Brantley Gilbert - Making Country Metal!!!

March 8th 2015

London, o2 Arena, UK

***1/2

Bringing' a bit of G'n'R to Country!

Country to Country Festival

Brantley Gilbert ***1/2 might not be most people in attendance thing, he mixes up Country with Rock and Metal, making him a little bit too heavy for usual goers to the Country to Country festival. I have to say he is much lighter than his performance suggests on record, making me think why has he gone so heavy with his live show.

This up and coming Country / Metal / Rock star puts on a really big live Rock spectacular of a show, the video intro is something to be witnessed on it's own, but in some ways I think it's all polish to iron out the cracks. Their is quite a few things that are just not right in his performance. I have heard his albums and enjoyed them very much, but his vocals don't seem to be as strong live as they are on record, and that is a real disappointment.

You notice this from the start of the set as he bursts into 'Kick it in the Sticks', because you can't understand a word he is singing he is crackling and crocking too much. It's not his accent... I understand the lyrics on the record, it's just his vocals are not strong and he seems to be struggling a bit. I don't know if he is ill or he his harmed his voice from constant touring. The guitar work from his band on this song is really cool and you feel like your at a stadium Rock show.

I do think his influence are all over the place from Country legends like Garth Brooks to bands like Five finger death Punch and Black label Society which he even sounds like at some points in the performance. We all know he is influenced by Guns 'n' Roses which you can hear in his set, especially in his tribute track to it 'My baby's Guns 'n' Roses'. He also samples riffs from them, Metallica and Korn amongst loads of others. This is really fun to hear and makes you pay attention to his set even more, and this is one hell of a Country Rock song about love.

He knows how to mix up American Rock so well with Blues and Country like on the track 'If you want a bad Boy' which he sings really chilled out. He also get's with the vibe of the festival with the brilliant 'You don't know her like I Do', which is a really beautiful and well written Country song that pulls out the heart strings. He follows this with a song about when someone wants to mess up your day 'Take it Outside', because some days we all want to take things outside and show someone a piece of mind. So I think this is a great song to get this out of you and even sounds like Five finger death Punch in places.

He then changes it a bit with his song 'Bottoms Up', which has a really cool melody to it and a real Pop Country chorus to it. This was a big hit for Brantley and you can see why it's really great song and it's so well written. He follows this up with taking things old school Blues / Country with the track 'Hell on Wheels', which is a song that could have been written a long time ago.One of the highlight of his set is when he plays his song dedicated to the American armed forces 'One Hell of an Amen'', this song is a heartfelt song in honour of his friends that were lost fighting for their country.

After slowing the pace down a little he brings it back up with 'Read me my Rights', a song about if someone broke into his house or put their hands on his family... he would bring out his gun and shoot them. Then he would tell the police officer that come to arrest him to "Read me my Rights", hense the name of the song. I can understand his point of view and it makes a really powerful song that has a killer guitar solo at the end.

The screens behind him then show lots of very nice Country girls doing sexy things on the phone or on their bikes, followed by scenes from the video 'Small town Throwdown' which he has just burst into. The video for the song ends up in a big party Country style. Nice women... pick up trucks and beer. I think any guy would like to go to this party, it looks a lot of fun. He ends the set with his massive hit 'Country must be Country Wide', which is greeted by mass applause and a sing-a-long at this years London, Country to Country event. This is also a big song to end off his set with so works really well.

I did really enjoy Brantley Gilbert but I do wonder if he would have made it as a Rock star, not a Country star... maybe in time he will cross over into the Rock / Metal World and we can find. It seems like something he might like to try. I have to say I have listened to his music a lot more since the festival and wonder if his vocals sounded better, how the performance would have been. I will certainly be going to see him again and see if he can pull out all the stops and impress me more, I do think he has it in him to pull of a flawless performance. I just think maybe this was not his day.