Skills Wales Competition

Skills Wales is an annual event where colleges across the country compete to see who is best in each field, this year the Skills Wales competition was held in Cardiff. The competition for the music students is commonly and justifiably called the “battle of the bands” and Coleg Menai’s young participants were all ecstatic to perform. Nearing the end of 2023 Coleg Menai students were presented with the opportunity to audition to become part of a band that would compete in Skills Wales 2024. According to one of the staff at the Skills Wales competition, “The work that Grwp Llandrillo Menai does in the competitions has developed greatly over the last 5-6 years”. The college students chosen for the competition were first-year student Osian Griffith and second-year students Owen Williams, Alex Roberts, and Morgan Evans and together, they called themselves “Onslaught”, later renamed “Immortum”. According to Immortum’s bassist, Alex, the second they got together till they performed on stage, they practised nonstop. Band guitarist Owen mentioned how he looked forward to performing in Cardiff and seeing how other bands do, he thought that it ended much better than he expected. He jokingly added how the best part for him was that he got a new guitar while he was there. As for their drummer Morgan, he expressed that he genuinely enjoyed performing on stage in Cardiff. He also mentioned how it was his first time performing in a metal band since he usually performs in brass bands so he found it to be a cool experience. Finally, Immortum’s singer and lead guitarist Osian commented how other bands in the competition had a better stage presence and how it could be something that could be improved on. Even though Immortum didn’t win the competition they stayed together and released their debut single “Hell Raiser” and have performed live in venues such as Pontio in North Wales.