Crowbar + Ingested + Nervewrecker
Going back to my youth, a good many years ago, there was little I liked more than the extreme ends of the metal spectrum, be it the glacially slow doom of Candlemas and St Vitus or the velocity of Venom and Kreator. Of course, time moves on, tastes change and the metal scene has splintered into a seemingly infinite number of genres. These days, I listen to very little metal and, despite going to many gigs, don’t often get to a metal show.
Norwich’s very own Nervewrecker get the show started with some seriously intense grindcore. Nervewrecker have three speeds: slow, slower and slowest. This is a band that seemingly worship at the twin altars of Black Sabbath and Candlemas with riffs that move with all the pace of continental drift. Over it all, Ed bellows the kind of guttural death grunts that wouldn’t have been out of place on a release from Earache Records back in the 80s. If I am being critical, this set was a bit one dimensional and could maybe have done with an injection or two of pace just for variety’s sake and Nervewrecker don’t so much write songs as write riffs. But hell, they are bloody good riffs.
Hailing from Manchester, INGESTED speed things up - and then some! Having been around since 2002, their sound is substantially faster than Nervewrecker, with a more technical approach and a goodly dose of blastbeats. Vocalist Jason Evans is a showman of the metal old school, exhorting the crowd to scream their approval, with a stage presence that somehow brings to mind both Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Faith No More’s Mike Patton. Bassist Brad Fuller and twin guitarists Sean Hynes and Sam Yates lock together effortlessly, whilst the double bass drumming of Lyn Jeffs sounds like multiple Gatling guns engaged in some kind of insane barrage.
And now, the reason why I have dragged my carcass out on a Sunday night: legendary New Orleans merchants of doom Crowbar.
Vocalist and guitarist Kirk Windstein, formerly also of Doom, may be the sole surviving founder member but Crowbar have have produced primal, downtuned, sludgy metal with an admirable single mindedness for twenty nine years (and with a total of eighteen members). That is not to say that the music is one dimensional. Yes, a lot of it is slow and doomy but the band do pick up the pace. It may not be as quite slow as Nervewrecker or quite as fast as Ingested but Crowbar approach both extremes.
Centre stage, Windstein is resplendent in a Twisted Sister tee. Behind him, drummer Tommy sports a tribute to Led Zep’s John Bonham. Stage right, guitarist Matt wears a Van Halen tour shirt. The influence of these bands and their ilk might not be immediately apparent in Crowbar’s sound but it may just be apparent if you listen hard enough. See, it is not all extremity. From time to time, Crowbar lock into the kind of groove or let free the type of chorus that took the likes of Twisted Sister to the upper reaches of the US chart back in the eighties, albeit that they smother those grooves and choruses in sludge and distortion.
As I have said, this kinda stuff isn’t really my thing these days. I’ll probably not listen to any of these bands much outside of this live environment but by the hells that was a damnably enjoyable gig. It is intense, brutal and cathartic but also surprisingly good fun. I really will have to investigate more shows like this.
