“REFORGED” KAINE – 5 YEARS TOGETHER AS A BAND

Is it a surprise that you have now been together for five years?

Rage: The “Crisis” line-up collapsed immediately after Hard Rock Hell 2018 and before that album was properly released, it was a whirlwind few months but it seems that was the best thing to happen to this band. I would guess that two weeks to put a new line-up together and not miss a single gig has to be a world record of some sort!

Isaac: When I first joined the band, I was not too sure how long it would last, to be honest. But 5 years on and it is as good (albeit somehow more chaotic) than it was when I joined.

Toby: I think it is more of a surprise to everyone else than it is to us!  I was a little 18-year-old with short hair when I first joined.  My first promise to Rage and Liam was I would grow my hair out, which I did. Now I am desperately trying to grow the matching beard, but it seems my face wasn’t told that I’m now a fully grown man!  To be honest this lineup has felt solid since our first gig. Isaac and I had been playing together for a few years before Kaine, so we knew how each other worked.  We all get on well as well, which I think is why we have kept going.  We can joke with each other (most of the time at Liam’s expense) and at the end of it, we still love each other.

Liam: Yes and no. I am surprised that I became the drummer in the first place. I first came across Kaine in 2014, just as I was finishing senior school, and have been a fan since, and although I had been friends with all the guys since then, I was still surprised when Rage first got in touch with me when he had gotten the news that Chris would be leaving. I am also surprised we managed to get the lineup together 5 years ago so quickly, but I think as time has gone on, I’ve realised that this is most likely a lineup for the long haul. We all have a common goal, we are all mostly on the same page when it comes to songwriting, and we have all worked our arses off to get to where we are now.

How does it feel to be the most consistent line-up the band has had, and the only one to appear on back-to-back releases?

Isaac: I feel quite proud really, I know some people out there do not see us as the “real Kaine” but hey, they can think that. It is not my problem.

Toby: Ha-ha, we are the REAL Kaine now and there’s nothing you can do about it, Sean Connery!

Liam: I cannot honestly say I have thought about it too much. I guess it feels good. I think Rage will have stronger feelings because he is the one who had to deal with losing previous members and changing lineups before us. The consistency of this lineup has been rewarding, we have been allowed to make the band our own and I think what we have now is the definitive sound of Kaine. It is the culmination of the influences the previous lineups had drawn from (which I also love), and the influences that I and the other guys have been allowed to bring into the band.

Rage: Having stability in the line-up has helped me no end in trying to push things forward. Previous versions of the band seemed to fall apart right at the wrong time, meaning we had to start over every time. As far as I am concerned, this version of Kaine is its own band and the line-up. Of course, I am proud of past achievements and the work I did with past line-ups and members, but this has been the band solidly for five years now and has earned its right to be the band known as Kaine and is enjoying the rewards of not giving up on the project and sticking to the mission.

Did you expect to have recorded two full albums with the band?

Liam: Yes, I did. I began writing my stuff for the band pretty much from the get-go and knew that whatever happened, I wanted to record and write with the band for as long as I could.

Rage: I had written Reforge The Steel as we were putting this line-up together, so yeah, that was always my plan to do these albums, and more!

Isaac: When I first joined, I was not even very familiar with the band’s back catalogue, so wasn’t even sure how many albums they had under their belts already. So, I had no sure way of guessing how often we’d be in the studio.

Toby: I think Reforge The Steel was recorded and released within a year of the lineup coming together.  That’s silly when you think about it.  We could not have been together for a month when we started working on the first songs which was great.  It made us feel like we were the future of the band rather than playing the other guy’s songs.  I still loved playing the older stuff but there is something more special about playing songs we had put together.

What was the difference between writing and recording the new album After Extinction and Reforge the Steel?

Isaac: Except for the 4 or 5-hour drive? I feel that AE shows more of our individual influences than the previous releases we have done.

Rage: I wrote significantly less of this album, there is probably the least amount of my music, and solely my music, on this release than any previous, but then you could argue Reforge The Steel was as close to a solo album from me as you could possibly get anyway! I was more than happy for the guys to contribute to most of After Extinction!

Liam: I think the only thing I did not expect was how quickly Reforge the Steel came together. I knew that Rage already had a lot of the songs pretty much ready to go so that did give us a head start, but going from a demo to a full band composition still takes time, and a lot of work. We were doing a song a week at one point, while still doing gigs every other week and as a result keeping the setlist up to a high standard, while adding new songs as and when we were ready. I think that was probably the hardest we’ve worked when it comes to the writing process, pretty much just to hit home to the public that the band was not dead after the Crisis of Faith lineup dissolved earlier in the year. We got the lineup together in the spring of 2018, got the songs completed and ready to record by the time autumn was drawing to a close, and I recorded the drums for the album in the winter. I knew that we were going to be able to take our time with the writing for After Extinction, although admittedly I did not expect the process to be so drawn out. Thanks for that Covid!

Toby: A lot of the Reforge material was prepared by Rage already, so it was a very quick turnaround. After Extinction was a much more collaborative effort with the songs being written jamming at rehearsal which meant we could put much more of “our” sound into it.  Some of the songs were written very soon after the release of Reforge. “The Cycle” was even being performed as an instrumental before Reforge was released.

What were your main songwriting contributions to the new album, and how did you come up with the ideas for your songs?

Liam: My main songwriting contributions to the album were Bright and Left Behind, which I presented to the band as complete songs. I wrote the structure for Bright within the first couple of months of joining the band and had the lyrics mostly completed, aside from a couple of tweaks, by the time August 2018 rolled around. I wrote them on a plane, while I was flying to Canada for my father’s wedding. The inspiration for the lyrics was just the idea of rebirth, which was the theme across Reforge. That is probably the reason why it feels more light-hearted than the rest of After Extinction. I wrote the song structure for Left Behind around the autumn of 2019. I was not sure about it originally, as I thought it would be too tacky and cheesy compared to the other songs we had brought out and were writing at the time. I even gave it the working title “Cheesy as fuck”. Luckily Rage liked it a lot, so we went ahead with it. I wrote the lyrics at around the start of 2021, although a lot of the pandemic memories blur together for me. The subject for that was a lot more personal. Like a lot of others, I have lost multiple relatives to dementia/Alzheimer’s disease. My step-grandfather was the first to go, and then in 2019 and 2022 I lost my great-grandfather and great-grandmother, whom I was always close with throughout my life and witnessed their deterioration. The subject of the song itself is the horrible feeling that someone in the initial stages must be feeling as they feel their mind slipping away, the mixture of fear, acceptance, and desperation to hang onto yourself. My final contribution to the album was the lead break before the solo in Protesting for Profit, as well as the final 2 riffs of the song after the last chorus. They were parts of a different song I was working on during the first lockdown, but something just was not clicking fully with it. In rehearsal, we could not figure out how to progress PFP, so I just said that I have a couple of sections from another song, let’s give them a try. And luckily it clicked perfectly!

