A rather stately, slightly creepy-looking stage greets us at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds with dusty old lamps and some menacing-looking amplification alongside a bank of power electronics. Tonight should be a trip hitting gnarly grindcore and funeral doom on a stage with a giant gong! We’re all strapped in; let’s go!
Knoll
Knoll’s latest, ‘As Spoken’ album is some of the harshest bleakest Grindcore we’ve heard in a long time and live it’s an absolutely no holds barred headfuck! Frontman Jamie Eubanks also in charge of a fearsome array of noise making torture devices. Jamie is terrifying from the off, switching from the deepest pig squeal gutturals to the most gargled, blood curling snarl this side of the most obscure depressive black metal. Everything here is abstract and brutal, with added occasional freeform jazz trumpet parts.The brutal Swedish guitar tone cuts like a serrated blade with the frequently added chaos bringing free form vibes that are absolutely extraordinary. Top this off with harsh noise mangling and power electronics from a frontman who clearly knows his Merzbow from his Oxbow as he delivers pure spite. We’ve been barraged with noise and grindcore rage before but never like this. If you want to journey into the outer reaches with a band that have many angles of extremity covered Knoll is a fascinating and terrifying prospect, we’d implore you to investigate.
Bell Witch
We are definitely in for an education in new forms of heaviness this evening, with multi tonal bass playing from the uber slow virtuoso Dylan Desmond on his seven-string behemoth armed with more pedals than Halfords and triple stack amp attack. Think a more melodic Sunn O))) with drums, played expertly by Jesse Shreibman, and you’re close. It actually takes a lot of skillful time keeping to play a show at these BPMs, totally exposed, every beat meticulously placed, My Dying Bride are spritely by comparison. The entire atmosphere in the Brudenell is fittingly religious for a Sabbath and after 20 mins of sonic massage you simply surrender to the sound. Much in the same way Swans and their orchestral sounding drones can mesmerize and confound. We find ourselves in deep meditative states, having to snap out and remind ourselves we are actually here to write about this. Heavy is a word that’s thrown about but tonight it’s executed with transcendental beauty and grace.
Black and white grainy visuals accompany the whole set and Bell Witch is an overall sensory experience in the polar opposite way that Knoll previously assaulted us, the pair soothing us with a sonic soul tuning. That is until 40 mins in and everything gets supremely heavy, and gutturals are unleashed along with the first drum break? If I can call it that, as it is still slower than getting round Birmingham city centre on a coach at midday. This is all actually a wonderful thing for us as we are big fans of this kind of dense, walking through molasses, and sonic version of a spiritual retreat. With our chakras well and truly adjusted and our third eyes slightly bloodshot we snap back into focus and truly soak up what is a truly masterful approach to Avant Garde doom metal although to call it doom metal seems to do it a disservice as it is so much more than that and it is a million miles away from the kind of Sabbath worship that genre title conjures up. Bell Witch is definitely not an easy night out but an incredibly rewarding one if you can let yourself go. The entire experience has been a building one as it reaches its zenith with two bass parts being consecutively twin handedly tapped it is truly a magnificent and overwhelming one indeed.
As we exit the dying notes feedback into the same church organ that rung out as we entered, and we leave thoroughly cleansed. Amen.
Review & Photos By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Knoll
Bell Witch
