As
is the case with everything, genres get diluted with mediocrity with every
emerging scene, and yet there are those bands, which set the benchmark and are
a cut above the rest. Since the emergence of the deathcore movement, whether
you like it or not, the death metal scene is perhaps thriving more than it ever
has in years. Indeed, the fact that tonight’s
show is packed out, is testament to that.
Invariably,
music will always polarise people and purests of the death metal scene, may not
accept the association with deathcore.
Indeed tonight’s bill perhaps cannot be categorised as deathcore or
death metal per se, but invariably those on the bill tonight, have taken the
blueprint of those genres married them together and given the scene a 21st
century makeover. One thing is for
certain they are undeniably HEAVY!
Arriving
fashionably late to tonight’s proceedings, a Sunday evening I might add and a
day which is ominous given the resultant commencement of another week at work,
Aegaeon Pronounced (ih-jee-uhn) are
perhaps 10 or 15 mins into their set. An
assured performance from what I am exposed too, indeed it is what we have come
to expect from the death metal genre, tight beat downs, solid guitar work ,
double bass rumbles and growling vocals are all in abundance and made to measure
for the death march ahead.
Next
up is Aversions Crown, a six piece outfit from Adelaide, Australia. What these guys present is more in the vein
of deathcore. A 3 guitar attack, laying
down cacophonous surges of riffs, with
the Man / Bear vocalist as imposing a frontman you’re likely to be abused by,
with his array of growled/screamed assaults.
Certainly they exude a certain decorum of confidence and they deal in
clinical, technically dexterous guitar work, beatdowns and bucketloads of
hate. A guitar attack, seering the
guitar neck, with made to order shred attack.
A shredders delight, for the Rings of Saturn generation.
My
recollection of Heart of a Coward, stems from a free CD giveaway a few years
back and I can honestly say, that I wasn’t particularly enamoured by it. Tonight, with the front man, Jamie Graham adorning a
Deicide shirt, I was fearful of perhaps more style over substance and yet, HOAC
with their own brand of HEAVY was certainly a highlight, brushing aside their peers
under them, with the creativity and variety of songs. What made this evening a good night for HOAC,
is having a front man, possessing confidence and enough belief in their own
ability to come out fighting.
HOAC
are not necessarily that different from their peers tonight in terms of
technicality, they just have better songs and immediately the crowd are on their
side. HOAC have taken the branding of
the American blueprint and beat them at their own game. For me, their music is not necessarily to my
own taste, but what they do, they do really fucking well. By no means are they reinventing the wheel,
but they are doing it with more ferocity, integrity and vigour.
There’s
certainly a certain degree of foreboding before the headliners, Thy Art Is
Murder hit the stage, and then we’re immediately inflicted with a hateful dose
of venom, summoned forth like a vehement diatribe, from TAIM front man CJ
McMahon. Adorning a Hannibal Lector
shirt, this dude looks deranged and seems intent on eating more than your goddam
liver, maybe your spleen too. This is
devil’s music people and you’d better repent, because this art is most
definitely, Murder! Musical evisceration
is perhaps more apt and Ladies and Gentlemen, this is as violent as music gets. Despite their obvious brutality, the
performance of TAIM is also absorbing and the crowd are just plain bonkers,
fools flipping off the stage, with a trip to the chiropractor a
certainty for Monday morning. Last song,
Reign of Darkness brings down the curtain on a torturous evening. The best way to sum up tonight’s live show
would be a mechanised, precise, technical and flawless performance and to coin
a phrase from Fear Factory, it could be aptly titled the ‘Machines of
Hate’.
Words by : Aaron Pickford
