ORIGIN, IMPALED & HOUR OF PENANCE
THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON 20/06/08
The majority of metal merriment this weekend was taking place in France at The Hellfest, those of us stuck at home did at least have Origin stopping off en route to appease us. First up for me were an Italian band Hour Of Penance as I had managed to miss Hades Lab. Described prior to their show as a mix of Behemoth and Nile I was looking forward to seeing if these Romans could live up to such expectations. They came on fast and with a technical proficiency that blazed away. Vocals from singer Francesco seemed to come straight out the right hand speaker with drums rolling and cymbals crashing like thunder and lightning. Icarus like a flailing guitar solo leapt out the equation literally tumbling to earth in flames. The singer was loving it he got the audience to cheer louder between songs and posed for the cameras with one fingered salutes.
You could tell the audience were holding back, this deserved an almighty pit but it got a restrained action as though everyone was waiting to erupt for the main band. ‘Liturgy Of Deceivers’ from new Unique Leader album ‘The Vile Conception’ wiped away the pre-gig lethargy I had been afflicted with nicely, it was impossible feeling tired to this momentous onslaught. I was also impressed with the on stage hair twirling gymnastics, well I was till I backed off and found myself pulling locks out my pint. This was hideously conceived butchery that could have sent us right off to the morgue.
Luckily it didn’t as no doubt our remains would have been toyed with by the foul hands of Impaled. It was this lot I was here for and had already bought the T-shirt, Christ knows where I am going to wear it in polite society. The new album cover had not been selling that well apparently. Mr Sewage kindly set his guitar and the front row of the audience (ouch) on fire as they raged into ‘GORE.’ Eyebrows steaming, one could only bow down to the scalpel like guitars cutting into us whilst these surgeons did their gruesome stuff.
Vocals were a bit drowned in embalming fluid but we worshipped the riff like Leatherface worships the saw. The only real problem was that the audience were really far too restrained. I think the majority of people were here for Origin to be honest and it was a hardcore mob pressed down the front and going mad to the likes of ‘Up The Dose’ There was a lot of new material but still it was not instantly recognisable, on stage with levels up it was as though Impaled had aptly mangled things and made them nastier than on album. Despite this ‘You Are The Dead’ sounded excellent as it miskatonically thrashed and ground us to submission, sounding tighter than a cadaver’s back passage. Aptly it was The Last Gasp’ that finished us off in more ways than one.
Anything else was literally a bonus but and Origin did not disappoint in the slightest. Boy this lot are fast, I had given their ‘Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitus’ album a blast before heading off to the gig and was amazed that they could replicate such frenzy on stage. I was amused by the sudden thought that singer James Lee reminded me of that zombie on the boat in Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters (only a lot faster) and was unable to get that thought out my head for the whole gig. They sounded like an industrial accident in an abattoirs’ killing zone and were only put off stride by a quickly fixed technical problem. ‘Staring From The Abyss’ and newer songs such as ‘The Aftermath’ literally blazed by and knocked us silly. The drumming was insane and this at last got the pit fuelled up and the odd diver leaping lemming like into the audience.
It was all a bit much, sometimes music can just be too fast and unrelenting for my ears and after a kamikaze photo mission it was nice to be able to grab a cold pint and take in the insanity from the Underworld’s small balcony overlooking the stage and the seething audience. I saw one diver hit the pillar feet first and go down in a heap, everyone near me grimaced but they seemed up quickly and uninjured. I was amused to notice that the guitarist and bassist were joining in and squawking out the high pitched Paxo vocals in unison. I managed to catch a couple of song titles ‘The Beyond Within’ (which apparently MTV have been playing) and ‘Finite’ being thundered out from last album ‘Antithesis’. After this it was time to collapse in a heap on the way home and curse Boris for his stupid no drinking beer on public transport rule. I think we should force to blonde fop to a gig like this and see if he is gasping on the train ride home.
Review by Pete Woods
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