Over the Halloween weekend, most folks go out either on Friday or Saturday. I was one of those people, as I stumbled back home at 5 a.m. on Sunday after a night out with friends. However, I couldn’t say no to the offer of checking out a concert at the O2 Islington 2 later that evening. RedBull helped me revive my functions, and I went to listen to some of the hottest talents in the metal scene right now. Headliner Defects, which just about wrapped their eight-show-long Bloodlines UK Tour, jumped on stage with a couple of their special guests: Knife Bride & Profiler.
Defects
Islington was the best crowd they played for – shouted the Defects vocalist Tony Maue during their performance. That was not surprising as fans only responded to the energy beaming off the stage, which was contagious. With their debut album, “Modern Error”, released in May, they are gaining momentum to become new metal core stars. They already played Download this year and are out to perform at the Rock am Ring in Germany next summer, and I am sure we will see many more exciting concert announcements over the next few months. I watched their engaging set, which made everyone feel like they came to support their good friends. There was a lot of expression and interaction between the musicians and the people in the crowd. Their gig was fast and took us through many heavy breakdowns, guitar solos, and meaningful lyrics. You could feel the emotional release in each song where they encapsulated all band members’ life experiences that many fans can relate to. From the opening with “End of Days” to closing the night with “Recurring”, over their 12-song set, they were relentless, serving us banger after banger right into our faces. Barrier hardly kept the BAND away from the fans. Guitarists were practically up people’s faces with their riffs, but how about singing from a circle pit or top of the bar? That is what we got to experience on that sleepy Sunday evening in London. I must give a personal shout-out to their play-through of “Lockdown” – it was angry and helped me shake off some of those leftover post-pandemic emotions out of my system I did not realise I still had in me. Thank You!
Knife Bride
Knife Bride was right on the opposite side of the show, opening the night and performing their Nu-Gothic Metal offering. Just like Defects, they came on HOT. This band is about two years old and is riding high waves, collecting features from BBC Introducing or nominations from Heavy Music Awards. Industry eyes are on them. With the Download ticked off this year, they are slowly becoming a permanent feature in the UK’s Metal Scene. Channelling the female rage, vocalist Mollie Buckley mixed her vocals in perfect harmony with the rest of the band’s violent 7-song set. Their music catalogue is slowly taking shape as the band released a new single, “Territory”, right before the tour hit the roads. During their performance, I appreciated how killer lyrics, for example, in “Permanent Smile”, where we got to hear the phrase “You said I needed some guts so I opened you up”, intertwined with the beautiful metal noise and that drum bass, hitting so hard it was almost forcing hearts to match its beat. My favourite was their opening song, “Sacrifice/Surrender”, where I could hear its pop star qualities that could easily blend in on the mainstream radio, delivering the perfect introduction to the fans.
Profiler connected the dots that evening. I was expecting to hear Nu-Metal, but I did not expect it to wake that version of myself from over 15 years ago, one listening to Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park on the way to school. My millennial spirits were instantly lifted. This Bristol-based band released their first full-length studio album, “A Digital Nowhere”, at the beginning of the year, and it genuinely slaps. They also released an array of singles and EPs, which collected many accolades and streams. Their set mixed in that classic for the genre, tuned down guitars and Wes Borland-like riffs, DJ scratching and rap beats (which I wish were played a little bit longer between songs) and these signature long screams that would leave most people breathless. Each band member gave 100%, multitasking between delivering their sections and jumping on stage. Their energy transferred over to the fans, who were headbanging and moshing vigorously. I was at the bandstand buying their T-shirt right after the set.