Health Plus Supports – Gost & Zetra
O2 Institute 2, Birmingham
When I was a young metalhead I viewed synthesizers and electronica as spawn of the devil, things that were more aligned with Howard Jones and Five Star rather than rowdy music. Bands such as Fear Factory soon showed me the folly of my ways, proving that keyboards could be both heavy and add new textures. As established bands shuffle off towards the great gig in the sky, a bunch of new musicians are boldly taking heavy music into the future armed with synths and heavy beats…and long may it continue.
Indicative of metal’s new breed are London’s Zetra. Having inked a deal with Nuclear Blast and wooed crowds at this year’s ArcTanGent festival, the duo are very much on the upswing and that immediately becomes apparent in their confident performance. They’ve stepped up to the bigger stages effortlessly and the icy, gothic-inspired soundscapes they produce soon cast their spell over the crowd and create a kind of mass hypnosis, the result being that every pair of eyes are trained on the stage…but when Zetra are playing, why would you look elsewhere?
The brainchild of James Lollar, Gost have been terrorising audiences for over a decade and their pedigree immediately becomes apparent when they hit the stage. Featuring demonic, throbbing basslines and those dirty, Satanic synths, Gost attack all our senses simultaneously. With James attired all in leather and hidden behind a skull mask, he looks like the living embodiment of the Misfits mascot and he acts like it too, constantly punching the stage in outbursts of aggression as the music overtakes his being. There’s very little space between songs, and no between song banter, which only adds to the band’s urgency and visceral power. It feels as if Gost have peeled back the veneer that separates this world from the next and offer a frightening glimpse of what lays beyond.
Born from the Los Angeles underground music scene, industrial rock band HEALTH have carved out a unique career with little to no help from the mainstream media. As with Gost, they proffer a frightening glimpse of a not-too-distant dystopian future through their dark and discombobulating soundscapes. Yet they are also in perfect sync with the current zeitgeist and create harsh songs for these hard times, shaping sonics into hulking structures that signify the death of modernity. As with their moniker and song titles that are presented in upper case, HEALTH are hard to ignore, but don’t mistake their power for brutishness; songs such as ‘Crack Metal’ are finely nuanced and contain more ideas than some bands pack into a whole career. Jake Duzsik’s soft vocals make a neat foil for the music (and work especially well on the Deftones cover) whilst bassist and programmer John Famiglietti gets experimental with the pedals and sheds new light on familiar songs. Departing in a wall of feedback, there aren’t many who’ll forget tonight’s show and it’s one which found the headliners in ruddy health.
Review and Photos By Peter Dennis