Review & Photography by Sheri Bicheno for MPM
Once more the mighty Unearthed Music joins forces with Route One Bookings to bring another monumental night to Derbys much loved home of metal, The Hairy Dog.
This time, with a thrash packed evening brimful of quality bands, The Hairy Dog was absolutely rammed.
First up, London’s brothers to midlands Hellfekted, Thrasherwolf opened up the night with groundshaking force.
Frontman Daniel Lucas let’s out an energetic greeting to Derby and et’s loose on the riffs.
we are suddenly doused an atmosphere of pure heaviness.
“Derby! It’s time to get violent!!”
With Thrasherwolf’s crunching riffs and barking vocals of A Thousand Eyes, it’s good to see that old school British Thrash is still well and truly alive.
There are moments where Dan’s voice takes on wails that entwine with despair and distort into anger with the rhythms of the choppy but aggressive thundering from Zaq Razaq’s kit.
It’s a gritty and raging delivery that works to gain the crowd’s attention from the get go.
Blood Moon though sticks with that old school vibe, certainly injects some stunning melodic harmonies with a slow burning first half that blasts into a storm of thrashing riffs and scratching bass notes that inject the speed into the crowd.
With a wall of riffs leading the second half of the song, there are moments of early Metallica styles and beautiful solos that scream out.
Dan races around the venue and interacts with the crowd – always the signs of a proper frontman – whilst the stage is set ablaze by the sheer energy of these guys. Absolute annihilation.
Next comes Blackpool’s thrash pioneers, Blacklist who appear as a 3 man offering tonight with second guitarist Matt Mcloughlin filling in on drums.
Blood Baptism crashes in with whirlwinds of winding riffs and chanting vocals from Tyler Larkin. His vocals range from snarls to melodic wails to deliver maximum impact in time with the twisting riffs and intricate bass notes of Danny France.
Matts drums are speed induced and lay the foundations of the melodic styles that Blacklist encapsulate the core of the sound.
Newest single Naturom Demonto is a frantic headbanger that gets the crowd going.
Technically, there are tonnes of combining layers of breakneck speed drums and intricate guitaring going on. Tyler’s vocals are an absolute whirlwind of different brutal ranges. Barking vocals that twist into raging roars amongst the tempo change of guitars.
The drumming is absolutely monumental in this track. We’re taken down a rabbithole of blastbeats with twists of direction to enforce a pace that doesn’t just blast faces, there is space made for some stunning melodic moments that the guitars and bass fills with screaming solos and harmonious melodies before we’re hammered with The Shape.
One of the most stunning tracks of Blacklist I find, this is a completely brutally fast track for the most part that encapsulates the essence of Blacklist and the best of what they do perfectly.
With a monstrous beginning of haunting guitars and subtle back synths, the bass is chuggy and drums are completely hard hitting and intoxicating.
During some of the melodic pieces of this track, there are some sheer powerful moods that seep from the stage of the Hairy Dog.
Stunning performance.
Next up, a beautifully fitting mash up of hardcore and thrash came smashing into The Hairy Dog in the form of King Abyss.
Huge groove tainted, speedy thrash riffs scratch through the surface that bestow fan favourite Snake Oil into the crowd.
Vocalist Dom Bould has a set of forceful pipes that input fear into your soul. His voice is huuuuuge and gives me feels of the hardcore SpiritWorld realm with the catchy thrash elements that come rushing through from Harry Dale and Sam Millard’s riff blasting in time with George Heathcote’s mesmerising tempo changing blastbeats and double kicks.
Feral energy.
“This is a fast one… spin this room!”
A Short Drop and A Sudden Stop sees some intermittent blastbeats and crunching riffs attack the crowd… the crowd that is going bananas… a crowd that inhabits a plush unicorn jumping up and down amongst the chaos of the pit.
There are moments in this track that I love that has some techy groove moments from the strings of the band with ravenous moods and subtle but strong bass notes from Dan Houlbrooke.
There’s a moment about three quarters of the way through this track that spills out some beautiful melodic guitaring and vocals that roar and blend together with such catharsis!!
