By Monk and The Dark Queen
Tonight was the local heavy metal community’s response to the annual (at least pre-pandemic) ‘Culture Night’ exposé of all that is supposedly great and good about Belfast’s arts and “culture” scene, with pop-up art shows and “impromptu” performances in all sorts of weird and wonderful venues, from office blocks to supermarkets. With the event having virtually ignored the city’s most vibrant underground music scene for the guts of the past decade, two of our most pro-active promoters came together to raise a sturdy middle finger to the cultural elite and showcase a small part of what they had been missing all these years… And then, somewhat ironically, the self-styled anarchist collective behind Culture Night had to cancel this year’s shebang. Why? Lack of funding… Ah well, at least there was some “uncultured” culture to lure us into the city’s backstreets: not that we ever need much incentive to visit our favourite musical haunt anyway \m/
Following the de rigeur BM-style intro tape of tribal drumming and chanting, relatively young scene veterans Insidious Void immediately take us into the realm from which they take their name with a headbang-inducing frenzy of tightly coordinated blackened death metal. Despite being a relatively new project – they made their live debut at this year’s Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses competition – these three guys have been around the block for a few years, with frontman Shane having previously taken Shrouded to the hallowed fields of Catton Hall and bassist John being the sole surviving member of local thrashers Scimitar.
And their experience shows, as while they may plough many of the generic tropes, they do so with aplomb and enthusiasm, not least on the part of Shane, who consistently cajoles the slowly growing crowd to give them their maximum response. And he is suitably rewarded as the trio deliver another tight set which shows that their (dark) star is definitely in the ascendancy.
Haint continue the Bloodstock theme, as this year’s emphatic M2TM winners hit the stage with a raw intensity wrapped in broiling, whirling riffage, underpinned by dense, laconic rhythms, all delivered with a fiercesome intent to take no prisoners. And neither they do… until disaster strikes – well, almost, as the guitar rigs decides to cut out towards the end of their second song. But they soldier own, finishing the song with Darren’s thrumming bass to the fore while the situation is stoically and professionally rectified. As Ian remarks, “shit happens every day, but you persevere”. Indeed.
As they introduce new single ‘HAL’, I’m once again impressed by the synchronicity of their double vocal harmonics, which add to the overall impact of the sound with their accuracy and tautness: harmony vocals are normally restricted to choruses, but the fact that these guys can pull them off with such precision during the verses as well is a true testament to their craftsmanship.
With Steve once again proving a complete and total powerhouse of a machine behind the kit, the trio are heavier than a 40-tonne truck full of concrete, while also delivering their brand of mathcore-infused heavy, bluesy progression with the accuracy of Eric Bristow hitting a triple bullseye. As my colleague Jase would say, totally legit stuff \m/
There’s a change in mood for our next Bloodstock veterans, Elder Druid, winners of the virtually-judged 2021 M2TM competition, whose heavy psych-infused doom swarms around us like their waspish intro tape, before washing the room in a solid tsunami of sound. Once again, their deep, thick grooves are delivered with taut, practised precision, coupled with an unbridled enthusiasm that truly delights the assembled “uncultured bastards”.
These five metallic druids evoke the spirit of NOLA mixed with that of genre pioneers such as Sabbath (natch), Candlemass and Doom with an infectious effervescence that has even DQ headbanging along snf in a way that is tighter than a rusty bolt… but, then, we’d expect nothing less from these guys.
However, all of this is only a prelude for what is to come as, after a deceptively quiet piano-led intro, headliners 7.5 Tonnes Of Beard explode into a positively frightening and angry crescendo of noise, the soundtrack to a hardcore-infused, sludgy post-punk aural apocalypse. With both the bomb squad and fire brigade on standby in the street outside, the Beards deliver an absolutely incendiary firestorm of a set that gives absolutely no indication that this is only their second show in something like four years…
The band may have been absent from the stage for more than a hot minute, and cherry-picked their shows throughout their ten year career, but they are undoubtedly beloved on the local scene, as evinced by the seething pit of sweat-soaked bodies, many of them singing their words back to them… that’s devotion. “We haven’t played this song in ten years. If you like it fair enough. If you don’t, you know where the taxi rank is!”
Well, you might have to have fought the organizers of the failed Culture Night for one of those last cabs home, as tonight provided us with four diverse and eclectic performances which once again proved that Belfast’s metal scene is not uncultured but an under-recognized and vibrant counter culture thriving on its mainstream ignored, underground status and still consistently delivering two defiant fingers to the corporate cultural norm. Culture Night may have failed because of its reliance on the corporate elite and the desire of “artists” for financial self-aggrandizement. Uncultured Night succeeded for exactly the opposite reasons.
- PHOTO CREDIT: All photos © The Dark Queen/Über Rock. You can view our full gallery of photographs HERE.
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