Toby: I supplied the bulk of the songs “A Slave to the Grind” and “The Storm is Coming”.  Slave is a fast-riffing thrashy song with some delicious harmonies and clean sections. It’s no secret that I’m a big Megadeth fan so this riff was inspired by their stuff.  It is fast, it’s intricate, ITS SPEED METAL!  Storm was written when I was listening to a lot of Galneryus and I wanted a song with massive lead guitar breaks so I could play and pretend to be a power metal guitar god.  I love classical-inspired repetitive guitar leads which is where the main melody came from. It is a fun song to play even if I’m not a power metal guitarist and the solo is too fast for me to play.

Liam: I am not going to pretend that I wrote anything truly musically original on either Bright or Left Behind, I have no issue with saying what influenced me. 2 songs/albums that had come out at the time really defined 2018 for me and the band, they were Firepower by Judas Priest, and Prequelle by Ghost, from which I was inspired by a couple of chord ideas from Rats. Left Behind, unbelievably, was inspired by Strangers by Dragonforce, off their most recent album.

Isaac: My main contribution was most of the title track, After Extinction. It was originally just a video of me in my bedroom at 1AM with a guitar played acoustically playing a couple of riffs. I did not know that it would end up being the title track of the album.

Rage: A lot of my riffs are songs such as Second Coming, Protesting for Profit, and New Age Martyr but these were very collaborative songs, the only song that was purely “mine” really was Green to Grey but even then, the guys contributed to that.

How did the Extinction After EP come about? How was that written?

Isaac: Whenever we are writing songs, we always seem to end up with a selection of riffs and songs that we always have in the books. We ended up having too many for the current album so decided to release what is almost a “disc 2” with the other songs that we wanted to use but didn’t get a chance to. Some of the others were songs that were not quite finished when we were recording AE.

Rage: We just jammed the songs and they just turned out as they did with no preconceived ideas, none of the songs were ideas we previously had or had even demoed, we just jammed them in the studio.

Liam: Extinction After was just a case of us bouncing ideas off each other in the rehearsal studio. The writing process kicked off around the start of 2021, before After Extinction had even been recorded, with Toby playing the intro riff from what became All Hail the Evil One while everyone else was setting up, and Rage’s ears pricked up. We then proceeded to put together most of the structure in that session. I pitched in another riff of mine, which I guess you could call the main chorus riff. Again, I had another song for the beginnings of a side project I want to do, but the song did not click so I pulled a riff from that for us instead. I did the same thing for the chorus lead-in Dragonlord as well, although I thought that up on the spot as we were looking for something to beef up the chord progression of that section. That was the case for all the EP, we wrote the whole thing together in the rehearsal studio and put all our ideas together. On Repeat was just a fuck-about song. Rage also worked in a way to rip the band Wet Leg to pieces, a band that we all cannot stand! We have played it live a couple of times, the funniest time was when we played a show at the Rep in Ipswich last year, and Toby and Isaac went through the crowd to play the song on the staircase up to the balcony. It is essentially just a jam, it never had any real structure, and it never will!

Toby: That was written entirely through jamming in rehearsal. I’d play a riff. Rage would say “Is that yours” and we’d jam that and see what came out of it.  I think our best stuff to date is on that EP. It’s a bit heavier than people are used to from us but that’s never a bad thing, is it really?  There are some hard sections to play, there’s a lot of down-picking, and it’s an all-round riff fest.  “On Repeat” also ended up being much better than it needed to be. It was supposed to be making fun of [insert god-awful indie band here] but it turned into a shreddy, silly musical joke.

Last year you had your first tour together as a band. What was the 2022 tour with Lillian Axe and Riot Act like?

Liam: Tiring… extremely tiring. I think the maximum amount of sleep I got on the whole tour was 4 hours. Most of the time we were surviving on half that while taking turns driving the van ridiculous distances to the next show! I remember Toby being passed out backstage after we came offstage at The Underworld in Camden, the last show of the tour, and he didn’t appear until the end when we packed up. We also really got on each other’s nerves, I found that me and Toby in particular butted heads more frequently as the tour went on. I think that’s more because Toby knows exactly how to wind me up and I fall for it every time! That’s about all the negatives though. The rest of the experience was incredible. Every band played killer sets every single night, the laughs, and memories we took from it were amazing, and it’s a time I will never forget. Also, all the guys in both Riot Act and Lillian Axe are incredible human beings and we all became good friends on the tour. I hope our paths cross again soon. You can guarantee that the next time either of those bands come back across the pond for a show I will be there.

Isaac: It was a new experience. Some tempers were tested a little, but what can you expect when you’ve only had about 4 hours of sleep for almost a week?

Rage: Touring with legends such as Lillian Axe and Riot Act was an honor and privilege. You can learn so much from acts like that, who are superb live and experienced. I love these bands so playing with them was a bit of a magical moment for me, I basically watched them live every night, taking it in and trying to learn from what they did. They were all absolute heroes to us as well! It was good to finally tour with the current line-up!

Toby: That was an amazing time.  We all got way too sleep deprived and it was the closest we’ve come to hating each other but and the end of it we still loved performing and making music together.  If there was ever going to be a test of how well, we worked together that was it.  I know I can be an extremely annoying person to be around for any extended period and I did my best to get on everyone’s nerves.  We had “everything-man” Alex and Charles “in charge” with us which was a lot of fun.  6 of us crammed into a Vauxhall Vivaro crew cab.  Trying not to die from lack of sleep and in Rage’s case whatever he’d eaten the night before.

Isaac: Also gave me the incentive to check if a sofa is a sofa bed before sleeping in a chair for two nights. Just for Toby to mention he has the same one at home just as we’re packing up and leaving.

Rage: I don’t understand what they are complaining about, I don’t remember being tired at all. I am like that normally.

Are you looking forward to touring together again this year with ex-WASP legend Chris Holmes?

Isaac: I was not expecting to hear about going on tour again so soon after the previous one. It was only a couple of months after we got back from the previous tour with Lillian Axe and Riot Act that we got the offer.