Eyes Always Watching gives off some scratching riffs paced with hostility merging through some solid underlying of groove noted bass.
Huge energy, absolutely evil drumming laces through this savage track with gut churning gutturals to boots.
Midlands thrash legends Hellfekted have come so far these past few years. Given a hugely deserved main support slot to Evile was the right answer.
This is definitely the best I’ve ever seen them…
Intro music to Lord of the Rings, Mordor theme built some proper suspense for the stage and already a circle pit forms…
A storm of riffs are released and frontman Liam Stubbs addresses the crowd.
Stomping around the stage, he and Rebecca Webster unleash some hard hitting plethora of riffs and licks which sees the floor of The Hairy Dog absolutely swarming. People are already pitting and that unicorn still in one piece is making its way around the crowd whilst blow up beach balls are kicked into the front line.
“Every fucker grab a ball!!” Liam commands and on queue, there are inflatables bouncing around the place in time with the ferociousness of Connor Rush’s double pedals on the kit.
Stigma showcases some stunning chugging basswork from Chris Brownrigg which sets the twisting pace alongside the energy of the drums. This is a headbanger that turns you upside-down. Liam voices out some high end screeches in this track and highlights some of the blackened thrash elements that Hellfekted ripple through.
Rebecca bullets the song with crunching riffs that layer Liam’s and she offers pure backed up energy. Monumental moods!!
We got a peek of new track The Prophecy that was showcased tonight. A powerful riff intro submerges and is followed by intense and heavy vocals that spirals into a frenzy of energy and evil moods before Death of Iron sees the stage joined by members of Thrasherwolf and Blacklist.
This swarms in with a catchy entering melody and then again with another layer on top of it before Connor builds tension with a few suspensional beats.
Liam growls into the ether of the stage and trembles the walls of the Dog. His vocals are huge with ranges between high wails and barking growls to accompany the bludgeoning riffs that he wields.
An inferno of a track, this isn’t so much frantic but hits heavy in some stunning moods and feral energy with all members on stage purely putting everything into playing.
Liam appears in a Crop Keeper mask and ends the set with an explosive mash up of Iron Man where members of different bands of the night playing together as hard as humanely possible, concluding Hellfekted with a show of colossal riffs and drums, a pure mash up of mates on stage and paves the way for the hype to Evile…
Evile enter the stage and The Hairy Dog is positively moving.
From the newly released album The Unknown, Sleepless Eyes rang out through layers of monstrous riffs and pacey blastbeats.
Old school thrash is alive and we.
Sticksman Ben Carter smashes out the pace as heavy guitar riffs smash through the atmosphere like slate though Oli Drake adopts more melodic vocals.
The Unknown is probably my favourite out of the whole set. There are some stunning melodics through all aspects of musicianship.
Oli weaves his cleaner singing through some beautiful guitar notes before the riffs come shooting in to deliver an intense track.
Cult serves as an old school offering that churns out crunching riffs and hard hitting bests. Ol and Adam Smith work beautifully together on this track with the guitars. The melodics are sinister but stunning, depicting dark corners of the track, playing with melodics and thumping beats from Ben Carter.
The way that Ol handles the guitar here is also a work of art. He shreds the guitar but in one gentle sweep, skips his hands across the fretboard effortlessly – the sound that comes out here is insane!!
“This song is so heavy you might die…”
Monolith serves as an aggressive offering with stunning chuggy riffs backed up by low ebbed bass notes from Joel Graham.
There are some elements to this track that remind me of veeeeery early Metallica in places. Heavy, slow, chuggy and impactful.
Almost a ballad, if you like with its slower and tuned down doomy esque, infectious beats.
Finishing on their own rendition based on the movie The Thing (1982) – this has got to be one of the fastest combination of riffs and beats I’ve ever seen live!!
Ending with an absolute rush of riffs and beats with vocals sped up is something quite to behold. A frenzy of bodies occupy the floor of The Hairy Dog and Evile finish on a humble and energetic note.
Some of these riffs man… my god!!
