressed and relied on songs about dragons, elves and blatant sexism to express themselves. This has, thankfully, all changed and Cassyette is an open book. Her songs seem to be borne from tragedy, angst and personal experiences. She is unafraid to show her vulnerabilities and bares her soul to her following. But even though she sings, raps and wails from the heart this is still a highly upbeat set. She twirls, she shimmers, and she continually interacts with the crowd. There is no fourth wall to crack here, her audience are as much of the show as she is. The crowd scream, they slam and they make a pretty darn impressive attempt to crash the floor down to the basement.

I may be a fuddy duddy but Cassyette is an extraordinary example of where our music is going. She may have all the energy and colour of a dayglo explosion in a sherbet factory, but she is also as real and as authentic as they come. There is no grand marketing plan. Instead, we have a grassroot artist that is drilled into the psyche of a generation. America is next and is hers to conquer and after that I promise you, we will never see her in rooms this small again.