Slomosa at The Underworld, London 2025

Courtesy of the rain blasting London on a Friday afternoon, I found myself being the first walking down the steps of Camden into an empty Underworld. I?d never seen it barren like that before, it?s surprisingly breezy and cool. Naturally, that is but the eye-of-the-storm-sort of calm. It?s a sold out show. It?s gonna get crazy.

Meha

London?s own fuzzy psych band Mehïga kicked off the night with heavy sludgy doom throwdowns, a slow stomping beat to warm us up into the groove. But it was their last two songs, dipping more into the melodic, allowing the band to showcase their musicianship (and vocalist Lewis Downs to step into the softer range of his voice) that really cemented my enjoyment of their set. They?re a band to keep an eye and an ear out for.

Slomosa

If you?ve never been to the Underworld before, you only need to know one thing: it is literally an underground venue. The pillars hold up The World?s End pub above, there is almost no signal, it?s the proverbial going way down Hadestown way down under the ground. So it gets hot and sweaty quickly, a process accelerated by a band going 300 miles per hour, like a horse stampede that will find you eventually (as their breakout single Horses promises).

No matter how high the crowd?s energy was, no matter how insane the crowdsurfing and the moshpit became, nothing could match Slomosa?s relentless pace, going at it for a whole 80 minute set. But we sure tried. ?London! What the fuck? I can?t even hear myself sing!? vocalist Benjamin Britten added after opening the show with Cabin Fever and Rice off their latest album, Tundra Rock.

The London show was on the tail-end of a packed 10-days-10-shows tour, so it was humbling to see how the band was still able to give so much, knowing their audience was there for the ride. Benjamin Britten?s mountain-top voice, startling and immediately recognizable in the more subdued vocal landscape of most stoner rock bands, paired with the band?s stage presence and great riffs, fueled Slomosa?s meteoric rise on the scene, but I want to give credit to Marie Moe on bass in particular. When I saw them live for the first time at Stoomfest 2024, it was Marie?s immediate commitment to full-bodied headbanging (while staying perfectly in the pocket) that instantly gave me permission to go as crazy as I liked. Take a song like Red Thundra – you can’t help but jump head-first into the chorus, as Marie and guitarist Tor Erik Bye did in mesmerising synchronised fashion.

And that too feeds into their success. The guy next to me had been following the tour and was on his 9th Slomosa concert. The whole crowd sang the lyrics. On everybody?s favourite song, ?Horses?, the obligatory horse masks emerged, Ben and Tor played at the very edge of the stage and the mosh pit opened right behind me. You don?t get a fuller experience than this.

So as the show went on and the guitars were incorrigibly covered in sweat and my neck vertebrae started steadily, then alarmingly filing complaints against the abuse I was putting them through, I conjured up a modest proposal for a new live music rating system: on a scale of 1-10, how much did you actually see the band according to how hard you headbanged? My hair was drawing full arches over Marie?s pedalboard and, between the two of us, I don?t think I saw half the show, but then again, I was right against the bass amp. My bones knew it all.