Terror

support Naysayer + Brutality Will Prevail
author AP date 29/08/12 venue Beta, Copenhagen, DEN

Following a month-long summer break, Wednesday the 29th of August marked the return of our All Killer, No Filler club - and it did so in force. Boasting a full house and a hard-hitting hardcore line-up, the seventh edition was, as usual, a resounding success, both in terms of the quality of the live performances and the support of the crowd.

Brutality Will Prevail

Brutality Will Prevail is one of those British bands whose reputation precedes them. Infamous for staging some of the most intense live performances in the British underground, they're nonetheless a band I'm only marginally familiar with, and so the style of their music comes as a bit of surprise to me. It's downtrodden hardcore with occasional Southern nuances (particularly when vocalist Ajay Jones lets loose a brilliant croon every now and then) - not the type of chugga-hardcore that their moniker might suggest. But despite sticking to a slow tempo quite religiously, Brutality Will Prevail are not uninteresting live, as Jones especially is quick to take charge and show us what to do, and a few members of the crowd join him in slam dancing in front of the stage in no time. What I find to be a neat element in his performance is his awareness of the dynamics of the music, and how he adjusts himself according to them. When the remaining musicians enter an instrumental section, his back is toward the crowd; when it's his turn to scream, he does so at point-blank range, pacing back and forth on the floor and venturing into our midst, shoving and pushing select members of the audience so as to give them an incentive to go nuts. Since I'm not much into such activities anymore, I focus on the music, however, and will gladly admit that despite its brutal nature, there is plenty of groove - though not much melody - to appreciate, and as such Brutality Will Prevail are well deserving of a

Naysayer

Naysayer continue the in-your-face antics of the Britons, with vocalist Gary Gunwald also taking position on the floor. Musically the band aligns itself closer to the evening's headliners, however, which induces an immediate and violent response from the foremost onlookers. Gunwald and his crew feed off this energy and pump it into their own, individual displays of hardcore power, with spread-leg jumps and two-step stomping not uncommon sights during their half-hour set. There is little relent, and given the fast, intense and uncompromising nature of Naysayer's take on hardcore, it sets a fine precedent for what's to follow. If there's one thing that bothers me, it's that musically Naysayer have little new to offer than a tried-and-tested hardcore formula. But on the other hand, hardcore has always been focused on the message and the expression of one's beliefs, and this Naysayer accomplish without a doubt.

7

Terror

Having heard of it from those that have experienced it, read it in magazines, and watched it unfold in videos on the Internet, the kind of performance that Terror muster up tonight should not be coming to me as a surprise. This is nonetheless exactly what happens, and I dare say I am not the only one blown back by the incredulous power and supreme authority of this band in a live setting. "Hardcore is more than music", bellows vocalist Scott Vogel, and they, if anyone, can make such an assertion sound convincing. It simply does not get more quintessentially hardcore than a Terror show, and it does not get much more intense. I'd be lying if I claimed I wasn't standing at the back with my jaw on the floor throughout, in awe at what must surely be one of the finest hardcore shows ever to take place in Denmark, or at least Copenhagen.

It's not that Terror are flying off walls, dangling from rafters or surfing the crowd at any given minute; that sort of thing belongs in a whole other realm within the genre. It's that everything Terror say echoes with conviction, and everything they do resonates with passion. Despite the absence of truly mental stage antics, the band is clearly giving it their absolute everything, and from what I can see over the heads of those before me, a relatively large portion of the audience has entered a whole new dimension of insanity upfront. Songs like "Your Enemies Are Mine", "Return to Strength", "Spit My Rage" and set closer "Keepers of the Faith" receive an absolutely riotous response, and Terror is having a major blast as a result. An absolutely phenomenal performance.

Photos copyright of Rasmus Ejlersen

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.