AKERCOCKE 10TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW
There were quite a few bands on this bill and the earlier ones I had never even heard of so I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately I still managed to miss openers Snakebite and had to settle for a pint of it instead, which in the heat of the day (hurrah summer has possibly come at last) was most welcome.
First lot I caught were Toy Town Cash who pretty much instantly impressed as they ferociously tore into things with a nice brutally chunky sound. Tattooed front-man Cem was wild and rabid and the whole band shone with a hunger and wild spontaneity about them. Numbers like ‘Schizo Speaking Tongues’ built up to such a fast and furious intensity it was almost like they were on the verge of imploding in on themselves. There was a slight nu edge to this and at times even the brief burst of clean vocals but it all worked well and if this lot had been around a decade ago I suspect they could have been massive. It only slowed down when the singer rolled around on the stage, a mass of tortured angst (and not in an emo way I hasten to add). He recovered to spill off it and invoke some burly pit action from the all too sparse people at the front. ‘Blown Away’ yep explosive stuff.
Rather confusingly Fell Silent had done just that and were not actually playing but had been replaced from an Essex mob called Cinders Fall. I was instantly transported straight down to Sweden with some nice solid riffs and barked out vocals reminiscent of the likes of Soilwork here. In fact I was reminded of In Flames just before they lost it by ‘September Will Fall,’ which melody wise had a touch of Cloud Connected about it but without the clean vocal despoilment. ‘Army Of One’ was another title I caught and it ploughed in with some solid Maidenesque guitars before going down a metalcore route that was pretty hard to fault. This lot looked young but were not lacking in confidence and utilised every bit of available stage space. The keyboardist put on a particularly energetic display and it was a shame that the only action at the front was really from the photographers.
Whoa who took a dump in Breedapart’s cereal. This lot were angry and muscular and were fucking impressive with it. We may have been hit by foot and mouth disease again and this was the sound of it, prime beef in every respect. The drumming was immense, the pace slayed and hit like a cattle prod between the eyes pretty much stopping everything in its tracks. ‘Wars Within The Mind Are Fatal’ had the intensity of UK hardcore greats Medulla Nocte and even with bursts of clean singing still was hefty as a heifer and a half. They got people down the front going for it at last and despite frustrating problems laying a guitarist out of action for a large part of the set they carried on and still pretty much flattened the joint. Think the last song was ‘Apocalypse’ and that’s certainly what this lot sounded like.
It was pointed out to me that I was the first person to ever give Ted Maul a review and I’m very pleased to give them another. Members of this band’s former crew As She Screams were playing with Akercocke in the early days but their sound has developed into a clusterfuck of ideas that as new album ‘White Label’ has proved (my review in next issue of Terrorizer) people should certainly be taking note of this lot. The front of the stage was expectantly rammed even before they came on and singer Solomon J Lucifer literally threw himself at us as the band burst on to the seething twisted mass that is ‘Spherical Lie.’ This lot are difficult to describe if you have never heard them but in effect blend together a rhythmic thrust of death and hardcore attitudes mixed with a backbone of jungle, gabba and d&b beats courtesy of mad keyboardist Casino. Twisting it all in a pot and giving it a multicultural stir, the result is numbers like ‘For The Innocent’ a tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks. I also forgot to mention blast-beats galore some nice gore-grind stylings as well. It was all kicking off behind me, beer had run out and I needed a piss badly but no way was I missing a second of this savagery.
At times I was reminded of Today Is The Day probably by the chaotic insanity of this tight display which you should definitely check if they hit a town near you in the future.
This was a hard act to follow and members of Ted hail from the Sudbury Town massive near me but Kingsize Blues are even closer to home from my own manor that is Harrow. Now I could well be in danger of getting my windows bricked here but I really didn’t get on that well with them today and spent quite a bit of their set at the bar. I wasn’t alone, it had certainly emptied out and it was pretty obvious that two bands should really have swapped round on the line-up. It’s that old ‘they’re good at what they do but….’ scenario that can be so annoying to a reviewer. The yapping vocals really did begin to grate after a couple of numbers and standing here I realised that I was only going to really end up picking holes in their brand of metalcore and try as I did even going back for a last number apparently about sex, drugs and heavy metal it was obvious that this was never going to win me over. Still fair play, glad to see a band breaking out from my home town even if I still prefer others who did so in the past like Adam and The Ants and (ahem) Duran Duran, I’ll get my coat!
Having been enjoying Akercocke for all 10 of their years and even pre-dating this with Salem Orchid this was a gig I had been looking forward to. It was being filmed for a future live album / DVD and some old classics that had not been aired for a long time were going to be played. This was the most radically altered line-up since the band formed, with only Jason Mendonça and David Gray surviving the decade of blasphemy. Although new album Antichrist kicked up a stink in Ireland there were no problems with the God squad here (although Captain Birdseye with his microphone preaching is an ever present fixture in Camden). ‘Man Without Faith Or Trust’ from it opened up the gates and flew out with thundering drum blasts and growling vocals. Guitars scythed and whirled and the crowd kicked off getting right into the atmospheric deluge that was like a plague of locusts descending. It wasn’t long before we were flung right back into time and presented with a slab of songs from ‘Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene’ we got ‘Nadja’, ‘The Goat’ and ‘Marguerite and Gretchen’ in order and the old classics savagely pummelled us senseless, (must upgrade my old cassette of this album to CD).
It has to be said that with the addition of Concept member Pete Benjamin and The Berzerker’s Matt Wilcock (actually an old hand now) in the group, they have never sounded tighter. They must have been sweating and although not fully suited it was far too hot to be wearing white shirts and black ties but the gentlemen of style would hardly be seen doing their thing in shorts and t-shirts. Entranced and watching the pit whirl around from the balcony I was pretty much mesmerised for a slew of summonings from ‘Goat Of Mendes.’ ‘Of Menstrual Blood And Semen’ spread its sticky load and was followed by one of my favourites, the bewitching ‘A Skin For Dancing In.’ Don’t know about ‘The Horns Of Baphomet,’ everyone in the audience was flinging them at the band at every opportunity, never have I had to delete so many good photos spoilt by thrusting fingers.
The classics kept firing out and decimating us but we certainly got a good long set ‘Ceremony Of Nine Angels and ‘Enraptured By Evil’ (the soul offering from Choronzon I believe) leaving us to fall out into the dark streets of the Luciferian denof vice that is Camden, drunk, decimated and just a little spellbound by an excellent performance.
Pete Woods
LONDON UNDERWORLD 04/08/07