Bristol
2 April 2015
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Pohl were an epic, hard and ultimately satisfying display of heavy riff-based shenanigans. A mighty three piece whose ranks boasted
Hugo of Bristolian psyche monsters
The Heads fame, who supplied some seriously grunged-up basslines whilst the (
Buddy Holly look-a-like) singer stabbed at them with octave grates of guitar and some excellent shouty incentives, leaving the drummer to smash and grab at the sound barrier in
a blur of elbows and knees as if fending off a multitude of invisible ninjas. A meaty set with plenty of surprises.
Super Luxury were a hard-core antidote to Pohl’s buzzing depths. The lead singer was all over the place, screaming his head off, the music behind him a lunging concoction of
Bad Brains jung-a-naughts and heaving
Birthday Party-like destructives. Loads of memorable hooks, some beautiful clawing curves too, as
howling amps exhumed an unholy ruckus that brewed up a storm of a connection and gave you perfect excuse to hit the merch stall afterwards. Talking of which, I recommend you getting acquainted with their
Ten Solid Years of Applause album immediately.
Ghold stripped it all back to a two piece of just drums and bass plus some ghoulishly excellent vocal action (from both) as blunt percussives bent into whining sinew. A slow, considered doom-laden growl that was crawling with amp wraiths and black metal baptisms and accurately portraying their latest
Of Ruin release. A
necro-churning vibe smothered in heavy tribal thunder and contorting tempo burns that didn’t need any theatrics to make its presence felt.
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Hailing from Chicago,
Oozing Wound pushed things to greater extremes. A
flesh-rippling, chest-quaking loud set with plenty of vocal sandpaper tearing on through. Wasn’t really my thing to be fair, but found their full-on ferocity fun, left you marvelling on how the bassist was managing to keep his fingers from shredding whilst holding pace with all that insane riff worship.
-Michael Rodham-Heaps-