This being a Saturday night the attendance last night was far higher than for the SA gig a few nights back, well upwards of 200 I would guess in the end. On entering the venue I was disappointed to find out Bludvera would not be playing as indicated on the bill poster and ticket. Those guys released one of my fave thrash ep/short album a couple of years back now. Instead a band called Divine Chaos was listed instead. Oh well..bad luck for me.
First up were Visceral Attack. I heard these guys a bit online a week or so ago. A bit raw and very fast almost at Grindcore speed at times with punky vocals were my first impressions. Live they sounded pretty tight but it just wasn't my cuppa really. No refinement as they say and the brutality of the grind sections made it a bit hard going. If you're into that sort of thing then Visceral Attack will be a band to watch. It was like watching a super brutal early Napalm Death type band playing punky thrash. They did go down well with the punters though I must admit.
Next up were Divine Chaos. We were definitely in metal only territory now. No core, no crossover just a slid and pretty technical kind of thrash with death metal vocals. Not for the faint of heart this one and their forthcoming album is definitely one to check out. They were the heaviest band of the night in my book with piledrivng fast riffs and loads of cutting leads from the twin guitar angle. I do believe they were playing 7 strings as well, at least one of the guitarists anyway, so that made them stand out with the heavier, crushing guitar sound. I need to listen to their album when it comes out for sure 'cause Divine Chaos showed a lot of skill and were perhaps the tightest band last night.
Main support to Gama Bomb were the sarcastic crossover scousers SSS and their cool brand of punk thrash and a little bit of Grind thrown in as well. I've seen these guys live at the Underworld before and they always get a massive response from the crowd and last night was no different. They were definitely the grooviest band of the night by far with fat chunky riffage getting copious amounts of headbanging and moshing from all and sundry. The bass player was a little scouse dude in all white get up and looked funny but man did he play some awesome bass grooves. Their scouse wit showed it's head here and there especially when one stage diver took a huge leap and landed on precisely no-one aka the floor and the bespectacled frontman quipped.." beware the old proverb...look before you leap!". Everyone was sniggering at that although luckily the guy who went for a burton off the stage was ok after being helped to his feet though he was down for a minute or so.
SSS were very damn cool throughout. I dunno why I haven't gotten into their albums much as yet but damn they are cool as hell live and go down a storm and sound very heavy for a one guitar band. Their fat moshing riffs juxtaposed with brutally fast grind sections and a front man that apes all of Barney's hilarious stage moves makes for a great live experience.
Finally the crowd was at it's most intense waiting for the Irish thrash crew Gama Bomb to lay waste and boy did they! They moshpit was pretty crazy even from the side and with the addition of constant stage divers, the chaos only amplified as song after song of raging thrash was played. These guys have a very amiable frontman indeed with plenty of typical Oirish wisecracking. In amongst it all they play super tight thrash metal though with a hint of crossover from the gang shouts. Both guitarists are very good at the super fast widdling whilst the singers spits out lyrics like a spitting cobra. The only thing about Gama Bomb is that most of their songs are relentlessly fast and there's not too much light and shade and bounce like there was for SSS. The crowd was completely insane though and were bellowing to most of the lyrics on the choruses etc.
There was one sour moment when the security guy got a bit heavy handed with the divers but the Gama Bomb frontman seemed to calm the situation down and it was ok after that. There seemed to be one fight as well but with pits that intense it's not that surprising and it did calm down again after that. They played a whole heap of songs and since some of them are quite short, they play them at Grindcore speed so we heard a lot of songs in a very riotous 75 minute set.
A very mental and fun night overall which I think was shaded by SSS as band of the night.
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