A night of Crust, Grind and Hardcore - The Pilgrim - 7.5.13
What a surreal way to spend a sunny Tuesday evening, being bastardised by Horsebastard, en-crusted with Pine Barrens, D-Beaten by Mörkhimmel and Crust-Punked by Swinelords in a small room above the Pilgrim Pub.
Although I knew very few people there I felt relaxed and eager to witness four bands not previously seen and none of them disappointed and all gave a really amazing, stunning and profound set that I won’t forget in a hurry! And one that was immensely brutal and raw!
It was quite noteworthy to say in between bands the crowds kept dispersing to the fact there were only a few people upstairs and as soon as the bands appeared people clambered through the doors which I thought was well worthy of mentioning – so well done you grinding punkers!!
Swinelord
A four piece brick wall of noise and violence. Manchester filth-mongers, Swinelord, are a four piece D-Beat Crust Punk band that follow traditional Crust D.I.Y ethics and play a distinctly hateful breed of Crust Punk.
Starting off were Swinelords who at first seemed rather shy but soon came into their own on stage, off it they went back to being the shy timid creates they are!
Their guitarist Michael looks the spit of a young Lemmy, every time I looked at him I thought “Fuck! It’s Lemmy!” although I should never have said that as someone might think I am old!
Their deep resonating sound is a conglomerate of doom laden crust and was as powerful as a speeding express train. The gruff growled vocals spewed out some venomous low but sonically driven incomprehensible tones added to the furnace of total brutal riffs and beats and a great warm up to the Peste Promotions gig.
The thing with crust and grind though is that the tracks are mostly in short bursts but the good thing is they can fit more tracks into their sets so the bad compliments the good.
Perpetually in motion these guys turned into monsters on stage although I wished Chris would have faced the audience a bit more as I wanted to see his face change as he growled out the tracks with his body arched in reflection as he passionately flawed each of them in turn, but I did manage to grab a couple of pics when he turned round!
Pine Barrens
4-Piece from Manchester that play an excellent fusion of Black Metal, Crust and Hardcore. Pine Barrens have already supported bands such as Weekend Nachos, Black Breath, Wormrot, Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition, Victims, Alkerdeel and The Afternoon Gentlemen.
When I first saw Thom move to the front of the crowd I thought he was a punter until he took his blue shirt off revealing a black T Shirt and grabbed the mic. He looked ordinary up to that point, but as soon as he opened his mouth I was amazed at the velocity he produced by his growls and screams it was truly breath taking.
What an aggressive performance from Pine Barrens! Thom the front man with a face of putty, I say that because it contorted with every note he sang and the band followed suit working their magic into each track.
Dan broke a string with his ferocious onslaught of strings and whilst changing it the band carried on their little melee of deep resonating chunky slapping bass and drum entourage which kept the crowd amused.
Aggressive, and ferocious it all went together like a jig-saw be it with a lot more noise! Inspiring and dramatic this performance left nothing to chance. The hard core crust elements whipped your ears and really gave you something to feast upon and left a lot of people open mouthed, myself included.
This band know exactly how to execute a climax as their tracks ripple with oozing infection and are highly contagious in approach and execution.
I can safely say that Pine Barrens are a real live experience, their stage show evokes, depth, passion and imagination and definitely worth going and seeing live. I was anticipating it to be a good set as they were recommended and I can see why, backed by musical prowess that was unleashed by a barrage of aggression, definitely catch them live! Not to be missed!
Horsebastard
Scouse chaotic Grind-Core madmen influenced by the likes of Discordance Axis, Assuck, Brutal Truth and Capitalist Casualties. These blast beat loving, grind fiends intend to wreak havoc and destruction as revenge for every single innocent horse that has been slaughtered for the sake of a Tesco Value burger!!
Now what did we have here? Ahh yes Horsebastard the mere name should have you fearing for your life and cowering in a corner somewhere scared to lift your head in case you see the beast! They unleashed the bastards and most of them were in the crowd as the vicious onslaught broke loose and encapsulated them all. Hurling their bodies into each other, nose rings flying out of every nostril, limbs were spasming wildly and faces grinning inanely as the Horsebastard beast sprang into action and gripped the frenzied crowd.
I have witnessed a few mosh pits before but NEVER one as viciously, and violent as this and so glad that I was – now kneeling on the most uncomfortable bench ever, squashed tightly against a cold wall, as glasses were falling off tables and bodies were getting slammed ferociously to the ground – Horsebastard were fuelling the already insanely hot faces (and bodies) of the melting crowd by throwing themselves into the audience and moving about wildly to the uncompromising and unyielding, as well as terrifying sounds that secreted themselves from the speakers.
Chris the bands ‘voice’ growled so fiercely the bottles on the tables were shaking, whilst Ste on guitar who has only just joined the Horsebastard army was striding around into the hordes of people gathered near the front – (I won’t call it a stage as there wasn’t one – it was just a mat probably 4x4) with a grimace that could only be described as disgustingly happy!
