AFGRUND, ABLACH, BASEMENT TORTURE KILLINGS AND BURIAL
LONDON BAR MONSTA - 21/09/08
A Sunday night sees the tribes divided with this bout of brutality at Bar Monsta and just over the road at the Underworld, Keep Of Kalessin and Abgott. Unfortunately this state of affairs is never good for the promoter, bands or audience and as far as Burial were concerned having come from Manchester they could have done with a few more punters to get their set underway to. Described on their MySpace as blackened death metal I have to admit live, the trio struck as playing pretty unsophisticated pummelling death metal without a real hint of the black stuff about them. Putting us under the floorboards with a beefy intense rhythm section and throaty growling vocals it was quickly evident that this was going to take few prisoners. Was that Cousin It on guitar? Well it looked like it was buried beneath a mass of hair. Luckily the venue was beginning to get busier and those here were all tapping feet and nodding heads in appreciation to what pretty much reminded me of a bit of on stage Deicide worship. I think they announced last song being about coming inside a whore and calling it ‘With Rancid Semen’ but surely not? So much for the Lords day!
www.myspace.com/burialtheband
Many of the London scensters (who will no doubt curse me for calling them thus) were down for the live debut of BTK (that’s Basement Torture Killings) who comprise of past and present members of Thus Defiled, Scarabaeus and Defcon Zero. Dressed like true Victorian gents they doffed their tweed waistcoats on a nearby coat-stand giving Akercocke a run for their money and unleashed some sounds that were clinically obsessed with butchery. Sure, this was nothing new but there was plenty of effort with the costumes and musical eviscerations such as ‘Drill Bit Erotica’ and ‘Perfect Porn Star Flesh’ lived up to their premise, spurred on with by the dextrous guitar work of Tarquin and the lunatic gurning of Lecter masked Bertrand. Between track entertainment was provided by samples from everyone’s favourite killers but there was little in the sense of Macabre light relief to the music here, this was a full on exercise of disembowelling mayhem. Considering it was a first show they played a really long set and it seemed like there was no silencing these lambs at all. I have a feeling we will be hearing from BTK again soon, possibly in the gutter press after being caught molesting cadavers in the morgue.
www.myspace.com/btkbasementtorturekillings
Crusty grind from bonnie Scotland. Ablach literally took over the venue and made Bar Monsta really look tiny. With two singers on the dance floor and 4 band members on the stage there was scant room for all but a couple of annoying mentalist pit dance heroes to kick anyone not moving towards the side and back of the place. As for those of us taking photos it was a mission that had us ducking and diving for our lives. Apparently members of this lot were in a band called Filthpact who I had not heard of either, what they delivered musically was a really intense ride that assaulted with low growls, high squeals and all the instrumental trimmings that go with them. I got the impression this would have gone down really well in a dodgy squat at four AM and it probably would have served as a final demolition notice. There was plenty of energy from the vocalists but it did leave those on stage looking rather static. One number was called ‘Whisky Violence’ a great song title from a bunch of Jocks that’s for sure and they played it like they had downed a bottle of Bells and were throwing it all up down a back alley again.
www.myspace.com/ablach
Coming over from Sweden Afgrund are a trio offering up some ‘multinational übergrind’ which stylistically could have you mentioning the likes of Nasum as you picked yourself up off the floor wondering what the unholy fuck had just drop-kicked you. After an arcane sounding intro, which if anything cited Killing Joke they whipped it up to warp factor 11 engaged the velocity drive and unleashed hell (how many more crap ways can a hack say they were fast)? The thing being, they just made it all look so damn easy and natural as things ripped in and tore those of us still witnessing the savagery a new one. If you are looking for a track list forget it most of their songs are in Swedish anyway and I was busy trying not to get blown over by the tsunami from the speakers and get as drunk as possible before heading out to alcohol free streets and transport.
www.myspace.com/avgrund
I have to admit that it makes a nice change going to underground gigs with bands that are of unknown origin, as it makes them interesting to both watch and review rather than covering ‘Band A’ for the 2000th time. Tonight we got a great exercise in uncompromising extremity and thanks go out to Redraven promotions for putting on a show of this calibre yet again. It’s a shame about these damn clashes though as this would have been much better attended if it were the only show in Camden tonight.
www.redravenpromotions.com
Pete Woods
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