Tonight, at the Leadbeater Hotel band room was the debut album launch for Cassidy Paris’s ‘New Sensation’. Paris is the first Australian female and the youngest ever artist to be signed to Frontiers Music SRL record label and in the past week has collected two 2023 Femmetal Awards for ‘Best Break Through Rock Act’ and ‘Best Release of a Break Through Act’.
Tonight, the band room was full of punters, family and other musicians waiting to see Cassidy and her band’s launch. Cassidy Paris is the new generation of Aussie rock chick. Her influences of classic rock and idols such as Pat Benatar, Joan Jett and Pink can be heard in her music and voice, but she also brings her own style. Cassidy has surrounded herself with talented band members with her dad Steve Janevski on lead guitar, Davey Gee on guitar and the very talented Welsh imported brothers Alex Rogowski (drums) and Tommy (bass) from Mad Haven, who are having a break to tour with Cassidy. Cassidy herself also plays guitar on some of the tracks.
Cassidy reminds me of Lita Ford and tonight she performed a duet with special guest Danny Cecati from Wicked Smile, with the Ozzy Osborne and Lita Ford song ‘Close You Eyes Forever’. Cassidy and her band are trying to bring original rock’n’roll back to the fore front of the Australian music scene. With her talent and drive I think she has a big future and in the words of Molly Meldrum “do yourself a favour” and go out and see Cassidy Paris and take a listen to her music. You won’t be disappointed and by the sound of the crowds cheering and clapping you will be thoroughly entertained by this exciting young talent and her band.
ANA are a 5-piece symphonic metal band featuring Anna Hristeko on vocals, Josh Mak on lead guitar, Tory Giamba on bass, Cleveland Beckford Gonzalez on drums and Matthew Williamson on keyboards. At first glance I would describe this band as “beauty and the beasts”.
The male band members all wear leather studded face masks with Anna standing out front, hair blowing by the fan, looking like a rock goddess. Then they start to play hard, heavy and fast symphonic metal. When Anna adds her vocals, I could hear influences from Amy Lee of Evanescence. It is obvious that she has a classically trained voice with touches of an operatic tone.
ANA are theatrical and only one song into their performance I realised it was not “beauty and the beasts”, but the “she-master and her pets”. The Russian lead singer is every metal boys fantasy with her powerful voice and sexy performance. The boys in the band play great guitar rifts, strong drum beats backed with classical keyboard overtones. They are very entertaining with songs that start softer and build to big epic numbers. They were on stage for forty minutes and played an eight-song set. If you are interested in seeing ANA for yourself their next Melbourne gig is at Cherry Bar on the 23rd of February, for the launch of their latest single ‘Ouroboros’.
Among the Restless are a energetic five-piece band with Rhett James on lead vocals, Lochie Dunn on guitar and vocals, Seams Glenn on guitar, Jaidyn Hale on drums and Josh Marra on bass. They hit the stage with a bang as they tore into a seven song, thirty minute set.
They were loud and grabbed your attention with their indie fused hard rock. Among the Restless sound reminded me of Stone Temple Pilots. Lead singer Rhett’s personality is reflected in his bouncing and dancing which covers all of the stage.
The highlight of their set was the song ‘Star Crossed’ with the crowd singing loudly back in answer to the chorus “how long, how long”. Among the Restless are a guitar-driven band who have a hard hitting sound and give a spirited performance.
Photos by Oz Greeny’s Photography
