“Save, The Few, Condemned to prove.“
A doom metal showdown in a small London venue on Friday 13th? Yes please. Soden are the band touring to support Tuskar, but opened the London show in the slot the local act might normally take. Soden play instrumental metal infused with gloom and grandeur, befitting much more than a three-piece band. Their drummer made short work of a tiny kit, the bass rumbled like nothing should at 7:30pm, and the guitarist maintained his dynamics with many pedal adjustments. The lack of vocals is a conscious decision and defines the band’s already impressive discography, but is a choice that may not work for all listeners. Their closing numbers, “Cold Water Still” and “Expedition 2” from their 2020 record Onwards… Towards the Tundra, were the highlights, proving that sludge metal can be upbeat.
Awaiting the next act, local support Wasted Death, I spotted a Napalm Death – Scum wallpaper on their bassist/vocalist’s phone. This was subtle reference to the fact that things were about to get really fast and heavy. What followed were short, high tempo, crusty-punky songs that got better and better as the set progressed. Screamer Charlie Davis has an impressive vocal range and put everything he could into his performance. They didn’t let any dead air stand between songs, through feedback or d-beat humour. A migrating kick drum took the camaraderie of the whole band to key back in position. The band also dedicated a track to the late Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder. Their final song indulged in a much slower breakdown as a send-off. Wasted Death aren’t on the whole tour, but they were an excellent warm up act and ensured the evening’s three course dinner of metal featured all tempos and intensities.
Tuskar were quick to set up their minimalist-maximalist rig. They’re just two members, but they do the work of four – the guitars go into both a stack of both guitar and bass amps, and the drummer proficiently handles signing duties when they come up, even in the most complex of rhythmic moments. There’s a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about drummer-vocalists that just heightens their performances. I feel this heavily in Tuskar, and notice it in other acts across genres, like Brutus and Tomb Mold, where simply knowing the drummer is doing the belting and the beating makes things feel so much heavier.
People talk about “bringing the riff back, but slower” in the context of doom metal, but Tuskar have perfected “bringing the riff in, but much faster”. The mood is set through guitar: slow moments were led by feedback and sludgy repeating mantras; fast riffs come ripping like a woodchipper before the drums quickly catch up and join the firestorm. They performed tracks from all their releases, focusing on the new stuff from this year’s excellent LP Matriarch. They dipped back in time to play 2017’s “Toegrinder”, a fast sequence of nail-biting riffs from their debut EP. The quietest and most vulnerable moment of the night was their performance of “Shame”, an uncommonly emotive track in their catalogue that ends no less heavy than the rest.
It was an interesting night for attention to detail. This kind of metal is all about tone worship and tight performances, yet the embrace of the imperfection of ringing feedback and desperate screaming vocals keeps things very grounded and un-pretentious (except for the unlucky folks who try to explain how this stuff sounds in words – have mercy on them, please). Careful mid-song adjustments to pedals and tom-drum-microphones were juxtaposed by a broken string mishap, somehow occurring twice on Tuskar’s main and backup guitars, in some sort of Friday-the-13th-May streak-of-luck. This only made the next songs fatter in tone. All the bands had very tightly rehearsed setlists and avoided corny encore shenanigans, but this did leave the evening feeling short. An excellent night of sludge at a fittingly dingy venue.
Tuskar have several more dates this month where you can catch their doom metal mayhem.
May 14, Exchange, Bristol
May 15, The Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes
May 27, La Belle Angèle, Edinburgh
Aug 17, Fernhill Farm, Compton Martin, UK