Rage: Again, much like with Lillian Axe and Riot Act, someone like Chris Holmes is a legend in American Rock/Metal and was a huge part of W.A.S.P and that band’s golden era, playing on all the big albums and tours. It’s an honour to support him, and again I will be watching, listening, and learning all I can.

Liam: I am looking forward to the tour with Chris Holmes. I’m hoping for a similar experience to the Lillian Axe tour, and there are also a few different towns that I’ve never been to before added to the tour. So, I’m excited about it.

Toby: Of course.  This one has some days off which will be very much needed.  I think we all know now how to take care of ourselves better on the road, so we don’t end up near death again.  We’re going to some new venues and new places so I am hoping we can pick up a few new friends in the week to further push us closer to being the rock stars we’ve dreamed of.

What are your favourite gigs and moments from the past five years?

Isaac: Of course, my favourite gig has got to be the Kaine X show at the Colchester Arts Centre. But another that I had fun at was the last show on the Lillian Axe tour at the Underworld in Camden. It’s been a venue that I’ve seen bands in over the last few years and have always wanted to play on that stage myself. And last year we had the chance to.

Rage: So many great gigs, headlining and packed-out Colchester Arts Centre was amazing, playing a sold-out Dome Tufnell Park supporting Blaze Bayley for Burr Fest was another amazing show, any of the tour gigs from last year!

Liam: Oh god there’s been so many amazing moments over the years. I think my favourite shows with this band have got to be headlining the Colchester Arts Centre for the Kaine X show in 2019, as well as Burr Fest at The Dome in London in 2020, our last show before the pandemic tore everything apart. My standouts from last year were also playing The Robin in Bilston and The Underworld in Camden, and also playing Club 85 in Hitchin and the Portland Arms in Cambridge earlier in the year with our good friends in Planet Fatale and Neverworld, with Death Valley Knights and Raze also on the lineup respectively. 

Toby: The 10-year show at Colchester Arts Centre was without a doubt a highlight.  Since seeing Dragonforce there as a teenager it had been a dream of mine to play there.  It lived up to every expectation I could have ever had.  It was packed, we played great, it was such a party.  Burrfest was also a highlight.  Isaac and I had previously seen Man With A Mission and Band-Maid at The Dome so that was also an exciting gig.  Getting to play on such a big stage on a lineup with some big names in the world of Iron Maiden was such a big moment for us as a band.  And of course, Liam falling off the back of the stage at The Smokehouse in Ipswich is a favourite moment of mine.  How can you fall off a stage that is two inches tall and pressed up against a wall?  YOU CAN’T, BUT OUR DRUMMER CAN!

Liam: Since being in this band, we have had so many experiences that should not be real. I don’t know what it is with Rage, but he seems to attract the weirdest bullshit everywhere he goes. I dare say he’ll tell the most bizarre account he can think of. I will tell you of a more recent one, and it happened on the first day of the Lillian Axe tour, at The Robin in Bilston. At the time, we had gotten to the venue on time, but the venue wouldn’t let us in for some reason. We went to the reception to see if they’d get someone to open the door for us. They didn’t immediately, in fact, we were stood outside for at least another half an hour before finally being allowed in. If I remember correctly, it was pissing down with rain at the time as well! Our guitar tech, Charles, was starting to get a bit more restless as time went on, becoming more and more desperate to go to the toilet. Eventually, he caved. He did what none of us would think of doing, he ran to the houses across the road, and knocked on a random stranger’s door, asking them if he could use their toilet. Amazingly, they let him in! He spent the next 15-20 minutes in the household of this good Samaritan, absolutely punishing their toilet, and finally emerged from their house much happier and probably about a stone lighter. I suspect the toilet needed counseling though…

Are you excited about the 5-year celebration gig coming up at Three Wise Monkeys?

Liam: Yeah of course I am. Not only are we playing with a lot of friends of ours, but I’m excited to celebrate our time in the band. Kaine X was the last event of that kind, but I think the main attraction, intentionally, was the one-off reunion of the Crisis of Faith lineup, and their setlist at the end of the night. It’s gonna be nice to celebrate solely our time in the band, and it will be a good chance to look back at what we’ve built together, and how far we’ve come as a live act. 

Isaac: Definitely, nice to have a local gig with other great local bands and friends that we’ve known for a long time.

Toby: Of course, there’s been some struggles on the way but it’s looking to be a great night.  We haven’t played in the newly refurbished Threewise Monkeys yet so I’m excited to see how the place looks.  We’ve got a great lineup together for the night with Osmium Guillotine and Heathen Kings who we’ve played with multiple times before.  Killerkorp this lineup of Kaine hasn’t played with before but I’ve seen them a couple of times and they’re an amazing live band.  The gig is exactly 5 years since my first appearance with the band and I’m hoping I don’t hit as many wrong notes as I did that night.

Rage: Killerkorp is an exciting, young, Ipswich band that I have been following for a few years now and will be great on the night. Heathen Kings is another “new” band with members I have known from various acts over the years, whose music fits perfectly with ourselves and Osmium Guillotine, and obviously, we have a relationship with Osmium Guillotine going back years and my favourite band! Ticket sales have gone amazingly well considering we’re up against Blur, and Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses just doors down on the same night! It’s going to be huge! Live album recording, video, the works!

What can people expect from the new live album?

Toby: Well, speaking of wrong notes…  I’m hoping there won’t be any.  There might be.  OK, there probably will be.  You’d think we’d know the songs by now, but we can always surprise ourselves with some atrocious renditions.

Isaac: A mix of older and newer songs from the current lineup, a bit of something for everyone.

Rage: Unlike previous live albums, I won’t be mixing it thankfully!

Liam: Hopefully a decent performance! 

What are your ambitions for Kaine going forward?

Isaac: Hopefully we can get more tour offers or even a decent record deal/management contract.

Toby: I’m still hoping Rackstardom comes for us.  It’d be wonderful to do the music thing full-time but until then just more albums.  I’d also love to play some international dates at some point.  That would be a lot of fun.  Some more tours would also be great.  I’m hoping we can start to work our way up as a regularly touring band.

Liam: My ambitions for the future are simply to continue building upon the foundation we have laid for ourselves since 2018. Slowly but surely, we will expand our fanbase and continue to build Kaine as a brand, and we have way more plans in the works to do so, and hopefully, they will bring much bigger and greater things for us. This takes a lot of time and work, but I know that all of us, Rage in particular, have the drive to get it done. I truly believe that this is just the beginning for us, and we can only become bigger. We have ideas for the next album too, I have 3 complete song structures already, along with a couple of lyrical concepts. After the tour is done later this year, we will probably start the writing process properly.

