DAMNAS, MUTANT, RIVER FRESHNEY & DOCTOR DEATH
LONDON LSE UNION 05/06/08
Old school thrash and old school beer prices, now that’s exactly the sort of night all student unions should be putting on. Tonight the London thrashing and drinking maniacs society were out in some force and spent the early part of the evening supping beer and kicking balloons around before the first band of the evening Doctor Death opened their surgery doors. The chaotic sound was crunchy at first and overbearing in the mix; we needed the vocals up and the contrast controls on the group’s Bermuda shorts down. Resembling a salad of human flesh the thrashy punkerama of numbers such as ‘Passion Of The Corpse’ were flung out faster, harder and louder than funerals arranged for Doctor Shipman’s patients. There was a big sense of toxic humour about this lot, they even went as far as doing a breakneck version of ‘Watch Out Beadle’s About’ for which they naturally got a big hand. They also impressed vocally hitting those high notes with precision. Doctor Death left us in stitches and are definitely worth booking when you are in need of breathing some life back into those stubborn audiences.
Doctor Death MySpace
Not so much ‘thrash’ as ‘bash’ from River Freshney which in case you, like me, are wondering, take their name from a stretch of water in Grimsby. This is what I am going to term asboyobcore and be done with it. Bullish and brutal this stomped with attitude and abrasiveness and hit like a sledgehammer in the nads. Again there was humour here albeit of a sicker and non PC kind. Whether the song in question was ‘Sex With Minors’ or ‘Miners’ you walked away from it with more than just dirty hands. Singer Doctor Optimus Doyle paced about off the stage whilst the rest of the band looked like they were restraining themselves gobbing on his head. River Freshney play the sort of metal that pisses in your pint and then throws it over your mum and the numbers such as ‘Titwank’ was thrust out hard and dirty without the faintest hint of soap. (PW)
River Freshney MySpace
I saw the “raging” Mutant at one of their very first gigs, back when frontman Atom was throwing himself around the stage like a lunatic. While the Ritalin would since appear to have taken effect, there is still a psychotic gleam in his eye that fits like vodka to coke with his vocal output on songs like ‘Psycho Surgery’ and new song ‘Scrap Brain Zone’ while a cover of Destruction’s ‘Eternal Ban’ goes down a real treat with those in the know. These guys whip up a lethal concoction of Exodus styled thrash, with riffs (and humour!) a whole lot sharper than barbed wire and while they haven’t matured much over the years – they didn’t really need to! They party like the year 1986 never wanted to end; though it’s about time they put down the party balloons for a moment and committed some of this energy to CD!
Mutant MySpace
With this gig being organised and advertised as the official Damnas E.P. launch party, all that’s left is for the headliners to take the stage, but with a full gear changeover (including, most bafflingly, a road sign they most likely nicked from down the road!), they sure know how to keep an eager crowd in suspense. After a triple dose of humour-tinged thrash, Damnas seem to strike a more serious chord lyrically, with fired-up frontman Donny setting out to antagonise the audience with his oh-so-British vocal enunciation on tracks such as ‘Profit Lies’ and the ridiculously bouncy ‘Threshold’ (which I found whizzing round in my sore head next morning!). The energetic guitarists’ seem to bounce off each other as they exchange tight, punchy riffs like trading cards, applying an edge of brutality and mixing it up with a smattering of hardcore punk aggression. This brought a thrash-filled evening nicely - now if only more SU’s offered gigs like this one…(LH)
Damnas Myspace
Review by Pete Woods & Luci Herbert
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