Blinding strobe lighting starts as soon as Violent Magic Orchestra take to the stage, and combined with the music, a hybrid of black metal and dance music, is a comlete sensory overload. The electronic beats are really hard, ranging from gabba techno and hard trance to heavy industrial metal with guitars and gutteral growls mixed in for good measure. The gabba techno is probably the hardest element to be honest. It's a bonkers mix which is impactful and gets you moving. The only criticism early on is that each track is too brief although this settles as the set progresses.
The singer looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, and she dances like she is in a j-pop outfit but she sounds feral. The DJ does a sick somersault into the crowd at one point and band members jump into the audience at various points to start the crowd dancing and it works. The crowd start off as static and hesitant at first but this becomes a full on rave midway through. With strobes, lasers and big screen visuals, it's a hell of a show for a support act.
After the atmopheric 'I Miss Home' intro, Ho99o9 launch into the Bad Brains-esque hardcore of 'Escape'. From there, it's straight in to the rock rap of 'Target Practice' and already plenty of the crowd are moving. The industrial hip hop of 'Power In Numbers' is kinetic, and it's clear that they have much more power and energy live. Yeti Bones (aka Eaddy) machine gunning the crowd in time to the gunfire beats of 'OK, I'm Reloaded' looks cool as hell.
Eaddy takes a breather whilst Crystal Waters' 'Gypsy Woman' plays over the PA, then it's straight back into the full throttle punk rock. Aside from the drums, all of the instrumentation is provided by a backing track but the two vocalists give so much of themselves that they are drenched in sweat and it feels like an authentic live performance rather than a public appearance.
The closest comparison most of the time is Bad Brains, particularly on the 'United States Of Horror' material, and those blasts of hardcore are brilliant. However, they are equally as good at bass heavy hip hop as they are at hardcore punk. theOGM's gritty vocal delivery is reminiscent of DMX whilst Eaddy is no less agressive and their flows are really good.
'A Machine Of' sounds like Nine Inch Nails whilst the hard bounce of 'Knuckle Up' causes mayhem on the floor. The closing 'Godflesh' is a high energy thrashabout which sees Eaddy in the moshpit and it is a suitably intense and sweaty end to a fantastic show.
Ho99o9 ****
Violent Magic Orchestra ****
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