Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Stone the Crow

Details: Written by: Daniela Vorndran; Published: 19 May 2007

Underground, Cologne, Germany
16th May 2007
Stone the Crow, iO

After several headliner tours and support slots for bands like INCUBUS, PAPAROACH or 3 DOORS DOWN, STONE THE CROW are counted among the very good live bands. With the new album ‘Fitting the pieces’ the four guys have new material which wants to be presented live on stage. Catchy chant melodies lie over a pushing rocking instrumentation and striking riffs and remind of giants like TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE or FILTER. Support on the evening in Cologne was the new band IO. The band members are not unknown though: Dennis, Henning and Stefan were ¾ of the GUANO APES and singer Charles was working with international artists such as SHAGGY or MARY J. BLIDGE.

iO

Even though this band is very new on the market, the band members have quite some musical background. Besides the singer Charles, all other band members were forming the GUANO APES together with their singer Sandra at that time – GUANO APES were probably the most famous German Cross-Over band. IO is completed by singer Charles who was working not only with the mentioned SHAGGY or MARY J. BLIGE but also with well-known BACKSTREAT BOYS. IO are Charles Simmons (vocals), Dennis Poschwatta (drums), Henning Rümenapp (guitar) and Stefan Ude (bass). http://www.io-rocks.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/ioonline

Music
The sound of IO (pronounced “eye-oh”) can be described as high quality Cross-Over somewhere “between Living Color, Nirvana and No Doubt” as the band’s myspace site says. The alternative Rock sound with its heavy guitars of IO still is close to the previous band GUANO APES but the band creates something specials because of the soft and soulful, sometimes rock-tinged voice of one of Germany’s best soul singers named Charles Simmons. So, with IO you’ll get an explosive mix of Rock and Soul combined with serious lyrics which deal i.e. with the stupidity of people (‘Stupid People’) or protest against Nazism (‘Fight back’).

Music and lyrics are dynamic and catchy, deep and emotional. People at the venue got immediately hooked up by the stuff presented on that Wednesday evening. IO don’t want to live on the success from the past; they want to convince with the things they are doing now. And let me tell you, they will make their way. So far, there is no complete Album of IO available. But at the show you had the exclusive chance to buy some songs on CD already.

Performance
After entering the stage, Charles asked people - it was not that well filled in the venue - to come closer to stage. Then, a very powerful concert started. Especially Dennis acted like a maniac behind his drums. I really wonder how he could stand the whole show acting like this. But obviously he did. ;) Also bassist Stefan was very active. I.e. he changed the flat stage ground for the bass drum to stand on - not without a small accident when he ripped out the cable from his bass. ;) But that was easily fixed again.

Singer Charles was a very likeable person on stage. He announced nearly every song in a sweet broken German - you must know that he’s just living in Germany for a few years now. Before the song ‘Fight back’ started, he spoke about living in Germany and that he likes this country a lot. But some things he doesn’t really like. And that’s right wing extremists and neo Nazis. So, that was a song against such people. People in front of the stage were dancing and even jumping from the beginning. Especially some people the band knew from a festival a few days before were welcomed. Personal highlight for me was the very cool cover version of PRODIGY’s ‘Breathe’. After the show, the band received more than only an honest applause. The only thing to moan about was the really lousy light “show”. I don’t mind if it is much reduced in a small club, but the limited possibilities of the Underground have not been used.

Setlist
01. Rage
02. Say Something
03. Don’t mean nothing
04. Stand my Ground
05. Stupid People
06. Fight Back
07. Epiphany
08. Blind Faith
09. Legacy
10. Breathe (The Prodigy cover)
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11. The last to know

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 8
Light 5
Total 7.6

Stone the Crow

The new album ‘Fitting the pieces’ is the fourth album STONE THE CROW released so far. The item “Alternative Rock” does only insufficiently describe the bandwidth of the band’s output. The new album is modern, haunting and intelligent with pushing rocking instrumentations and striking riffs as well as catchy melodies presented with the charismatic voice of singer Marc.

