(This has actually been written before the weekend's events regarding Asking Alexandria. I still mean it)

So. It's Monday night and I have just used my day off to see Asking Alexandria in Southampton. And contrary to many people in our scene, I am not going to slag them off. Far from it. So, so far from it.

The evening starts with Shvpes (yes, another band who has thought it was a reasonable idea to swap an A for a V). Seconds before they walk on stage, I remember one thing - they used to be called Cytota. There was a time when they were a bunch of sixteen year olds from Birmingham who had had to miss school to tour with Rise To Remain (there was also a time when we thought Rise To Remain was the Next Big Thing and I was the leader of that movement, but that's a story best kept for another day), and their singer left and Griffin Dickinson joined and they became Shvpes with a V.

I used to love Cytota, I even have an old EP of theirs at home and it has a safe place in my iPod, but I'd never listened to Shvpes when they made the change, even though I meant to. And it's fair to say tonight was a great introduction.

The bunch of sixteen year olds has grown up and the potential they had shown then has exploded, fully grown into something great. There is absolutely no way I can fault any of the musicians, they all sound incredible and so tight, you'd hardly believe they only are in their early twenties. Griffin Dickinson has inherited his father's impressive set of pipes (side note, his father is none other than metal legend and household name Bruce Dickinson, FYI), and he has enough charisma to fill the entire planet (which is arguably something he has also inherited from his birth giver). I'm just not a fan of the rapping parts. I can't fault anyone at all, there is talent all over the place in that band, the music is catchy as hell (think of Limp Bizkit but heavier, more technical and with less Fred Durst. Yes, you know what I mean) and they are going to go places, but the rapping bits are a bit bland to my taste.

And then Asking Alexandria.

They're a tough band, Asking Alexandria.

They're tough to be in, because, quite frankly, they have a horrid reputation. Mention them and you'll just hear that their fans are "screaming little girls" and their music is trashcore and "not even metal". (I'll spare you the homophobic comments you'd probably find in the Metal Hammer comment section on Facebook). Mention them and you'll just hear about how they used to trash hotel rooms as if no other band, ever, has ever trashed a hotel room.They just have to take one for the whole metal team, it seems.

They're tough to be in because they had to pick up the pieces when frontman Danny Worsnop left to become a country/old Southern rock singer/whatever it is he's doing with himself as we speak. (To be fair, I don't think anything could surprise me coming from him. He'd announce he's starting a disco side-project tomorrow and I wouldn't even be remotely shaken). It's something recovering from the departure of any of your band members, but your singer, your frontman and the centre of gravity of your band? It's something else. It can make or break you.

And they are tough because against all odds, they have made it.

The sold out Engine Rooms evening is part of their summer European run (which also included the mighty Reading & Leeds), and is also in support of their newest album (and personal favourite) The Black. See, I'm not a massive Asking Alexandria fan, I liked them alright, and then my brother decided they were his new favourite band. Or something. And I pulled some strings and we went to see them in October, and I saw them again at Warped UK, and I very much enjoyed myself. I mean, metalcore, pyro and bad jokes? I can live with that.

The bad jokes are absent tonight as guitarist Ben Bruce is missing due to his girlfriend having a baby (that was a bomb dropped, if I may. I follow the man on every damn social network and somehow, I've managed to miss out on this?), and I was worried. Not that I thought the show was going to be less than great without Ben. Not that I only care about Ben. But when I had seen them in Paris back in Octobre, Ben was the frontman. Yes, Denis Shaforostov sings and is the one who fills Danny Worsnop's quite frankly ginormous shoes, but the real frontman is Ben. He's the one who talks on stage and he's the one who interacts with the crowd when drummer James Cassells fucks up the same song three times in a row, and he's the life of the party in that band. That's a whole lot of things to be in a band and I wondered how the guys were going to cope without him.

And they did just fine. And even more than fine.

I'm not going to say you couldn't notice Ben's absence because it's simply not true. But old pal Sam who filled in on the guitar and whose surname I didn't catch, the crowd who sang all of Ben's parts as one and Denis who talked more in their hour long set than I've ever seen him do did a grand job.

I only have positive things to say about this evening, you know. I thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish. On stage, I could see a band who was united, but mostly I could see a band who can fucking deliver a performance. There were no mishaps, no songs fucked up and there's next to no risk that Denis is going to show up dead drunk and possibly high on coke or something. I could see a band who is rising up to the challenge, because, boy, shaking that horrific image away is one hell of a challenge. And they're doing alright right now. They're doing great. They're proving why they're here, why they are still here, they're offering the best they can to fans who stuck around when shit happened.

And the fans. The "screaming little girls" everyone hates so much. Of course, you can laugh at the whole package if you will, you can laugh at the fringes and the black and red checkered shirts and the black skinny jeans and the black Converse and all the clichés you read about online. You can laugh at that. But in a scene when being blasé is the new cool, where you would rather be dead than show your excitement about anything at all, these fans, they're a fucking breath of fresh air. All I see is people singing along with their friends and significant others and parents, all I can see is massive smiles and happiness, all I can see is excitement and joy. No one in this room thinks they're too cool to get down on their knees when Denis asks and no one thinks they're too cool to scream "You need a doctor baby, you scared?" like it's 2008 all over again. And I'd kill to see that kind of joy and excitement at every fucking gig I go to, because you know what? The crowd at the Engine Rooms tonight was one of the absolute best crowds I have ever had the pleasure to share a gig with.

All in all, Asking Alexandria absolutely smashed it. I feel like they take every gig as a comeback, now, as a make or break experience, I feel like they want to prove themselves once and for all and it could be the reason why the quality of their live shows has improved so much over the past year. Even in a time when metalcore is not as popular as it used to be and what we now call the scene bands are less popular than they were back in the day, I think they're a force to be reckoned with and they bring something to the table. I can't describe how, or what, or why, but they do. And they do it beautifully.




And it turns out I was wrong all along.
I'll spare you the details as they are available on every musical website on the planet (possibly followed by comments on how trashy the band is), but it turns out Asking Alexandria hadn't made it without Danny and with Denis. Denis left, Danny is back, and I'm confused.
I was genuinely convinced they were cleaning up their act with Denis. I'd said there was next to no chance he would turn up high on coke or something, but apparently there was next to no chance he was turning up at all.
No one knows what the future holds for Asking Alexandria but I do believe it's going to be interesting. Will they carry on playing songs from The Black? If so, how is it going to work with Danny's vocals? Just how is it going to work with Danny at all?
I suppose I'll see for myself in April as they will be heading out on a European run with Parkway Drive, and I suppose this tour will shape the beginning of the answers.
Who knows.
See how things have changed in literally two months.
This band is just full of surprises, aren't they.