“How can we survive if love has become an act of rebellion?”
Shot on 18th January. Photography by Kieran White, contact before any use. Words by Maximo David.
On the 18th of January, a historic line-up descended upon the capital to deliver an evening of riffs, breakdowns and other assorted noises at the Electric Brixton. It’s truly rare you tour a package this strong, from legendary and venerated figureheads of the scene, to the best and brightest of the new-school, these three bands sought to capture the hearts, minds and swinging hands of 1500 rough ‘n’ ready concert goers, and they did not disappoint.
Opening the show were Kentucky natives and rising stars Greyhaven, who are visiting the continent for the very first time, but from both their performance and the crowd response, you certainly couldn’t tell. A personal favourite of mine, I can’t overstate just how excited I was to finally see the rowdy metalcore quartet tear up a stage this side of the pond, and they did not disappoint.
A concise but calculated set of some of the band’s biggest back catalogue bangers, as well as a good number of tracks from their latest EP, Stereo Grief, and they left a remarkable impression. With the crowd moshing to each belligerent riff and chanting each word of their infectious, world-class choruses back at them, I don’t think Greyhaven could have had a better introduction to the capital. One can only hope they’ll be back in a headline capacity at some stage, because these guys are a force to be reckoned with, and that was proven in spades here.
Playing a decade-spanning set of violent bangers, from their debut in Orange Mathematics, all the way up to their recently released EP, THE SKULL BURNED WEARING HELL LIKE A LIFE VEST AS THE NIGHT WEPT, Frontierer took absolutely no prisoners in their return to London, and much like Greyhaven, one can only hope the capital will be graced with their presence once more in the near future.
Shortly after, Frontierer took to the stage, and held an absolutely captive audience in the palm of their hand with their signature brand of mind and face-melting mathcore. With wailing guitars creating the most unholy of noises, piercing yelled vocals punching right through and brutally percussive drumming fired off with reckless abandon, and the crowd was left in reverent awe as the transatlantic noise merchants tore up the stage.
Of course, the men of the evening were still to come, but their supports provided some decidedly some very hard acts to follow. If you’re somehow unaware, Better Lovers are a supergroup of sorts, formed of ex-Every Time I Die & Dillinger Escape Plan members, as well as legendary producer/metalcore everything-man Will Putney. Supergroups get somewhat a bad rap for being less than a sum of their parts, but through a dedication to writing only the most belligerent, aggressive and razor-sharp tracks possible, Better Lovers deftly avoid such comparisons, proving to be their own beast.
This notion was only furthered once the group took to the stage, and delivered an almost entire discography run, chock full of some of the most animalistic energy I’ve seen from a band in some time. Every member played record-perfect, all the while barreling around the stage like it’s a dive bar show in 2001. Their blended signature sounds prove to also yield a blended signature stage presence, as vocalist Greg Puciato commands the attention of the audience with his undeniable and unmistakable presence. Jordan Buckley matched the energy too, as he dove and hopped his way across the stage and provided some audience participation callouts leading into some of the set’s heaviest moments. Topping the evening off with the band’s debut rager, “30 Under 13”, the room descended into even further chaos, as an extended lead up into the track’s violent close riled up the already-primed crowd. It was a brutal end to a brutal evening, and one that I will certainly not soon forget.
As stated, it’s a rarity to see a tour line-up this strong from top to bottom, and even more so that each and every part of that line-up makes the show theirs in their own unique way. If this exact package came across the UK again, I would be far from upset, but something tells me all three of these bands will be headlining their own killer UK tours in the not-too-distant future. If there’s any justice in the world, that will certainly be the case anyway.