Tonight is billed as 'Exit The Hermitage', a farewell show by Manchester's Barbarian Hermit and they have put together a bill of other UK heavyweights to say goodbye in style. Most of the line up sit firmly in doom territory but Rupcha Farms appear to be the outlier. I wasn't really expecting any rap metal tonight but that's what they deliver. I only really catch one full song which isn't really enough to give them a rating. It is one MC rapping over a backing track but it has some decent riffs. They finish off with a cover of The Prodigy's 'Omen' which has extra guitars and is great. I really wish I could have caught more of their set because I was impressed.
The first song of Under's set really confuses me. It starts off with some technical, uptempo guitar riffs which sound suitably heavy but the drumming sounds a bit freeform like a drumkit falling down the stairs. It doesn't really gel and the clean vocals don't really help either. It then moves to a heavy sludge part with pissed vocals which is much more focused and the song continues in a pattern of parts I like and parts I don't like. The second track is faster, sounding like a hardcore High On Fire. However, they can't resist more tomfoolery, with one part sounding like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The singer/bassist pulls some ridiculous faces too while they are playing this nonsense. When they get into their groove, they are pretty crushing and intense though. One track has a heavy Melvins influence. The low and slow bassline of the final track is delicious and has a number of bodies rocking back and forth in the audience. The swirling guitars bring Sleep to mind and it is a fine way to end the set. After an inconsistent start, this ends up being really good.
1968 channel the same '70s doom excesses that Cathedral used to although the guitar tone is pure Victor Griffin. Andrew Valient's vocals are a bit off key but he has a good tone and it kinda works. In places he reminds me of John Garcia and in other places he sounds like a less controlled Sebastian Bach, particular when he screeches at the top end of his register. He tries his best to get the crowd involved and is a charismatic presence. 'Bad Trip' is like Kyuss gone '70s rock whilst 'Rail Road Boogie' has a killer, hip shaking classic rock groove. 'Scorched Earth' has some cool spacey guitars and sounds like Steven Brodsky jamming along to very early Pentagram. 'Temple Of The Acidwolf' has more spacey guitars and this allied with the powerful groove puts them firmly in Kyuss territory. Very good indeed.
The Rupcha Farms MC hypes up the crowd before Barbarian Hermit take to the stage for the final time. They summon mammoth Sabbathian grooves right from the start and the guitars sound immense. Dressed all in black apart from a white shirt collar and red scarf, and with his long hair and eyeliner, singer Simon Scarlett looks like a character from 'What We Do In The Shadows'. He conducts the whole performance whilst mainly staying front and centre and his reverb laden vocals sound like they echo across the cosmos. The stoner doom riffs of 'Who Put 50p In You' sound utterly monstrous. There is an accessibility to their sound: a catchy chorus here, some Torche style vocal harmonies there, all of which are married to heavy, well defined riffs to create something akin to stadium doom. Both guitarists and the the bassist all look like they're having a ball. Mike and Adam are a formidable unit on guitars as they work together to pump out titanic riffs and grooves. 'Mean Sugar' is utterly earth-shaking. One track is driving, thrashing doom in the vein of High On Fire. The sweat drenched drummer Gareth Manning is a super solid presence behind the kit. The final song of the regular set, 'Heal The Tyrant', is soulful southern doom and it is quite emotional knowing that their time together as a band is coming to an end. The encore sees two more stellar tracks of Sabbath worship and the crowd is really starting to move by this point. And then that is it. After eight years and countless shows, Barbarian Hermit are seemingly no more but this was a glorious way to go out.
Barbarian Hermit ****
1968 ****
Under ****
No comments:
Post a Comment