By Jase Walker
The nights are growing colder but it’s always sweaty at the Star & Garter in Manchester and tonight we’ve got a right dirty mix of metalcore and tech-death in the form of Harbinger and Dreameater recruiting locals The Human Veil and Cut Short for tonight’s show.
Cut Short immediately almost blew my ears out as I was just that little bit too slow putting my earplugs in but here we go! Star & Garter’s looking healthily busy so soon into the gig tonight which is great to see! Cut Short played to a solid crowd as openers tonight, sounding pretty damn good as well (I think they were wasted on Satan’s Hollow). When they really go for it with their heavy chugs, Cut Short really shines with their thunderous grooves and that can be felt in my legs as they shake the floor. With the selection of songs they’re smashing out, the crowd’s solidly focused on them and nodding their heads along, not a ton of movement just yet but that’s just how it is for opening acts sometimes! They’ve clearly charmed a couple down the front though considering they’re randomly bouncing around and flinging arms and legs about, I doubt that’ll be the last of that tonight.
Next up is The Human Veil armed with a brand new drummer following a bit of a rocky period, it’s great seeing these lads up on stage again after their absence. Looking down at the front you can see their stringsmen, Jordan, Adam, and Jack psyching themselves up to the intro track, they’ve been chomping at the bit for this! Matt, their singer, sees his demeanor change almost instantly from his usual persona to a grimacing, sharp eyed stare at the audience as he starts screaming down the mic. The audience, now suitably warmed up, bounces along with the guys down at the front of the stage leaving Matt to stomp around the open stage.
I’m half surprised Jordan hasn’t smacked someone with his bass head yet with the way he’s swinging it around with reckless abandon! Their new drummer Matt looks right at home considering this is his first live show with the band, beating the living hell out of that kit every every bit as hard as the rest of the band are going for it. Some sound issues here and there throughout the set but it doesn’t seem like it’s distracted them much from just throwing everything out there as hard as they can and worrying about the little bits later. The Human Veil are as groovy as ever, the newer stuff clearly a bit more focused on throwing down as hard as possible and it really shows in the audience response, welcome back to the fold lads.
Third act and main support for tonight’s show is Dreameater and the moment they start, a steady stream of people begin coming up the stairs to check out what the hells going on. Dreameater are a band that properly enjoys their use of discordant, massively heavy chugs and breakdowns. You want nice, slow, lumbering breakdowns mixed with rapid fire chugs and meaty riffs? Dreameater has that in spades. We’ve got a bunch of people down the front flinging arms and legs around, not really my thing to get near that but that’s just what happens at some shows I suppose! Some of the clean vocal sections remind me quite strongly of 36 Crazyfists in terms of how the vocal melodies are used.
Dreameater definitely demonstrate an approach that revolves more around being straightforward with smashing out a heavy riff that goes hard as fuck as opposed to outright technicality and they use it to great effect. It’s loud, it’s heavy, it’s fierce and buzzing with aggression, and their singer is intent on getting the core of the audience to beat the shit out of each other! Absolute filth, love it.
And finally tonight, the headline act, Harbinger. In this particular show, I’ll be hanging back and hopefully avoiding getting clocked in the jaw by Dilan’s (singer) knee like at TechFest. Nothing like a bit of Tech-death to round the night off of a varied show in the dingy upstairs of Star & Garter. Shifting gears of off-beat riffing, relentless chugs, and Dilan going bonkers stomping around the stage and looking like he’s ready to kick someone’s head off. Seeing the turnout for Harbinger tonight is bloody fantastic as well, we’ve got a busy crowd, they’re all transfixed on Harbinger and well into it. I think some of the crowd closer to the front are a bit wary of cutting loose because of the hardcore dancer types flinging their arms around rather than bouncing around off each other.
Seeing the sort of performance that Harbinger put in it’s little wonder they’re getting onto much higher profile bills like their recent run with Decapitated and their upcoming (massive) run on the Faces of Death tour with the likes of Fallujah and Rivers of Nihil! With each passing tour that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them do their thing, they’ve gone from strength to strength and cement themselves as one of the ÜKs premier tech-death acts. It’s not just that they sound great, but the tightness of the performance and how clearly well honed and rehearsed the whole show is. Considering there’s five of them on a stage this size as well, they’re evidently used to how much each other moves around, deftly dodging each other as they move around to perch on different parts of the stage.
What always stands out though above all else, is that they look like they’re having a great time while playing their set. This energy is always given back by the crowd in spades and it’s good to see that Manchester’s got a big appetite for this. Get your tech-death fix, go see Harbinger.
- Harbinger take part in the Rising Merch Faces Of Death tour in November and December:
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