London’s extreme music fans are obviously a keen bunch because, despite an early billing, relative newcomers Working Men’s Club play to a sizeable crowd and their hardcore punk / thrash crossover wastes no time waking everyone up. Equal parts All Pigs Must Die and Cursed, their energy and aggression sets the tone perfectly for the evening.
Next up are Weeping; a much more bleak prospect than the band they followed. Tonight’s set is a collaborative effort with noise artist Knifedoutofexistence, and whilst the miserable cacophony garners a decent response from the crowd, the nuances of this addition are lost in the sheer volume of the set. Intense, if not a little contrived in places; Weeping are certainly not a band that will be forgotten in a hurry.
Leeds / London boys Grief Tourist are much more digestible; their sound is more akin to Cancer Bats or Gallows than anything down the more extreme end of the spectrum, but this is a welcome break in the middle of what is otherwise an evening of absolute aural battering. Like Working Men’s Club; Grief Tourist are bursting with energy and go down a treat with what is, by this point, a totally packed out crowd.
Unyielding Love are in the unfortunate position of sounding more like the main act than any of the other bands on the bill, and being on straight before them, but this doesn’t stop them delivering a crushing set of blackened powerviolence that ignites the biggest crowd reaction of the evening so far. If there’s criticism to be levelled it’s that they’re maybe too obvious a choice for main support on this one, but the fans don’t seem to mind and by the end of the set they are frenzied and ready for the main event.
Tonight’s headliners Full Of Hell are one of the most exciting prospects in extreme music right now. They proved they can push their levels of experimentation with last year’s ‘One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache’, a split album with The Body, but 2017’s ‘Trumpeting Ecstasy’ sees Full Of Hell return to what they do best: grind. Tonight that new material sits effortlessly amongst their existing back catalogue to form a harrowing live performance that is not at all for the faint hearted.
Tracks like ‘Deluminate’ and ‘Crawling Back To God’ are delivered with limitless venom, and behind the swarm of flailing limbs in front of the stage a large portion of the crowd stands open mouthed at the sheer force of it all. Between tracks, though, Full Of Hell are all smiles and it’s clear that they’re beyond thrilled that the music they create has riled people up to this degree. It’s refreshing to see a band so grim and serious musically remembering to have fun with it, which may be the key to their current level of success. Long may it continue.
LIAM KNOWLES