Rage: We are taking things one step at a time, but we’ve seen real growth over the last few years, our albums are doing better than ever sales/streams wise, our merch is doing good, our Patreon is strong, and only rare gigs are poorly attended and that’s usually due to poor promotion outside of our control. We are back touring, we are playing bigger venues, and we can go even further still.

What festivals would you like to play in the future?

Liam: I would love to play the biggest festivals, such as Download, Bloodstock, and Wacken, but I can’t say I think of it that much. Wacken would probably be the ultimate goal.

Toby: I think it’s every metal band’s dream to get to Waken, isn’t it?  How great would that be?  Playing in Germany with what would without a doubt be a stupendous line-up.  On the other hand, I’d love to play something where we’d be completely out of place and upset the crowd.  Glastonbury would be funny.  They always get upset when someone like Metallica headlines. So, to have us on a smaller stage mixed in with a bunch of acoustic acts and indie bands would hopefully start a hippie riot!

Isaac: I’d love to play a festival like Wacken or something similar, but smaller festivals are also on my radar.

Rage: I would like to do Wacken, but realistically both Damnation and Incineration festivals would be two I would love to do in the near future. Proper brutal, real, Metal festivals with no bullshit attached. They attract a good crossover of people too.

Any dream gigs or venues?

Rage: I would like to play some of the o2 venues again on a future tour or get the chance to play the Waterfront in Norwich in support of a bigger band, the Arts Centre in Colchester again, and a few places like that! I would love to play in North America, Germany, and Japan someday too!

Isaac: Dream gigs would probably be supporting a large household-name band like Megadeth etc. But a venue I’d like to play in would probably be the Underworld again.

Toby: Any arena or stadium would be amazing and anything with an enormous stage would be great too.  I’d love to play The Underworld again but without the weeks’ worth of sleep deprivation that we all had last time.   Colchester Arts Centre is always fun, so I’d love to play there again.  I’m also a massive Marty Friedman fan so to support him at some point would probably be a life-making moment.

Liam: A dream show would be to play in an arena. I’m not sure who with whom, but I would just love to play either an arena tour or a one-off arena show. The perfect scenario would be us headlining it, but realistically that probably won’t happen!

DRUM RECORDING FINISHED FOR NEW KAINE ALBUM AT UNIT ONE

“What a weekend that was. I have been running on fumes all day and had less than a standard night’s sleep in the space of 2 days (probably about 5 hours sleep total), but this weekend was the best one I’ve had since the beginning of 2020, before the world came crashing down! Recording was very smooth, and I managed to get all my stuff done with plenty of time to spare. I feel like I pushed myself way harder than I ever have in any performance, and the new songs that we have are gonna be a bitch to replicate live 😂 but it’s worth it, it’s easily the best album Kaine has ever done and I’m really proud of all the stuff we’ve written.

The gig was definitely needed, my god it felt good to be back on stage again. It was the first time I’ve seen a lot of our crowd of hooligans in well over a year, and it was like we never left! I never thought I could miss the arseache of loading in and packing up, or sweating like a motherfucker on stage! Even the first gig beer tasted better than ever. It was bizarre having everyone sat down, but hopefully that will go away as planned by the time our next one comes around, then it’ll be a true comeback!”

Liam Etheridge finished tracking the drums to the new Kaine album this weekend. The bands 5th album contains 9 brand new songs, a number of which saw their live debut at The Music Room, Ipswich on Saturday. Engineer Wayne Thompson will now be editing the drums in the coming weeks as the band looks forward to the tracking of the guitar and bass as soon as possible.

3 YEARS OF KAINE REFORGED – BUT HOW DID THE NEW VERSION OF THE BAND COME ABOUT?

The new version of Kaine was officially formed on May 12th 2018. But How did we arrive at this point?

The short lived 2015 line-up

The original band had been formed in 2009 and had had various line ups over the years, the people in the band would usually gradually change over time so things didn’t seem so radical to the wider audience. However in 2016, following the departure of founding member Dan Mailer (bass/vocals) and Ant Murch (lead guitar) in 2015 the line-up of myself, Chris MacKinnon (drums), Saxon Davids (lead guitar) and Stephen Ellis (bass) formed in 2016. Dan and Ant had been known to most people as they had both performed on our first two albums, Dan had left in August 2015 and Ant left at the close of play in 2015. Stevo had been with us a few months already when Anthony departed, and Saxon first joined the band in 2014 as a substitute for Anthony on a tour he couldn’t do and just remained in the band from that point alongside Anthony so the transition between Dan and Anthony departing didn’t seem that different or radical to those who had followed us for years.

The 2016-2018 version of Kaine
HARD ROCK HELL – 2018

The 2016 version of Kaine would go on to be a very popular line-up, from playing our regular shows at The Soundhouse in Colchester, the Asylum in Chelmsford, the B2 in Norwich and The Smokehouse in Ipswich among others. We built up a real following of regular gig goers and supporters during that period and began to write a new album, which would eventually end up being A Crisis of Faith, an album which we played most of the stuff live before we recorded it. There was a real emotional attachment between that group of guys and audience throughout that period and real desire to see us do well. We released A Crisis of Faith in early 2018, and although our fans loved it, it was largely ignored by the wider Metal audience and it didn’t really pick up much steam. Because it took a more modern, proggier direction from our previous release The Waystone it was met with a lot of criticism from the New Wave of Traditional Metal community and it generally didn’t go down well with that audience. We had a number of gigs booked and were also on the biggest festival billing we had ever been on, at Hard Rock Hell Metal 2018 playing the same stage as Grave Digger. We played the gig and we went down a storm at the sold out o2 Academy, Birmingham and it looked like to many on the outside that things were about to happen for the band.

Sadly, life doesn’t work out that way.

Liam joins in April 2018

Internally within the band there were a number of personal circumstances that would force change. Chris was the first to depart not long after that in April, but this was largely an expected departure due to Chris own circumstances and thus I had already sounded out Liam Etheridge as a potential replacement. Liam is someone I knew from way back as his old band Asylum had played with Kaine on a number of shows, someone who I knew was a good drummer and a decent guy and someone who I thought would work really well for the band. I did however offer Josh (or original drummer) the opportunity to come on board again if he would like to, but he was busy with A Bribe for the Ferryman and Dismanibus at that time as well as working with Elimination. Chris formally left the band and Liam came in the week later, rehearsed and we were back to gigging almost straight away with no downtime. Stevo however had said to me at this point that he didn’t enjoy playing in the band without Chris and said he would stick it out but was generally unhappy.

