ÔÇÿWe play loud. We play heavy. We play hard. We play fast.ÔÇÖ claims Woking-based hardcore band Palm Reader. The crowd gathered at CardiffÔÇÖs intimate The Moon Club venue on Womanby Street this Tuesday 15 October were not left disappointed by a band that more than live up to these comments. Despite some technical difficulties (including guitar string breakages), the British five-piece got the evening off to an incredibly chaotic start, with vocalist Josh Mckeown jumping into the empty spaces of the crowd and bassist Josh Redrup swinging his instrument around all the audience members. Supporting their critically acclaimed new album┬áBad Weather, it proved a very energetic and passionate start to the evening. Even though technical matters werenÔÇÖt always on their side, at least no one got knocked out by a bass guitar to the face.

On second were We Butter the Bread with Butter, a German band formed in 2007 that could be best described as a synth-led version of SlipknotÔÇÖs more polished latter-day material. Their performance went a lot more smoothly than Palm ReaderÔÇÖs, which was probably for the best due to the simplicity of Palm ReaderÔÇÖs show compared to the production that We Butter the Bread with Butter had. With strobe lighting, smoke and lights coming off various items of band membersÔÇÖ clothing, it was quite different to the casual chaos that the previous band had shown, but equally as commendable. With the setup that the L├╝bben-based band had and their larger following in mainland Europe, itÔÇÖs not likely that theyÔÇÖll be playing venues this small for much longer.

At a gig of this size, there seemed to be a lot of support for all three bands on display, which was a nice contrast to bigger gigs that tend to be primarily about the headliner. That, however, did not stop Devil Sold His Soul from having the largest crowd of the event. Now on their third album, the Londoners combined the harsh vocals of Bring Me The Horizon with more ambient post-rock passages reminiscent of Explosions In The Sky, combining the two in a similar manner to bands such as Deftones and Tool, having developed a following playing at Hevy, Damnation, Slam Dunk and Guilfest Festivals as well as supporting the likes of Sylosis and Architects. New vocalist Paul Green fitted in very comfortably onstage with the rest of the band, and thatÔÇÖs when he wasnÔÇÖt crowd surfing supported by just enough members of the audience to hold him up. The slowest-paced musically of tonightÔÇÖs acts, the fact that new single Time received one of the best responses of the event┬áshowed that Devil Sold His Soul with Paul Green are a band that will have a lot to say in the future

 Alec Evans