Words: Mav

Pix: Mav

Friday, the 27th of June marked the final gig for local metal giants Drive Till December, who after building a great EP and following, called it a day and split up the band. Hanley’s Underground venue played host to this sad but glorious goodbye gig, which rather than the half hearted last show of a band falling apart was the kamikaze blowout of a band making their final mark on the scene.

The band have a variety of reasons for ending but the focus has not been on the death of DTD, more on the balls out kick-ass finale show that the boys put on for their dedicated fans.

Speaking to drummer Matt after the show he said: “I'm moving to Leeds for university and felt that it would be too much for me to keep running up and down that far for the band. We also thought after 3 years of slaying Stoke we thought now would be a good time to call it a day and we don't think we could achieve more than we have done already.”

For those not familiar Drive Till December are a thrash metal band local to Stoke and among the premier of our local metal bands. Their music is hard, smart and skilful, showing a real flair for their chosen genre and a seemingly boundless rage for the stage. Their album, ‘A Means To The End’, is a must have for fans of thrash metal and it tells their story as well as any review. Their songs are serious where needed and their music demands attention.

The gig, being the last, was Drive Till December to the Nth degree. A normal show will be full of frantic energy on stage and waves of oddly charismatic fury coming from frontman Chris. This gig was all that with bells on (big spiky bells), with a brutal pit to match the brutal riffs and vocals on stage. They performed a fantastic ‘Hatchet’, one of their best tracks which is a chugging, bile-packed juggernaut that rattled bones in this final, loving rendition.

A pumped up Chris showed his sentimental side to the crowd with: “This set is dedicated to the 4 or 5 people who I love; my mother, my grandmother, my child and my beautiful girlfriend.”

Matt also added: “The last gig was awesome, we had real fun playing and the crowd were amazing, it makes us so happy to see when kids get involved like that!”

The guys weren’t going to let the fans get away with standing around on their final gig. They made sure to get people on stage, singing along, falling about and climbing the walls. There was an air of a wake to this show- celebrating the band’s achievements, not mourning it’s end.

“This last year with Drive Till December has been great for all of us and is probably the best year of my life,” said Chris as the gig drew near to a close. Just in case things were in danger of being too serious they also chucked some DTD T-shirts into the crowd, until one got caught on the light rig! In Chris’s words: “Now that’s fucking leaving your mark on the Underground!”

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We asked Matt what the big finale has meant to them. “Well, as you can imagine after 3 years it’s not something we've just let go lightly, for myself, Jon, Cal, and James it’s pretty much shaped us into the people we are today as we've pretty much grown up doing it! So there is some sadness but it’s just been an amazing 3 years so we'll always look back at it for the good times we've had!”

The gig was one to remember and the band performed 200%. They closed with the track ‘Stating the Obvious’, smashing any doubt out of the minds of the assembled fans that DTD has given up. The band may be stopping but the artists involved are were as tenacious and hardcore as ever. Support bands To All That Fail and Dressed To Kill also performed admirably, the former being a band we looked at in last month’s Sleeping Giants and who brought a huge cut of the younger crowd themselves.

According to Matt, there is a proverbial monster coming over the hill. Himself, Jon and Cal have started up a new band called 'Spires' along with Matt Weston from spitting words and Jon Wood from Mona Key, so let’s wish them all the best for the next evolution of their music and focus on the great things to come out of Drive Till December.

Thanks lads!