VoicesI reviewed Krawwl, live and on album recently so thought it could be a case of not having anything to say but hold on, things seem a bit different here. Indeed there is a console of fiddly looking knobs and stuff at front of stage and the two main members K and S seem to have been joined by a saxophonist and cello player here. Feedback and noise like a swarm of bees fills up the venue as do curious punters and as sonic levels peak everything trembles. Change rattles in pockets, glasses, vibrate and false teeth fall out somewhere down Camden High Street. Instruments gradually join in and the sax is particularly noticeable as we enter avant-garde territories and the mass builds up. As guitar riffs finally enter the fray hell is unleashed in an uncomfortable fashion for this bad trip horror show which attacks the senses from every angle. It’s easy to mention the likes of John Zorn, Merzbow and other noisy innovators as this jazzy pulsating track heaves and shakes and the good thing was it feels like a living breathing entity, very much alive and making fractals pretty much explode within my head. The cello player jaggedly saws as it becomes more strident, drums beat time and the sax is spiralling on a never ending loop. After what seems forever the promoter gives a signal which looks like he is saying wind it in and they begin to do so over the next ten minutes or so. It’s an engrossing one track noise display musically feeling like a vicious murder in a Bukowski novel. I think Krawwl would have played it all night if they could but as silence finally descends allowing us to stagger out the feeling is very much, “what the fuck just happened there?”

Shrines seem to be on so quickly that I miss the first song completely and walking in to hear the band for the very first time it takes a while to get acclimatized. This new band who apparently were before known as Diminished Fifth have as singer / guitarist Samuel Loynes who is also guitar player in headliner Voices. I don’t think I have ever heard him sing before and his clean emotive voice has a lot of depth about it working in line with flailing riff work. Things pick up and it’s a choppy and technical sound as it shreds away with some pretty neat sudden stop start dynamics on what I think may have been ‘Of The Wolf’ from their forthcoming debut album. It’s got a ferocious flow about it as it gallops away and gets heads nodding away in time. I’m thought they had announced a Carcass cover and riff wise it certainly had a lot of nuances that reminded of them but was actually an original song.  As for the final part of the set I seem to have scrawled down “a tumultuous tossing and turning riff fest” and although this was a lot to take in on first encounter it was certainly interesting and I look forward to getting more in depth with forthcoming material.

In a similar fashion are Chapters who again it’s my first encounter with. I have to feel sorry for anyone walking in here tonight who had not heard any of the bands before, they must have been damn bamboozled. This London based progressive metal bunch are apparently playing the whole of their album ‘The Imperial Skies’ here tonight and threaten that it will be the last time they are doing so. Makes for an easy for a track list if you want one. It’s a quite boisterous affair and they throw riffs around like a baby who has dumped a load in their nappy and takes it off flinging the contents all over the walls. I pretty much put that analogy down to the smell of the venue which was very sewage ridden and could be about to turn its name into The Black Fart! Just as I thought it was making some sort of sense they suddenly went into some Spanish sounding almost classic guitar work which was technically faultless and left my jaw somewhat hitting the floor as it was totally unexpected, turning things completely topsy-turvy.  Still not done with this particular number they brutally set about battering us senseless and firing out a flurry of obtuse riffs and guttural throat shredding vocals. The band seem pretty popular and bodies are packed in watching them. There’s a bit of a post hardcore feel from things and also death and doom with plenty of genre mish-mash crossover making the band impossible to really pigeonhole. Although at times Mastodon strike as a bit of a similarity there is plenty more to Chapters and they continue to keep on turning the page with atmosphere and brutality combining really well. I guess that’s pretty much the theme of the evening as it’s a very diverse meeting of minds going on here. ‘The Eclectic Circle’ chills things out a bit with sampled clean vocals and strings adding depth although naturally it would have been better seeing these parts replicated live. Another very interesting first encounter.

Voices have blown me away with new album London and it was great to catch it’s unveiling in its own city tonight especially in Camden where the stew of madness in the streets is never more profound. There is plenty more insight coming on that, keep eyes peeled for an interview later in the week. Tonight they are playing nearly all the album although as we discover not in order making it perhaps all the more intriguing for those few of us lucky enough to have been consumed by it already. It’s suitably packed to the rafters as the melting pot of ideas seethes and rages away after opening intro with ‘The Actress’ not so much showing off but clamouring with strident guitar cadences and  annihilating drum blasts courtesy of David Grey. The multi changing shape shifting vocals from frontman Peter Benjamin keep us on our toes and as they say things are no doubt “distorting and confusing” for those not already au fait with the material. Convoluted progressive insanity has ‘The Ultimate Narcissist’ turning up and already I’m thrown by the dis-continuity of the albums songs but find it all kind of makes sense.

Big yells and growls ‘Vicarious Lover’ digs in, guitars shred, Loynes gurns away completely in the grip of what he is doing and heads almost fall off trying to keep up. It’s beastly and angry as the band jam fluidly away at hyper-speed, vocals speaking in tongues and everything going like the clappers. Really bouncy drums have us crashing down the tracks on ‘Last Train Victoria Line’ and there’s plenty of emotion from the cleaner vocal parts compelling us to really dig beneath the surface and listen all the more intently. I find myself digging into a spot drinking and completely being flung into the oblivion of the caustically attacking ‘Imaginary Sketches Of a poisoned Man but it is the phenomenal ‘House Of Black Lights’ later which is a complete horrifying vicious and brutal passage of sheer terror that leaves me not knowing whether to embrace it or flee for my very soul. After ‘London’ is done its down to older track ‘Endless’ to take us out back into its heaving vile streets once more. Although there are shouts of encore there is no need or place for them, the exhibition is over and it’s time for shattered psyches of its patrons to try and find normality once more.

(Review and photos © Pete Woods)