CROWBAR, SHAPED BY FATE & HAMMER OF THE GODS
LONDON UNDERWORLD 20/01/11
Even with P Diddy and the All Metal Tribute to The Bee Gees in town, tonight was still a sell out and hopefully I will not witness a dafter band than my first live encounter this year. Hammer Of The Gods were described by a fellow reviewer as wearing ‘Roman shit’ such shit being togas and one as a full centurion, it certainly got attention from those heading in to witness things and had me thinking of Animal House for obvious reasons. The band comprised of various luminaries from bands such as Winterfylleth, ex The Hurt Process and screamer from Landmine Spring Rob Newsom. They got underway singing a song about Poseidon so the Roman shit was possibly mixed up with Greek but who cares, I lent them my ears anyway! Musically this fitted in well for the main event once you got over the visual aspects and battered out a heady brew of sludge and down tempo noise in the vein of the headliners, Iron Monkey and many another noisy and abrasive bastards. The meaty drum tumult powered things along and the vocal yells were full of pain, bruising as they were spat out. Thankfully it was not a tragedy of epic proportions and considering it was just the groups 5th gig they did a good job and I doubt anyone witnessing this will forget their name in a hurry.
Next were Welsh boyos Shaped By Fate who wanted circle pits and headbanging and complained about the stench. Luckily the stench did not linger too long and there was room to move at the front as the venue began to fill up. There was plenty of chest beating bravado about the group’s acerbic brand of metalcore and it was pretty easy to get into despite lurching jagged frenetic riffing occasionally turning things on their head. At one point I was reminded of Fugazi and Big Black as the instrumentation went in that vein but they kept things changing throughout with singer Paul Fortescue’s vocals constantly on the attack. The group utilised the stage space well, moving around all the space available with the vocalist yelling at the audience with one foot on the monitor above them. Their energetic display seemed to go down well even if it was a bit subdued from the audience who were obviously saving themselves for the hefty heavyweights on next.
If memory serves me well it was 2005 since NOLA swamp donkeys Crowbar last graced these shores when they played alongside Hatebreed and Caliban. A lot of time has obviously passed and now they are on the eve of releasing excellent new album Sever The Wicked Hand. Having given it a few plays prior top the show I was expecting a fair bit of material on it but was surprised to get an old favourite as the band lumbered onto stage in the form of ‘Conquering’ from their classic ‘Broken Glass’ album way back in 1996. A lot has changed since then and indeed the last visit here, just after that the band had their home ripped up and submerged by Hurricane Katrina, but it will take more than that such natural disasters to stop Kirk Windstein in his tracks or prowling the stage and bellowing out his hoary vocals. Crowbar instantly hit a groove and had the hemmed in audience showing appreciation straight away. With Windstein flanked by Brunson and Bruders it was a battle to try and get some shots as they powered into ‘High Rate Extinction’ and ‘The Lasting Dose,’ this was something that I quickly gave up on and realising the photo gallery was packed too found myself surprisingly with a few others watching the action from behind Tommy Buckley’s drum kit!
There was not a huge amount of chat coming off the stage and for that matter only the odd diver as it was pretty much impossible to even get up there from the masses that had dug into position and were staying there at whatever cost. The songs came thick and fast as the sludgy bass and guitar riffs, none of them from the new album either. In fact apart from that we got a pretty good retrospective from the group’s 20 years, including ‘Thru the Ashes (I've Watched You Burn),’ ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Self Inflicted. I patiently waited hoping band members would turn around allowing a photo op and found it really odd banging my head and seeing the audience in front of me. If I had been much younger and thinner I may have literally taken a running jump but memories of knocking myself out to this lot when they played with Napalm Death and At The Gates (supposed last ever show) were still a distant memory. The show was over in under an hour and it was only at the very end we got a new one in the form of ‘The Cemetery Angels.’ I think half the audience wanted more and the other half were desperate to get out of the crush and into some fresh air. Let’s just hope they don’t leave it so long to come back again and next time they will definitely need a bigger boat!
review and photos by Pete Woods
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