A few weeks go by and Saxon calls me to inform me that he was leaving the band to move to America to be with his then fiance. I accepted his resignation and then called Stevo to offer him his release from the band. Both agreed to stay as long as it would take to find replacements.

I called Liam and gave him the bad news, and we agreed that it was probably game over for Kaine but we would see what our options were and try and keep it going.

I offered Dan and Anthony their old spots back, but Dan had recently joined Osmium Guillotine as a vocalist and was suffering from carpel tunnel syndrome which was restricting what he could do on bass. Ant was playing in covers bands and couldn’t commit to Kaine at that stage. People may think its strange to invite former members back to the band but I feel its a matter of courtesy. Josh, Dan and Ant poured a lot of their own time and money into Kaine in the early years and the band simply would have never existed without them. The least I can do is offer them their position back if it comes up. I never want to be one of those musicians who never asks someone back or holds grudges about departures. Life happens. People have their own reasons for leaving bands, usually varied and you can’t take it personally and you have to respect what they did to help make that band happen to begin with. We wouldn’t exist without those guys, or anyone who has been in the band these past 12 years and they deserve the credit for what they contributed. I knew they couldn’t come back, it’s just a matter of respect, and I respect them enough to ask, even if it is a “no”.

So, the night of the departure announcement I put up an advert for both positions and go to bed thinking that it was probably game over. In fact I had written a retirement statement that night anyway as I had fully expected it was game over. At that point in my life things were a bit of a nightmare anyway, I had started shift work in a warehouse after being made redundant the year previous from a job I had been at for a long time. I was working hard and my hours were all over the place, so my brain was scrambled trying to adapt to that on top of the band imploding suddenly immediately after an album release. I also had a ton of unsold CD’s, shirts and vinyl’s from that release which probably cost me close to £10k to produce altogether that without a band, wouldn’t have been sold so I was in a bit of a desperate situation financially as a result. I am not a wealthy man, so spending that sort of cash (not all at once might I add) on making that recording and then printing the CD’s, Vinyl and shirts to not sell them would have been a huge issue as I wouldn’t have had money to survive on! I think it’s worth pointing out that there are no issues between myself and any of the members from the A Crisis of Faith line-up. That is not the reason the split occurred. As with anything, its more complicated than that and I respect their decision to leave the band.

Toby Woods joins in 2018

A few people have had digs at me for my decision to continue the band. They probably don’t understand that the A Crisis of Faith line-up wasn’t the original band and we had always had changing members over the years. They also were probably unaware of the financially implications to me personally if the band did end. I swallowed all of the bands costs (and still do) and don’t get that money back without sales so for me to put out a record without selling it would have been financial suicide for me at the time. This wasn’t about my ego.

The next morning I was messaged by a guitarist named Toby Woods about trying out. I asked if he could do Saturday, which he could, which was just a few days away and we booked in a try out. Toby went away and learned the stuff. That day I had a message from Dan suggesting I try out “this guy” and sends me a video. He had tried out for Elimination when Dan was working with them and didn’t get the gig. It turns out that guitarist was Toby. Dan’s pretty good at spotting good players so that’s a good endorsement to have going into your first try-out with Kaine!

On the Saturday session at Pioneer it was myself, Stevo, Liam and Saxon with Toby. We go to start playing Heavens Abandonment from A Crisis of Faith and Toby just didn’t join in. I am thinking in my head, this isn’t good and look over to Liam who looked back at me in silent agreement. We stopped playing and asked if he wanted to join in this time. So we start and Toby then plays the song through exceptionally well. Relief. It turns out he was just watching Saxon to just get an idea of how he played the song! The rest of audition went perfectly and we offered him the gig, well Stevo did actually, which was a bit cheeky as he was leaving the band as well! But that was fine as we were in a agreement. We causally asked him as we packed down if he knew any bassists and he said he had a mate who could play bass. We asked if he could ask him to try out, and by that evening his mate was booked in for a audition the following week. Toby was announced for the band and Saxon had officially departed as of that point. He never did find America though.

The week after Isaac Healy, who Toby had played with in Cannon, tried out for the band. Myself, Liam, Stevo and Toby were present. Again it went well and he was offered the position, which he accepted. He and the new line-up were announced that night. Toby would have his first gig with us on the 19th (the following weekend), which would be Stevo’s last show, at The Smokehouse, Ipswich and the new bands very first gig would be May 26th at the B2 in Norwich and we have been together ever since.

Isaac joins Kaine a week later!

During this period I started writing what would become Reforge The Steel. We would learn and work on the new songs between gigs and even began recording it in November 2018, just months after the line-up had changed and not even a year after A Crisis of Faith. We would continue to gig and work on the new album, Reforge The Steel until it was finally released in 2019. We’ve since played 40+ shows together (which would have been a lot more before Covid hit!) released The Waystone anniversary EP, two live albums, another EP and are just about to record a brand new album. This will also be the first time in the bands history that the same line-up has appeared on back to back albums.

I will cover more detail from the new line-up period in more posts throughout the week, I just thought this would be a good starting point to give more details on how this version of Kaine formed, and why.

LIAM ETHERIDGE – ON HIS 3 YEARS IN KAINE AND HIS FUTURE WITH THE BAND

What was your first gig with the band?

My first gig with Kaine was in April 2018, at The Devonshire Arms in Camden, a tight, sweaty little metal venue with a really cool looking aesthetic. It was barely a week after I’d joined the band, and I’d only had one rehearsal with them prior to this! Good thing I already knew the songs as I was a huge fan of A Crisis of Faith when it came out. We played with Eliminator that night, and they killed it as always. It was a good turnout, and I made way less mistakes than I thought I would. Put it this way, I thought I was gonna turn the thing into a train-wreck, but I somehow made it through with very minimal errors!

Not long after joining the A Crisis of Faith era of the band was over, how was it to be part of in essence a new band?

Well obviously I had no idea that it would be the end of that era and the start of a new band with the Kaine name. I’d been a fan of the band since 2014, with The Waystone line-up, and I was so stoked to be in a band who’s music I already loved, and I thought that A Crisis of Faith was the absolute pinnacle of everything the band ever did. To some extent I still do! I just thought that we’d go on with me on drums instead of Chris and everything would be fine and dandy! But nope, that wasn’t to be, it soon came crashing down. Although in the end I think we proved that it was for the better.

