By Monk
One of the most common complaints about bands and their tour schedules is how they often don’t reach to the outposts of the Überverse, with artists seemingly content to deliver one show in a capital city or major population centre and palm it off as a full-blown “tour”. Of course, we all know that touring costs money, and taking chances on veering off the beaten path, as it were, can turn out to be expensive if well-intentioned mistakes… But sometimes the risks are worth taking, and bringing shows to outlying bastions of metaldom can be extremely rewarding, as these London crossover thrashers proved when they became the latest act to paint a four-pointed star across the island of Ireland, traversing from east to south to west, finishing up here in the north…
With Belfast’s streets pounding to the sound of those getting in last minute training for the next day’s annual Marathon, there are no gutties or trackies in sight as we pound our way up the narrow stairs of our favourite venue for an evening that will be more of a sprint to the finish line than a slow grind.
Opening proceedings are our very own war jazz warriors Acid Age, with frontman Jude wearing a pair of cheap shades that would have made Macho Man Randy Savage blush with envy: he later reveals he’s suffering massively after having gone on the rip with the headliners in Dublin in the night before and so is not only hanging like a dog but also has “bags saggier than a pensioner’s tits”.
Thankfully, there’s nothing hungover or saggy about their set, which while highly technical in its musicality is also extremely accessible and has an immediacy which leans heavily on traditional thrash sensibilities, especially in the breakdowns, while pushing the boundaries of the subgenre to their limits.
The mad bastids even throw in an harmonica solo – not exactly something you expect to see/hear at your everyday thrash gig – and pay a brief tribute to Jeff Hannemann on the 13th anniversary of his passing, as they race through a tight and urgent set.
Even before our headliners kick into their own set, frontman Chris is striding the wedges, urging people to take those all-important few steps closer to the stage, before he and his bandmates get things off to a fiercely ferocious start, with the intensity levels both on and off the boards turned up to the button marked “overload”.
For the next 45 minutes there is no let up in the pace: this is old school thrash done old school style, with no fucking about, unrelenting in its momentum, uncompromising in its delivery: just back-to-back ‘banging action delivered with shit tonnes of positive attitude and garnering a similar response, with the pit action not stopping for even the briefest of breaths.
A thrashtastic night.
- Inhuman Nature play Desertfest London next Saturday (16 May) and then will open the main stage at Bloodstock on Saturday 8 August.