Sunday, May 15th, Port Amoral, a local Winnipeg metallic/emo/hardcore band played their CD release show for their debut album Jade Dead Eyes. The band includes former members of Figure Four and the Cast.

The Collective, an intimate, stuffy venue, quickly packed to see the opening bands: Buried In Denmark and the New Aesthetic. Both played really tight emo-ish music with a lot of intensity and heart.

Next came Every New Day, a rapidly rising band with a song getting airplay on the local radio station and a video gaining some significant rotation on Much Music. These guys were sick. Playing a really tight set, they blew the place apart with their heavy rythms, pounding drums, passionate vocals and crowd banter. They had a pretty insane pit going, with all those crazy jock hardcore kids kung-fu dancing and doing cartwheels. It was definitely not the place to be unless you wanted a free trip to the local accident and emergency. Anyway, from a distance I safely rocked out to Every New Day; they were great and seemed really appreciative of their spot on the bill that night, sending out props to Port Amoral and encouraging the audience to check out the new CD.

After the end of ther set about fifteeen minutes elapsed and Port Amoral took the stage. Despite only being together for around a year, these guys already have quite a reputation for intense live shows and incredible talent around Winnipeg. They have already played a lot of shows and the packed venue was a tribute to their hard work and amazing musicianship. The band announced that they would keep it short and simple and blast through their album from start to finish and that would be it. The album is 7 songs and about 25 minutes long. They kicked off and proceeded to blow the crowd away. The singer sounded amazing, sliding easily between hardcore screams and more melodic singing. The guitarists were both amazing, each displaying a great amount of skill. One of the guitarists also sang some backing vocals while rocking out all over the stage. The stage presence of the band was good, and they sounded tight. The drummer was, as always, in top form, playing hard and fast.

Highlights of the set included the amazing "When Angels Fall" and "The Pressure Point," both of which received strong crowd reactions. The pit was going strong and the venue was boiling.

Catch Port Amoral on tour this Spring if you can, they put on an incredible show. They'll be playing across Western Canada, the West coast, and the Mid-West with Savannah until mid-June.

Opening bands: both solid 7/10
Every New Day: incredible, watch out for these guys 9/10
Port Amoral: great show, highly talented band 9/10