I remember when Rage broke the news that Saxon and Stevo were leaving, and I was pretty shocked. We were on the phone for a good while discussing the next move. We came very close to ending it, but ultimately decided to carry on, and the rest is history. In terms of building the new band it was an awesome experience. I feel lucky in the sense that we all gelled together very well as musicians and people very early on, and now I feel we’re stronger than ever after releasing Reforge the Steel, a comeback album in a sense, and getting the feedback that many people thought it was the best thing we ever did. I think the next album is better though.

What is working with Rage, Toby and Isaac like?

Apart from the occasional tirade, and extremely frequent bullshit, it’s brilliant. Then again I enjoy some of the bullshit as well…

We’re all really good friends, I feel we’re on the same page creatively about 95% of the time, and I feel that together we’re a live force to be reckoned with. When we’re well rehearsed I think we’re unbelievably tight, and playing on a stage with them is always a brilliant thing. I love the songs we’ve written together, and I love the whole experience of playing a gig with them all.

My only gripe is that only sometimes, we will be writing and I seem to be the only one who will ever actually listen to a demo and learn it before coming into rehearsal… then again I have come to realise that that’s just the way the guys learn the songs, which is totally fine. I guess I just prefer to know what I’m playing before I have to go in and rehearse it, but they prefer getting the feel for the song with everyone present!

What have been the best experiences over the past 3 years?

The best experience for me was headlining Colchester Arts Centre in April 2019 and damn near selling the place out. It was an incredible time, and at least on my end nothing went wrong whatsoever. I cannot begin to describe how awesome the feeling was! Other highlights would definitely be playing Burrfest, our final gig of 2020 before the world came crashing down! In terms of other occurrences, on a friendship level, the best was the recording process of Reforge the Steel. I loved the drive up to Bury to do it, I loved the studio, and it was just a really nice atmosphere while we were recording. Seeing how the whole thing came together was really cool.

You have recorded two EP’s and Album with the band as well as two live albums, how has it been working on so many projects since joining?

Fun. Very fun, and the fun will continue with the new album! I really enjoyed recording my parts, and then watching all the layers be built on top of them. Every time we’ve left the studio I feel satisfied with what we’ve all done, and feel like we have done our absolute best. 

What was recording Reforge The Steel like so quickly after joining the band?

Honestly, the writing was more surreal than the recording of it. It came together very quickly in the rehearsal rooms, and the recording process on my end ended up going very smoothly. We finished all my parts in 2 days, and I was able to sit back and watch the process of the album coming together as a spectator of sorts. Safe to say I smiled a lot when more and more harmonies were being added!

Your working on yet another album – what have your contributions been to this one so far?

It’s better than Reforge, honestly. The songs are bigger, they’re heavier, they’re faster, and I think as a unit we’ve created a piece of music that could stand up against any release from a bigger band. We’ve all contributed on this one, so it’s a really cool creative effort. I have put forward 2 songs for the album, currently titled Bright and Left Behind, which I wrote structurally and also lyrically myself, and I have also got loads of other songs ready to put on the next album, whenever that may be! I’m proud of not only my songs but the whole album, and I genuinely feel it’s the best thing Kaine has ever done. This is the way the band is going, and you won’t be disappointed with it! 

Gigs are finally back on, are you looking forward to being back?

To say I can’t wait is the understatement of the century. I can’t wait to have the whole gig experience again, and I can’t wait for the audience reactions when we return, and I can’t wait to hear what they think of the new songs! We’ve already got some great shows lined up, so the second half of this year is gonna be a damn good one!

What are your objectives with Kaine going forward?

To get the band’s music out to as many people as possible, and to hopefully be able to tour the world, either as a support or headline act. I think we’re capable, just waiting on that break, which I wholeheartedly believe could come from this album. My other objectives with Kaine are to really push my playing style and improve as a drummer. My drumming on this album is already much more complex than the last album, and faster, but I still feel I have a long way to go before I’ll be truly happy with myself as a player.

KAINE DRUMMER NOW STREAMING ON TWITCH

Liam Etheridge has started to stream his gaming footage on Twitch. So far he’s been playing Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty Black Ops – Cold War. You can follow his channel by clicking here.

Feature with Liam Etheridge (KAINE – DRUMS/BACKING VOCALS)

Liam has been the drummer of Kaine for the past two years

We’ll be doing a number of features on the members of the bands, their music origins and how they became a part of Kaine over the coming week. We’re starting off with the man behind the kit…. Liam Etheridge!

At The Firehouse, Southampton

When did you first take an interest in music, when did you decide to start playing drums? 

I’ve really always been interested in music, I can’t think of a time in my life where my life didn’t revolve around it, obviously not just in a playing aspect but a listening aspect. I got a lot of my music taste from my grandparents, who not only listened to older bands I grew to love over the years, but also had a lot of underground taste in the Manchester music scene in the mid-2000s, and there were a few bands from that scene that they befriended and ended up becoming a massive influence for my playing. Funnily enough it was from one of those bands that I got my first drum kit, back in 2008!

Classic AC/DC

What would you say your biggest influences were in the beginning? 

In the beginning, my biggest influences were two bands in particular, the first of which was a band that my grandparents knew called The Words, who were a part of the Manchester music scene from 2006 to 2011, and made some excellent music in the time they were around. It was from them that I got my first kit, but the band that first made me realise that I wanted to be a musician was Wishbone Ash, who still remain my all time favourite band to this day, and are without a doubt the most important band I ever listened to. Their iconic 1972 album “Argus” still remains my favourite album of all time, and I was lucky enough to meet founding member Martin Turner when I went and saw his version of the band in Hertford in 2019 to thank him for what the band had done for me. It was these 2 bands I would start playing along to as a kid, prior to my first proper drum kit, with one single tom (which actually belonged to my small cousin!), and a kit made up of 2 board game boxes, one of which I distinctly remember being a Cluedo box! 

In terms of getting into heavy metal, a lot of the music I discovered on my own, or through my best friend at the time in primary school/early senior school, but the first heavier bands I listened to were AC/DC and Iron Maiden, which were shown to me by my stepfather. One of my earliest memories of heavier music was my family being on a holiday in Florida in 2008, the soundtrack being AC/DC’s Black Ice album. Maiden have remained as my second favourite band, and are another one of my biggest influences.

