Cancer Bats, Cardiff Barfly
Intense is far too weak a word to describe headliners, Cancer Bats.
Openers SSS want you to learn. They want you to keep yourselves educated - be it about global matters or about Hillsborough - but the real lesson should be learnt by every one of the shitty throwback thrash bands pouring out of the woodwork: Watch SSS and learn what you are doing wrong. No posturing, no authentic 80's image, no recycled riffs, no Motley Crue attitude - they do their own thing, their own way. They make their thrash sound fresh, not like your older brother's record collection. Vocalist Foxy is an excellent frontman, avoiding soap-boxing, when he decides to vault the barrier to play the last three songs in the crowd, a set that started with technical problems and polite applause ends with deafening roars of approval. Educate yourselves with their latest album.
A thread of thrash runs through The Plight's punchy din, but they come across somewhere between Gallows and the headliners. It's engaging stuff and the crowd start kicking things up a notch, but Rocklouder can only hear Lewis Pugh's Flying V squealing over everything else to ear-decimating levels. Not that what's going on is bad, their songs are effective, and when their album drops in the Summer you'd do well to take a look after witnessing this intense set.
Intense is far too weak a word to describe headliners, Cancer Bats. From the word go, the crowd set about demolishing themselves in surprisingly little space, the band soundtracking the carnage with excellent runs through tracks like 'Harem Of Scorpions' and 'Bastard's Waltz'. Lyrics are roared back to them as tracks from the recently re-released Hail Destroyer receive the warmest welcome, with 'Let It Pour' and the title track causing utter pandemonium, but there's plenty of time for 'Pneumonia Hawk' and new track 'Engine Skull' (that most of the crowd already know off-by heart). Liam Cormier is leaning over or into the crowd at any opportunity, and though time constraints limit his likely well-oiled banter, they focus in the songs instead. The closing groove of 'Lucifer's Rocking Chair' is met with near orgasmic levels of approval, but it's the preceding 'Sorceress' that threatens to cave the roof in; a devastating, breakneck fury that sends the pit into a frenzy of limbs. This is their tenth time in Cardiff. It's apparent from the amount of time that Cormier spends shaking hands once things are done that the Welsh capital will have them back any time.
RSS Feed
