GALLHAMMER, THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT & SEVERED HEAVEN
LEEDS RIOS, 13/03/08
Considering the amount of publicity this tour has had, I am a little surprised as I arrive at the venue to find only a scattering of folk hovering around the Rios entrance waiting for doors to open, although with doors opening an hour later than advertised it seems that the majority of tonight’s punters knew something I didn’t and a queue soon begins to take shape. The hold up appears to be down to a few technical glitches and as I wait for the opening band to begin I am slightly confused as to why my ears are being blasted with the hideous sounds that make me wonder for a brief moment if I had accidentally stepped into the Ministry of Sound or some equally unpleasant place of revelry. Luckily the brutal ladies of Severed Heaven are on hand to save my eardrums from excessive affliction as they take to the stage and do their best to warm up a fairly indifferent crowd. The band is initially beleaguered with technical problems although they handle the unforeseen situation well as Satanica tries her damnedest to interact with the crowd. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from their set although I find myself pleasantly surprised by their tightly delivered, doom-tinged death attack, which occasionally swerves into a blackened terrain. As the guitarists chug away, the guttural bellow of Satanica is disgorged with gravity and enough dread to have me utterly convinced that Severed Heaven could become a band worth watching out for in the death metal realm!
These are followed by a truly bizarre outfit; literally a sci-fi experiment gone awry, The Sontaran Experiment may strike with ain air of familiarity to any Doctor Who fans reading (the name is taken from the title of an episode of the sci-fi series, originally aired in 1975 according to my trusty friend Wikipedia). A shock to me this is not, as the frontman, donning a pink stripy jumper that looks like something your granny might insist you wear, bears the appearance of the sort of guy one might imagine sitting in a bedroom surrounded by comics and figurines, occasionally venturing into the real world to attend Doctor Who conventions (and to make an ungodly racket on occasions like this!) A colossal reverberation rings out as an almost infinite chord is struck, which fades out into a screeching layer of distortion before a paroxysm of noise suddenly erupts, as the deranged frontman breaks into random convulsions, letting out a series of agonising screams. As the noise subsides, a hurtling bassline picks up from underneath as a wall of noise creeps up supporting the enhanced repetition of wails that echo around the room before a calculated ticking is all that is left; sitting and waiting like a bomb waiting to explode (or rather my head!), as the noise erupts for a final moment. The Sontaran Experiment is not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but an interesting performance nonetheless.
All that’s left now is for Gallhammer to take to the stage; as time pushes on I am concerned that I may have to miss the end of their set to catch the last train home. The misery filled trio appear as little more than a silhouette under a veil of lights as gloomy as their on-stage personas, as the girls instantly fill the room with a dark aura that even their CD doesn’t quite prepare you for. The abrasive, demonic shrieks gush from the mouth of Vivian Slaughter like a flowing fountain of blood, seeming utterly humourless in her delivery as she jolts around the stage flinging her bass back and forth while Mika maunders about in a flaccid motion shrouded in a lugubrious haze, as she violently slashes into her guitar, intermittently unleashing a bout of sinister roars which interplay fantastically with the lead vocals.
Risa Reaper gives the drumkit a deadly pounding, as she yaps away into the microphone with an almost childlike pitch on the crust-sodden ‘Blind my eyes’, as an attack of plundering riffs steeped with copious amounts of distortion and a filthy bassline bounce around on ‘Crucifixion’, which picks up pace enough to incite a mosh pit. This continues into the mesmerising ‘At the onset of the age of despair’, which has me thoroughly entranced. Vivian Slaughter strikes an ominous sound on the bass which shakes the ground with its cataclysmic intensity, laying the devastating foundations for which to build upon, as a clean guitar melody from Mika Penetrator slices through the aura of despondency, adding a glimmer of beauty. This was simply a mind blowing performance by a band that really must be seen to appreciate what they fully have to offer.
Luci Herbert
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