March 7, 2013
I wonder if metalheads in London know how good they have it with the Unicorn. The next few months offer an overload of underground everything: death, black, thrash, doom metal, sludge, grind, crust, hardcore, punk, rock... and it's all free. When NYDM semi-legends Pyrexia appeared on the upcoming show list I knew it would be a hard show to miss. And so one rainy night I hopped off the overground, grabbed a beer from an off-license and took a stroll to Camden Town.
Regurgitate Life opened the show but I didn't catch them.
I arrived at the Unicorn to see the Pyrexia tour van occupying the patio and to hear the pounding undercurrent of brutal death emanating from within. Blasphtized were nearing the end of their set, the vocalist doing his work (the lowest rumble of a growl) on the floor amidst a cadre of headbangers. Hard, tight, chunky, generally mid paced modern brutal death metal, tonight boasting a piercing, surgically metallic guitar tone. Nothing too crazy structurally, they instead choose to build a good riff and bludgeon you repeatedly with it. The few songs I caught were executed with merciless precision, and everything stayed tight until an obligatory chaotic 'thank you and goodnight!' finale, briefly highlighted by a particularly sweet drum solo.
The Unicorn blows my mind as a venue. Free admission, shows almost every night, less than £3 a pint, decent sound, and they stay on schedule. You can see five bands in four hours, catch the train and be home in bed by midnight. Contrast this with your average Winnipeg pub metal show where if the first band starts by 10:30 pm you're doing well. This means on a busy night at the Unicorn you barely have time to wait for a beer at the bar before the next band is ready to go, in this case: Unfathomable Ruination. If Blasphtized was surgical, this band is a more indiscriminate sort of carnage. Fast, blasting and a bit muddy, broadly in the vein of Suffocation or Immolation. Very riffy and complex, occasionally contrasted with dissonant leads (one lengthy solo towards the end of the set was particularly nice). The charismatic vocalist attempted to woo the crowd into a mosh, but most were content to enjoy the old school goodness nonviolently. The set finale was spectacular, tightly coordinated and devastating.
Beheaded land somewhere between the first two acts in terms of pacing and sound. Lots of contrast between churning riffs and hammering breakdowns, logically tied together in a somewhat modern brutal death metal style. They immediately brought to mind relatively unknown Macedonians Embryotomy, and I mean that as a compliment to both. One new song performed recalled Nile with the moments of almost-melodic riffing and the atmosphere of ancient terror generated. Material from Perpetual Mockery was performed, and I was interested to learn that both of the evening's headliners debuted with an album with "Mockery" in the title. What are the odds? Pretty minuscule actually, as Metal-Archives only lists three full-lengths so titled. Neat. The crowd started to get a bit moshy as the venue was filling up at this point. Unfortunately for tonight's performers, they were competing with a Cannibal Corpse concert at The Forum for attendance. By the time Beheaded were wrapping up some fans were arriving from there for their second dose of death metal of the night.
Pyrexia closed out the evening with an intense short set (about 45 minutes). Clearly this was who most came to see, as the crowd packed in close to the stage. The band looked to be having a lot of fun, this being their first European tour, and were huge on audience participation. As the set began I was quickly devoured by the spontaneous moshpit that formed. I was thoroughly bruised by the end of a set that included one short-lived crowd surfing attempt and the band inviting the crowd up on stage. Pyrexia played through the chaotic on-stage mosh that followed, hardly batting an eye as rowdy metalheads collided into them. Not surprisingly, the classic album Sermon Of Mockery was well-represented, though new material was offered as well. This was old school death metal in its purest form, and the new stuff hasn't strayed extremely far from that - at least in the live setting, it all fits together into a pretty seamless package. Quite an accomplishment really, given the plethora of iterations the band's line up has gone through. And the band's energetic performance really highlights that it's all about the music, not who happens to be playing it tonight. For a free show you're not going to do much better than this, a great night.