The band was founded in 1996 as quartet in South German Hall. After they were covering numerous songs, the four guys now wanted to create own songs. With Tom Schenk entering the band as bassist in 1997, he also brought influences of keyboards and samples into the sounds. After STC won the VIVA Clip-Attack-Award in spring 1998, the band got signed by Polydor (Universal) and released the highly acclaimed single ‘Daylight’ in 1999. Several support slots of well-known bands followed.

After the release of the second album ‘Year of the Crow’, the band had several problems with their label and so they changed. A third album was released, the line-up changed but the band never made the big break-through and the band was close to splitting up. Finally, the album ‘Fitting the pieces’ was recorded in the band’s own studio and released in March 2007 through the band’s own label. STC are Marc Stone (vocals), Marc Richter (guitar), Tom Schenk (bass, programming) and Armin Dürl (drums). http://www.stone-the-crow.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/stonethecrow1

Music
The band’s influences reach from DEPECHE MODE and NINE INCH NAILS over TOOL and FILTER to ALICE IN CHAINS and Creed. So, it does not surprise that STC covered DEPCHE MODE’s ‘People are People’ and released it as the first single of their third album. Originally, this song was on the play list for the Cologne show too, but due to time reasons, this and some other songs had to be skipped. STC did not only cover DEPECHE MODE but also NIN. Usually it is a sacrilege to cover this band – in my opinion – but STC presented a very soulful and touching cover version of NIN’s ‘Hurt’ that I really liked. But let’s start at the beginning of the show…

As one could expect, the main course of the show was the current album which was acknowledged with about the half of the presented songs. The set started in the same order like ‘Fitting the pieces’ - with the two rocking songs ‘Edge’ and ‘Honesty’. To remind the audience of older times - yes, it is already five years ago when the last album ‘reduce to the max’ was released - several older songs have been presented, starting with ‘See inside’ from the mentioned album ‘Reduce to the max’ and followed by the very first single release ‘Daylight’. After 2002 ‘Air’, with ‘Coming home’ spreading its very own charm with unusual drumming, another new song followed. ‘Passenger’ again led back to the past to the ‘Year of the crow’ while we came back to current times with the following ‘Healing’ that sounds a bit like COLDPLAY - not that this would be a bad comparison.

My personal highlight followed then with the already mentioned NIN cover ‘Hurt’. You just had to close your eyes and you got carried away by the sound and the warm voice of Marc that is not as brittle as Trent Reznor’s voice. I wonder if this cover version is already released somewhere or if a release is planned? After ‘Another 14 day’ with the rocking ‘Skin’ and the Nu-Metal influenced ‘All’ two more fast new songs were on the list. ‘In one’ - originally planned as an encore - was next in the set. The main set finished slower with ‘Lunar’ - a song that makes “the listener fly in free fall through terrific sound atmospheres during the chorus”. Because of the tight time schedule and the planned disco night afterwards, there was only time for one more song, even though more was requested. So, ‘Hate me’ from the ‘Year of the Crow’ album finished the set.

Performance
That this band has some years of live experience due to support slots of well-known bands - like lately for 3 DOORS Down - and sever headliner tours, was really obvious. Like the previous singer Charles, also Marc pleased the audience to come even closer to the stage. And people followed his invitation willingly. The mood within the band and the audience was great from the beginning. Singer Marc was running over the stage and jumping and guitar player Marc was jumping too.

All in all, the light “show” was not better than during the support act, but I need to stress the song ‘Hurt’ again when in pure NIN manner all lights were dimmed down and only one small spot fixed on the microphone stand enlightened Marc’s face. Maybe this was a bit too much NIN, but it worked anyway. During the faster songs, Marc was pushing the audience to clap or reach their hands into the air. Towards the end of the set, he even left the stage to jump within the audience. I must say - even though it was quiet a manageable crowd - all had fun and I loved the concert. Without any doubts I’d go to see this band again. Well… maybe also to have another look at the adorable singer too *gg*.

Setlist
01. Edge
02. Honesty
03. See Inside
04. Daylight
05. Air
06. Coming Home
07. Passenger
08. Healing
09. Hurt (NIN cover)
10. 14 Days
11. Skin
12. All
13. In one
14. Lunar
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15. Hate me

Rating
Music 8
Performance 9
Sound 8
Light 6
Total 8