Liam with Martyn Turner, ex Wishbone Ash

So, you started out in a band called Asylum, when did that start and how did that progress?  

Asylum started as an original band in 2014, but the origin of the band goes back to around 2012, before I joined in late 2013, when they were a part of Harlow Rockschool, named Bacon Bandits. They started off performing covers, and then when we changed the name it was me and our guitarist Brad Burtenshaw who started to write originals together. At the time I was really happy with what he was putting out, as we were having the same kind of influences, i.e a lot of 80s thrash metal, and also Pantera in particular, as well as bands like Avenged Sevenfold on my end. We started to get some momentum and we could’ve started doing some pretty cool stuff! But unfortunately after Brad and our singer Rylan did their GCSE’s in 2015, the band just fizzled out, which I think was a shame. 

As Asylum you supported Kaine at several shows back in 2014 and 2015, how did you first discover the band?

I first discovered Kaine in the beginning of 2014, through an ad on Facebook. I saw that it was for fans of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica, so therefore I had to check it out. The first song I heard was Iron Lady, and when I first put that on I was blown away. It was fun supporting the band at that time, as a fan of the band. It was pretty cool to befriend the other members aswell. My favourite gig of ours together was when we played the Asylum in Chelmsford, in October 2014. That was our first gig as an original band, and it was also generally a really fun night.  

At the Hunters Bar, Bury St Edmund’s

You were surprised that they were playing the Speakeasy in Epping for their Waystone album launch what do you remember about that gig?

I remember when it was first announced I was confused because I had no clue it had been booked! We played that gig when we were still called Bacon Bandits, sadly no originals at the time. It was still a great gig, and we had a great time and seemed to be well received. At the time Kaine were becoming quite a big deal for me, and I was a real fan of their music, having had the Falling Through Freedom album on rotation for the previous couple of months. That day was amazing not just for that gig, but I also was introduced to the band themselves, aswell as our good friends in Osmium Guillotine. 

*Entropy were originally meant to play the same night, a band which featured Saxon Davids who would go on to join Kaine a few months later.

Liam working hard in the studio

You have played a number of the songs from The Waystone both in the studio and live, what’s it like to be playing those songs now as the drummer in Kaine, have you put your own stamp on them on the upcoming EP?  

It’s exciting! I was a big fan of the original album when it came out, although looking back as a member of the band I could sit back and assess how I would’ve approached the process of the album. Chris has a very different playing style to me. He has much more of a funk influence, whereas I’m much more of a straightforward thrash metal drummer, so it’s been really cool to go through the process of this EP, a chance to revisit the tracks and be able to put my own stamp on them, to play them how I think they should’ve been played. I can’t wait for people to hear it! 

So, after Asylum, what have you done musically since? 

After Asylum, I was a part of another covers band called Ultimatum throughout 2015. I was in that band with the bassist and singer of Asylum, and another guitarist called Aidan. We spent that time basically just playing a load of covers, ranging as far as Green Day to Slipknot, essentially just playing gigs with material that we enjoyed playing together. I left that at the beginning of 2016, and was largely inactive for the rest of that year, and for most of 2017 too. I then got back into the scene by joining a Basildon based band called Scarred By Name, whom I found on an advert. After I got the call to be in Kaine I found that the band never really did anything. It was not just because of that, but also the band had their own families, and our guitarist was suffering from bad back problems too. I then got the call to join Kaine in around March 2018.

You attended the Kaine gig at The Green Room in Welwyn Garden City in February 2018 not long after the release of the A Crisis of Faith album and you were in the band a little over a month later, what was that like? 

That was a cool night actually. It was the first time I’d ventured outside by myself with none of my usual mates. Just jumped on the bus from Harlow to Welwyn and had a great night. A Crisis of Faith is an absolutely fantastic album, so I was glad to see that lineup arguably at their peak, firing on all cylinders. It was good to see Rage, Chris and Saxon again aswell, as I had not seen any of them since around 2014/2015, and hadn’t met Stephen before. I had a great time, banged my head, and got very drunk, can’t complain at all! I had no idea that the following month I’d get the news from Rage that Chris had left the band, and that I’d been asked to join. That whole month was quite a rollercoaster, but it was a great experience.

You jumped in during immediately after the release of A Crisis of Faith and not long after Saxon Davids and Stephen Ellis departed the band, how did that feel, did you think it was the end of Kaine?  

I played a couple of gigs with Saxon and Stephen, and they were really enjoyable, even though my first gig with the band was less than a week after my first rehearsal! Thank god I was a fan and knew the songs anyway! I was really excited for what could’ve been, so I was absolutely gutted when Saxon and Stephen said that they were going to leave. I was genuinely scared for what would come next, I thought it could well be the end. I remember speaking on the phone with Rage that night and I’d never known him to be so unsure of anything. He didn’t know if he could keep the band together, although we both agreed that no matter what we would try. I felt it was the end, but then we were saved when Toby was introduced to us, and Isaac was introduced through him. They truly did save the band.

Kaine…. as serious as ever after playing The Bassment, Chelmsford

The new lineup of yourself, Rage Sadler, Toby Woods and Isaac Healy was formed in a fortnight, was it strange to have joined a band to be playing in an entirely new band almost immediately?

The prospect of playing in a new band wasn’t as strange as the speed with which it was put together. I didn’t even know it was possible to do that, I can’t think of anyone else who has pulled that off, so full credit to Rage for being able to make that happen! I never thought in a million years that the band would be reformed as quickly as that, as we then played our first gig with this lineup much less than a month after Saxon and Stephen announced they would leave. It really was quite a surreal experience, but it worked out so much better than I could have ever imagined, and I am having more fun than I’ve ever had playing music. I cannot wait for what the future brings this lineup, after the release of Reforge The Steel. 

Reforge The Steel was written and rehearsed very quickly during that period, how was the process for you as a new member of the band? 

It was a brilliant experience, my first experience of really writing an album. I had obviously been a part of writing a few originals before, but never really had the pressure of writing an entire album. I was really excited with the material that Rage had written for the album, and I genuinely believed we could be better than any other lineup of the band. The chemistry between all four members throughout the writing process was great, and it felt good for everyone to have a common goal for how the album should sound, something which I feel we will have way into the future. I couldn’t have been happier with the way the album came together, with such quality material in such a short space of time. So again, full credit to Rage for that.

Liam with Kaine fan Wally in 2019

You released the album back in October 2019, just a year after A Crisis of Faith how did it feel to release of the album? What are your favourite songs from the new record?  

