Live

SENSER
IDIOM
FLOORS AND WALLS
COLLISIONS

COLLISIONS

THE OCEAN
The meagre lighting efforts at The Haunt tonight are not doing the Ocean justice. Whoever was put in charge of ordering the lights for the venue appears to have bought twelve torches and glued them to the wall. Still, The Ocean seem oblivious as they charge through an energised set of heavy beat-downs and mosh-fest rhythms to the delight of the packed-in house. Their monstrously good sound is met with a back-drop of graphic art which takes the spectacle, and overall performance up from a 'good' to a 'very good'.

The upstairs venue is rammed to the rafters to great France’s most popular death metal export. Chants of the band’s name are greeted by a wall of feedback and noise before the quartet hurl head-long into their blinding brand of stylish extremity.

It’s a cold day in hell…and an even colder one in Belgium. That, however, didn’t have any effect on the rammage of a thousand people into a hall for some weekend thrashings.

ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY
The UK’s contribution kick things off to a fine start with their brand of rapidly rising sludge metal. For a few moments they go down like a cup of cold sick, but the crowd eventually warm up and by the time the obligatory ‘Welcome To Sludge City’ gets its well earned airing, most of the room are on the stage. Job done.

ARCHITECTS
MISERY SIGNALS

MISERY SIGNALS

PARKWAY DRIVE
UNEARTH
DESPISED ICON
ARCHITECTS
PROTEST THE HERO
WHITECHAPEL
CARNIFEX

CARNIFEX
A show this savage should have health warnings splattered all over it. Opener Carnifex’s death metal with beat downs approach is quite simply face-melting. The heavily tattooed front man Scott Lewis announces the band’s last song, ‘Lie to My Face’ to shrills of joy as arms fling and blood squirts from the pit.

As Biohazard vault themselves towards the stage, the atmosphere in the Astoria turns to euphoria…and violence. These burly bastards have been doing this for 20 years now, and it shows.

Tearing into ‘Shades of Grey’ with the same energy as the very first time they played it, the pit goes bananas. “I hear they’re knocking this place down”, barks Billy Graziadei, looking incredibly pissed at the thought. “How the fuck can you knock the Astoria down, man? Fuck ‘em! Let us tear it down people!” - Which is exactly what Biohazard do.

There couldn’t be a bigger antithesis if you tried; from the ice cold wind on Brighton seafront in November compared with the sauna-like atmosphere of a stupendously rammed Engine Room.

Sadly, nor can you compare the likes of the support band that take to the stage before the headliners. It’s better left unsaid…

Annotations on the other hand appear to be in fine form for the first leg of a string of UK headline dates before they travel the US with Job For A Cowboy.

WALLS OF JERICHO
THE RED CHORD
ALL SHALL PERISH
CATARACT
ANIMOSITY

ANIMOSITY
Opening a show of this calibre is no mean feat, but Animosity do themselves justice by quite simply melting the faces of the audience with their blend of groove and grind. Front man Leo Miller throws himself around the stage like a monkey on crack whilst crowd favourites ‘Evangelicult’ and ‘Black Pain’ soon warm the windmills up. Marvellous stuff.

MGMT
Providing a much more party-driven vibe to the Editors, MGMT’s neo-psychedelic flavours are a perfect foil for the cool breeze of Friday night. They mix moments of mellow, wistful guitar loops Pink Floyd style, but chuck in the odd, crashing pop anthem to set the party alive again and receive unanimous, rapturous applause.