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“Break the Cycle III was a successful event/competition with a fair online voting system (1 vote per attendee) to give one of the participating bands a chance at the bigger and better Summer Fusion event which is scheduled for August 6th. The sound system was relatively good (a bit non consistent at times), the number of attendees was positively surprising (considering the big upcoming summer events which may be a bit of a financial burden for few) and all the bands worked the crowd like a charm (charisma meets inexperience, passion meets over-excitement perhaps?), independent of their musical performance and variety of styles which satisfied the crowd’s eclectic taste – Amer Alameddine / Patrick Saad

  • Limelight

“Well, I’m no alternative rock fanatic but I’ll tell you straightforwardly that my vote went out to these guys. Why? Well, considering that the whole concept of this event is to break the routine and support new and unknown bands all the way to larger audiences, I have found this band to really be good at what they do: catchy rock songs, groovy beats and entertaining melodies, these guys simply had a near-perfect and un-cliche alternative rock show! I also enjoyed the fact that their whole setlist are original songs, another positive issue here. I have to see these guys in a more mature shape of course (the bassist needs to work around those root notes, plenty of room to be creative there and I wouldn’t mind seeing more crowd interaction from their band). Great performance you guys!” – Patrick Saad

“Limelight is an alternative rock band that has been around for a fairly short time by now, and the band members are pretty young. But don’t let that fool you, because these guys obviously have good experience and talent. For one thing, they played originals exclusively, which were actually pretty good and portrayed creativity. Although I’m not heavily into alternative rock, I enjoyed their performance. The only minor issue they had was that the drums were a bit too loud at some points. Nevertheless, their performance was fun to watch.” – Amer Alameddine

  • Placid Buzz

“Placid Buzz is a band that covers Porcupine Tree, almost exclusively. I’ve seen these guys play before and they’re alright but their performance at this event was bit of a drawback, and it was mainly because of the sound. The lead-guitar work wasn’t heard clearly most of the time, and when they mixed distorted guitars with keyboards, their sound got too fuzzy and the vocals weren’t clear anymore.” – Amer Alameddine

“As always, cover bands need to live up to the reputation and sound of the bands they are covering and I’d say that many were waiting to hear this band that covers Porcupine Tree, and I wouldn’t say that anyone was disappointed. On the contrary, their Porcupine Tree covers are quite good (instrumental wise) and a bit shaky (vocal wise) but it was their covers for Blackfield that were a bit unwelcomed / unapplauded: perhaps not many are fans of Wilson’s other sideproject, still performance wise they better off to stick to PT, why mess up a winning formula you guys? I’d like to praise the drummer’s efforts here (although all the others were good performers as well), since he managed to handle some tough beats while pleasing the crowd with his fills and progressive influenced cymbal work.” – Patrick Saad

  • Extorted

“The band that was applauded the most, yet my personal disappointment of the night! Disappointments usually follow expectations, and I expect great things from this band (simply because I know the potential of some of its members). I gotta say that the sound was a bit noisy from the audience’s side (and the band members told me personally that they were having sound problems from the on-stage monitors as well) but that’s not the main reason why I didn’t vote for these guys tonight. There’s really no room for error with experienced bands, the fans won’t show mercy for professional musicians, and many members of the crowd were pointing out drum pedals gone wrong, switches in the middle of songs that weren’t smooth and dual guitar work which seemed to stray from the song’s structure. Me being friends with some of the band members, I could have given them great compliments and lied straight to their faces, but I guess I do care about seeing potential grow to its capabilities, and Extorted should be growing by now!” – Patrick Saad

“Having seen this band perform before, I was looking forward to seeing them again. Considering the sound, it was pretty bad during the first couple of songs. The rhythm guitars were fuzzy and were louder than the lead guitars, so the solos weren’t heard well enough, and the vocals were a bit loud as well, so the sound was generally noisy at first. When they got to the third song, their original, the sound was resolved after that. Considering their performance, it was top-notch. They managed to get the crowd excited with their great stage presence and energetic playing. The highlight of their performance, was when their bassist suddenly broke his low E-string during the last song and hung it around his neck until they finished.” – Amer Alameddine

  • Venemy

“These guys went on-stage with a one -time-only vocalist, replacing their original vocalist which couldn’t attend the event (spare the details here). Honestly, it didn’t make a difference at all, the only thing that makes me give some credit to this band is their good sense of melody and power (good composing on originals) but yet again I just am not a fan of shoving breakdowns in songs (I guess that’s the genre anyways) and I get demotivated when these breakdowns occur: I personally didn’t notice anyone banging to those breakdowns other than the band themselves and a few “core-heads” in the crowd (hey there Mr. bassist, it’s good to have a good stage performance, but can you please PLAY the bass instead of slapping it madly for show purposes hence wasting your talent and upsetting fellow bassists and musicians?) Venemy, a really good band in their genre still not something out of the ordinary that made me appreciate taking my 30 km trip to watch, hence not my vote for tonight!” – Patrick Saad

  • Scar

“This was the last band to perform. I was a bit skeptical at first, since I hadn’t heard of them before. When they got on stage, they seemed a bit tense at first, however their vocalist knew his way with the crowd, and had a great on-stage presence. They played songs by Rammstein, Metallica and Megadeth. The crowd enjoyed their show, mainly because of the vocalist, and the good choice of songs, but I have to point out that the drummer seemed a bit bored most of the time. When they ended their set and the crowd started screaming for more, they gave them a choice between two songs. When the crowd chose the song, the band started it and they seemed as though they hadn’t practiced this song well enough, and a lot of people mentioned that they would’ve been better off without it. Still, this band is relatively new, and they had a pretty good starting point as musicians” – Amer Alameddine

“This last band was a bit similar in personality to the first band: I haven’t heard of them before and they seemed to have little stage experience. STILL, their main man had charisma and that actually made me enjoyed their covers for Rammstein, Metallica and Megadeth. Nevertheless, the band messed up on a number of occasions, to the dis-concern of the majority of the crowd that’s enjoying these known and lovable covers that were being played (everyone will enjoy Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls even if the bassist had no actual resemblance to Cliff whatsoever, and the drummer was a bit ‘cold’ and low on excitement and genuineness). Overall, I hope the band focuses on a certain style and works their chemistry to avoid those small yet valuable mistakes, perhaps that’s the reason why they weren’t my vote as well. P.S: when you ask the crowd to chose between two songs for your final song of the night, make sure the band already practiced both songs before the show 😛 That final song kinda overshadowed the good parts of your performance this night… Keep up the good work gentlemen.” – Patrick Saad