It was cool to finally have something properly released with my name in the credits. It felt really good to see the amount of people that listened to it, and the amount of praise the album received, even with comments commending my drumming on the album. I love all the tracks on the album, but I would say my favourite tracks are Black, To All My Love, The Dragon Reborn, and the title track. The album has a lot of twin lead influence, so being a big fan of bands like Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy I found it really cool to see the band take that direction with the music.

Reforge The Steel on NWOTHM Playlist
At Kaine X, Colchester Arts Centre

You have played a few big shows with Kaine already, how did it feel to play a packed out Colchester Arts Centre for the Kaine 10 year show, and how did it feel to support ex Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley recently at Burr Fest?

The Kaine 10 year show was just something else. None of us expected it to turn out the way it did, and it was my biggest gig to date ever. I remember prior to the show sales had been pretty good, but I did not expect the event to be nearly sold out by the time the night arrived. My best memory was coming out of the backstage area not long after the doors opened, peeking out from behind the stage, and seeing the amount of people that had already arrived. It was rammed before any bands even came on, it was amazing! I didn’t think we could top that until we played Burr Fest this year, which really was a special experience! For me that was this bands best ever performance, and to do it alongside ex-Iron Maiden members, in particular Doug Sampson and Blaze Bayley, was amazing. I had a brief conversation with Doug at the bar not long before Blaze went onstage, and he really is a top bloke! I also managed to get my poster signed by Blaze, which was really cool. The whole experience was just incredible, and I feel so honoured to have been a part of it, and it was an honour to be so well received by the Burr Fest crowd. I hope one day we can be asked back!

Liam playing the Dome, London for Burr Fest 2020

You also play guitar, how long have you been playing? 

I have been playing guitar by myself since early 2014. I have never played guitar in any bands, but I have obviously written my fair share of originals with it, a few of which you may hear on the next Kaine album!

You have written a number of tracks for the new album, do you like having the freedom to write in Kaine?  

I love that I still have creative freedom in this band. I was obviously more than content with my role during the Reforge the Steel cycle, but it’s been really cool to finally bring my ideas to the table. I have three tracks ready for the new album so far, so it’s been cool to record them and send them to the band. It’s also a relief because I have been sat on one particular song since April 2018! The feedback from the guys on my songs has been good as well so that’s exciting.

From the Reforge The Steel photo shoot

All the rehearsal and recording activity has been suspended due to the Corona virus outbreak, are the band still writing and communicating while everything is suspended? 

We are still communicating every day, bouncing ideas back and forth and making sure we check in on each other regularly. I myself have been very busy during the time indoors. I have been furloughed by my day job, so I now have a lot of spare time to put my tracks together properly. It’s definitely kept me sane, because otherwise I feel I’d be bored to death! 

Black from Kaine X

There is a new live album coming soon from the B2 Norwich last year from the Reforge The Steel album, how was that night for you and are you looking forward to releasing another live album? 

That was a fun night actually, and another night that I didn’t expect to be as good as it was turnout wise. It was mired by some technical difficulty, and also tainted when we found out in the car that a close friend of the band had unexpectedly passed away that morning. But we managed to get through it, and both us and Osmium Guillotine played blistering sets, despite the horrible news. I feel we really made a great night of it, despite the circumstances. I’m looking forward to releasing this live album, as it really does sound excellent! 

What can you say about the new record your working on right now with Kaine? 

You thought Reforge the Steel was the best this band has done? Well just wait because this is gonna be the best album ever! It’s heavier, it’s faster, it’s amazing! 

West Ham celebrating earlier this season…

You’re a big fan of West Ham United, how long have you supported the team and what are the highs and lows of following the Hammers? Which was the last game you attended and do you think they will stay up? Favourite players?  

I am indeed a big Hammers fan, born and bred! However there are definitely more lows than highs right now. I feel the last real high was our last season at Upton Park. We played some of the best football I’d seen from a West Ham side, and finished well at the end of the season aswell! Since then however, it has all been downhill! The last game I attended was in November 2019, we lost 3-2 to Newcastle. Although the scoreline was flattering, we were 3-0 down for the longest time and it was easily the worst West Ham performance I had seen to date. Although since then we have definitely played worse, it’s been embarrassing! The only player I can think of that is any good at the moment is Michail Antonio, just because he’s the only one who seems to put any effort in! If this season finishes, I cannot see us staying up! 

To order Reforge the Steel on CD please click here. There are also a limited number of CD’s and DVD’s from Liam’s performance at Kaine X which can be ordered here. You can also pre-order The Waystone EP here. You can also hear the album by clicking the Spotify tab at the top of this page.

Kaine to begin recording new album tomorrow

SLR8 - Kaine - Broken 2 LOGO

Kaine will begin recording their new album Reforge the Steel this week at Bury’s own Pointy Halo, at Red Wall Studios again with producer Carl Brewer.

Drummer Liam Etheridge, who joined the band back in April will make his full recording debut with the band as he and Rage will travel north tonight ready to begin working on the new record.

Liam has been investing in his kit over the last few weeks ready for the recording.

Kaine new line-up to debut Saturday in Norwich

acof

Kaine’s new line-up will make its debut this Saturday. Liam Etheridge made his debut back in April with Toby Woods debuting at last week’s show in Ipswich. This weekend the complete new line-up with Isaac Healy on bass will take to the stage at the B2 for the first time.

It’s also a new era for Osmium Guillotine as former Kaine bassist and vocalist Dan Mailer will be joining them as their stand-alone vocalist with a brand-new line-up which will also be playing at the B2 on Saturday.

You can find details about how to attend the event by clicking here.

Liam Etheridge makes debut with Kaine

Liam posted on the bands facebook following his debut with Kaine live at the Dev last Friday. You can see him playing with the band for the first time from the footage above.

I’ve loved reading all your positive comments, and I’m so glad that I was given nothing but support since i joined. You guys are the best! The gig last night was amazing, and in my mind can only get better! I look forward to many more good times with you guys in the future!

That’s all really, once again I wanna say a massive thank you to every one of you guys that has sent a supportive comment my way. It means a lot to me that I’ve been made to feel so welcome. Now, roll on Stamford!! \m/

Rehearsals resume tonight ahead of Fridays debut show at The Dev

acof

Kaine will be back in rehearsals from 7pm tonight again at Pioneer Music Studio in Colchester for their second session ahead of the new line-up’s debut on Friday at the Dev in Camden supporting Eliminator.