Fellowship of the Strings Tour review

The following was written by Jojo, from the Fuglymaniacs site. At the end of the review there is a link so that you can see the original review with the videos that Jojo took of the show that night. --MMB

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Houston, TX - 8.2.16 The Fellowship of the Strings tour had finally arrived. HOLY GRAIL/ EXMORTUS/ SPELLCASTER.

Headed straight to the show after work. 8:55pm and Spellcaster is on stage doing sound check.

Spellcaster hails from Portland, Oregon. We missed Mastema local band formerly known as Legion. They had a name change?

Spellcaster is good to go 9:05p Rudyard's is actually keeping their time slots fairly close for a change.

Their sets begins with a prerecorded intro & a blast of smoke rises. They have a smoke machine!? The crowd approves. It's a first for a Rudyards show that we seen there. The smoke alarms go crazy but it doesn't matter, you can't hear them. Spellcaster is on stage and they demand your attention with those soaring vocals, twin shredding guitars and catchy hooks.

Exmortus is a band from California. They are next on stage, we missed them earlier this year. Glad we get a second chance to catch 'em live. 'Ride Forth' their latest albums is well reviewed by metal heads and Fuglymaniacs agrees. Get it!

These guys are definitely a blue-collar band. They have to Houston three times this year and singer Jadran "Conan" Gonzalez says they will be back before the year end. Exmortus latest release 'Ride Forth' has cemented their print in the metal scene. Metal Heads will expect great things from them from now on. The bar has been set high and these guys are ready to deliver.

When asked if they are working on the album he says they have ideas as to what to do next. Also asked if they had made it overseas yet? He said some offer have been extended to them but nothing great yet.

Exmortus surprised the crowd when they did a guitar 69 shredding solo: one leans over each mid section took over his guitar and continued playing. Their precision is impressive. Last time we witness this kind of shredding, class was in session with Scale The Summit.

Holy Grail was headlining this show. This band is from California. Luna has described Holy Grail as "a modern band with a new twist of old-school metal with death metal riffs, modern breakdowns, and power-metal singing". Critics have described the band as playing traditional or retro heavy metal with thrash influences.

2016 has been a challenging year around here. Every time we make it to a show like this it makes it all worthwhile. This show was perfect for us.

1.) Rudyard's cover was $11

2.) Show started at 8:30 pm even thought we missed the local band Mastema hey, it's Tuesday and we have lives too imagine that.

3.) They were all done a little past midnight.

Bands like these keep heavy metal alive and well. Road warriors earning it the hard way. We bought some merch, just trying to help out with their gas for the next show. Keep it up guys. Had a great time!!

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