I’ve been fortunate enough to see a couple of belting gigs in Birmingham this past week. The first of which was on a bitterly cold Wednesday night – advertised, to the best of my knowledge, as being Ulcerate and Svart Crown. Expecting (and indeed hoping for) an early start and an early finish, I was somewhat dismayed to have arrived in plenty of time to catch the two opening support acts – and Towers of Flesh did little to dissuade my ennui. Pseudo-occult Watain worship of the lowest order, the band have neither the riffs nor the gravitas to pull off this sort of thing. The play-fighting between the bassist and vocalist didn’t help, pushing the whole affair into a sort of meathead hardcore territory, it all seemed forced and fake, the posturing totally out of touch with the music. Utter bullshit, really.
Taking a different approach entirely was local outfit Kataleptic. Death metal by numbers and totally impossible to take seriously (“Womb Pounder” adorning their merch), they do what they do and they do it with competence and infectious enthusiasm but leave me with relatively little to say about them.
Svart Crown took to the stage next, and the step up in professionalism was noticeable. The French horde carry presence and menace in abundance, hammering their way through the set without easing off for so much as a second. I hadn’t heard the band at all prior to this performance, and I doubt it’d be the sort of thing I’d be interested in at home, but it was certainly a powerful and commanding show that forced me to the back of the venue to escape the sheer noise of it all. Definitely worth a look if you prefer your black metal on the deathlier side.
All of this is but mere preamble for the band I’d come and spent my ill-begotten £8 on. Ulcerate‘s stunning The Destroyers of All was certainly a highlight of mine from last year, a masterful display of ferocity, despair, stomach-churning crescendo and outright arcane death metal sorcery, the Kiwis had a lot to live up to. Scarcely believing it was possible to play this stuff live, the band ripped through material from their last two albums in a display of jaw-dropping virtuosity, the insane climax of ‘Cold Becoming’ leaving me in pieces. A quite unbelievable display, and one I would urge you all to catch a glimpse of if they’re in your neck of the woods.
Fast forward a few days, and an evening of doom at my local. I missed the first act, but was assured by pals of mine that Black Magician played an excellent set, complete with visual accompaniment. I was pleased to arrive in plenty of time to catch the criminally underrated Grimpen Mire in all of their foul, fire-breathing glory. Their debut album is finally due out some time this year (their 2009 EP Death on the Moor is available as a free download here) and if it comes anywhere close to approaching the gut-rotting intensity of their live performance, it will surely be a contender. The performance is as heavy as one would expect, and when the band wasn’t busy bludgeoning the audience they had the time and the skill to throw in waves of psychedelic lead guitar. Utterly fantastic, and utterly mandatory, they stole the show.
I say stole, since I was here principally to see The Wounded Kings play not only material from their new album, the excellent In the Chapel of the Black Hand, but also to see them play with their new singer, Sharie Neyland, for the first time. Unfortunately, the first 15 minutes or so of the set were marred by a technical hiccup with Sharie’s vocals rendering them waif-like beneath the crushing menace and desolation of the guitars. The vocals are genuinely an integral element to their sound and to be without them seriously hampered my enjoyment of the opening, which was a real shame, but once the sound guy pulled his finger out and the vocals rang out above the murk, the set was a real treat to behold. Sticking to material from the 2011 album, it was generally a very strong performance and I’d seriously recommend catching them in London at the end of the month. That being said – and it really pains me to say it – the band’s previous incarnation was a stronger live act, for me. George Birch had a more commanding presence about him and really shone on stage, rising almost effortlessly to the occasion. The new line-up has time to grow together and they surely will, but Sharie could really do with loosening up a bit and settling in to the performance.
It’s been a good week for death, doom and despair in Birmingham. Long may it continue.
