Maybe because it gets dark so early now, somewhere near Dalston, I must have tripped and fallen into some dimensional hiatus and woken up in 1999.

Forager

5-piece Mancunian band Forager bottled up the vibe and intensity of a nu-metal band down to a backwards cap and baggy trousers, and they gave their all to the early crowd. Their sound tickles that nerve anyone raised on Linkin Park and Beastie Boys has developed. Frontman Oli topped off the set by jumping into the first mosh pit of the night and so I was witness to an absolute novelty.

It’s rare to feel both too young for a subculture and simultaneously like an absolute centenarian, but slam dancing rammed me into both categories at once. Teach this ol’ granny: what’s the core groove? Arm windmills? Karate chops? When you say two-step, do you mean like a Chloe Ting workout? With roundhouse kicks? Or were there just some really athletic kids in the house?

Grove Street

Grove Street of Southampton played up that energy, with a spinning pit and limbs flying every which way. Their tone was darker, the vocals more distorted, the drumming on the high hats almost like a fire alarm going. For a newbie to hardcore like me, this deep dive rivalled how I imagine people in the 80s hearing Black Flag yell at them for the first time must have felt.

But thankfully it’s not the 80s. For one, plenty of women joined in the madness. The guy who almost slam-punched you in the face? He’ll come and give you a hug afterward. While blissfully freed from their corporeal form, people stayed pretty aware of their surroundings. Anyone who fell got picked up. It was surprisingly collaborative and wholesome.

SLOPE

Needless to say, everybody was stretched and well warmed up for the German headliner, SLOPE. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a rapper duo backed up by such funky grooves, with sludge-y doom riffs to rival Acid Mammoth. They kicked the party into gear with It’s Tickin’ from their latest album Freak Dreams, and the mosh pit didn’t stop for the rest of the night.

There’s this book called “Our Band Could Be Your Life” by Michael Azerrad, which covered the hardcore/underground scene of the US in the 80s, when bands like The Minutemen and Hüsker Dü were making the rounds up and down the coast. I got a feeling I was witnessing something similar: in a small venue at the back of a busy pub, a whole bunch of people were finding each other to scream and dance their aches and fears into the dark and emerge happier.

Picture it: it’s a hardcore gig, with plushie pillows spelling out the name and flowers draping the sound system. The funkiness comes through in between the crazy bouts and you get a respite to sway to the beat. It’s what Woodstock ’99 was intended to be: vibey togetherness to the tune of Limp Bizkit.

There were plenty of moments where the musicianship of the band shone clear, with a wonderfully heavy bass tone and a preference for 5-beat grooves. It’s intense. It’s fun. Everybody was in the air, the drum beat demanded it.

And what’s a hardcore band without an anthem against the establishment? Played in closing, 9/5 fights against the dull repetitiveness of the modern world, the office-to-home-to-grave nightmarish vision of adult life. Outside that system, these guys are doing just fine: first headline tour in the UK, appearances across the European festival circuit. They’ve escaped the loop and are bringing us along for the journey.

Slope’s tour has just started, so if you want to see them live, check out future dates all across Central Europe.

Artists: forager, grove street, Slope