IF my mother had been with me, God rest her soul, she would, on seeing progressive metallers Tesseract, have said: "Those boys need a good feed."

New lead singer, Elliot Coleman, apart, the other three members of the Reading outfit looked like they hadn’t seen a decent meal for weeks, but I guess that’s life on the road.

The turnout, as Coleman, pointed out was best described as intimate, but that should not be a reflection of the band’s draw as I have seen others attract far less and yet still go on to prosper in the past.

Loud and heavy, with periods of intricate fret play, punctuated by Coleman’s gutteral roar, they sought to get the crowd on side and, among the faithful, that was achieved.

Sadly, the sound was not good and it was often times hard to distinguish Coleman’s more tuneful moments from the noise created by his largely earnest looking cohorts.

The narrow stage confines did not help matters, but having seen their work on YouTube prior to the gig, I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed by seeing them in the flesh.

Highlight of the night for me was support band Chimp Spanner, whose instrumental metal was far more polished and whom would not have looked out of place headlining.

Matt Westcott