Having seen Horsebastard play at the Basement sometime last year I knew I was going to be in for a fuel pumped ride of gnarly aggression but since line-up changes they seem to have got more depraved, if that’s possible! Their track titles are just hilarious and immediately spark a tongue in cheek flavour, yet somehow you just have to take them seriously, be it with a large dose of salt and caustic soda!
One of the onlookers heavily pierced asked Chris to slap his face and as Chris did so and quite harshly, this guy hugged him and then ran off into the crowd cheering and throwing people about... he did come back for more and Chris slapped him again even harder this time to which he did the same thing again. I was quite surprised to see a few females going absolutely ballistic and one of them who knew the slap happy guy picked him up and swung him round a few times his legs kicking out and actually hitting someone close by.
I really did think it would turn into a free for all, but in fact as soon as Horsebastard stopped – the crowd returned to normal – if that is the word to use? It was like Horsebastard turned ‘normal’ folk into raving lunatics who could not control their bodies or emotions – quite a spectacle! Beware the Horsebastard lives once witnessed never forgotten!
Sadly Horsebastard only did a ten minute set but then again I don’t think anyone could take anymore as everyone by that point was thoroughly spent and if Mr Slap Happy had received any more hits to the face he may have needed serious hospital treatment!
Mörkhimmel
Mörkhimmel started in 2007 as a project between Slavek (ex - Massgenocide Process) and Maťko (ex-Benton, S.I.K.A.). During these early stages of their band, their sound was spawned from of a love of D-beat Crust bands such as Discharge, Disfear, Bombraid, and Disgust as well as Black Metal bands such as Darkthrone, Hellhammer, Venom, and Bathory. Since then the band has had various line-up changes (Currently Slavek, David, Andy, Hawren and Honza) and has toured Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Poland. Now Mörkhimmel embark on their first UK tour before appearing at Obscene Extreme festival in summer this year!
I just hope I have spelled everything correctly here but my Czech isn’t what you call even remotely good – so please excuse any mistakes here.
Last night’s performance from Mörkhimmel was nothing less than a pure unadulterated frenzy, but the frenzy did have plenty of melodic wash that was tipped over you in buckets!
Slavek, the bands front man towered above everyone with his long black tresses clinging to his sweat ridden contorted face and his hands gnarled into an aggressive pose as he venomously clawed the air in order to push more ferocity from his vocal chords as he could muster.
The band’s skins man Hawran’s flailing limbs spasms with each and every beat as the sweat dripped from his body. It was a ferocious array of gnarly, vehement atmosphere. The crowd stood transfixed on the mat! And heads were shaking, a few bodies actually moved in time to the rhythms that embellished their ears but most stood mesmerised not wanting to miss a thing.
Slavek introduced their tracks in turn and when he said something in Czech laughed at the thought of us poor buggers wondering what the tracks meant. I have done my best to try and translate but this will only serve to give the band a further laugh!
They played my favourite track “Endless wall of fuckers” and it was received well, not surprising though it was note perfect and the sound was as clear as a bell – well for a grind gig that is!
The guys despite the language barrier were warm and friendly and had literally bought a wealth of swag with them – T Shirts, CDs Albums in Vinyl, boxes and boxes of stuff was laid out in the back of the room.
A really superb set – I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them live again but sadly it will probably be a while coming as they are off to finish their tour 8.5. (Wed) - BRISTOL (UK) Stag and Hounds" 9.5. (Thur) - BRIGHTON (UK) – Chequers 10.5. (Fri) - Day off. 11.5. (Sat) - GIESSEN (Germany) - AK44" and then home for a well-deserved rest – but come back soon Mörkhimmel you were literally spellbinding!
Special Thanks to Kabir for a fantastic evening of pure fun and violence! Ian for the amazing sound, Pete Burns for being there and supporting the madding fracas, and of course to the four talented bands Mörkhimmel, Horsebastard, Pine Barrens and Swinelord – excellent line-up! Great to be part of it – roll on the next one! For all things fucked up, brutal, aggressive and down-right gnarly get to one of these gigs
Although I knew very few people there I felt relaxed and eager to witness four bands not previously seen and none of them disappointed and all gave a really amazing, stunning and profound set that I won’t forget in a hurry! And one that was immensely brutal and raw!
It was quite noteworthy to say in between bands the crowds kept dispersing to the fact there were only a few people upstairs and as soon as the bands appeared people clambered through the doors which I thought was well worthy of mentioning – so well done you grinding punkers!!
Swinelord
A four piece brick wall of noise and violence. Manchester filth-mongers, Swinelord, are a four piece D-Beat Crust Punk band that follow traditional Crust D.I.Y ethics and play a distinctly hateful breed of Crust Punk.
Starting off were Swinelords who at first seemed rather shy but soon came into their own on stage, off it they went back to being the shy timid creates they are!
Their guitarist Michael looks the spit of a young Lemmy, every time I looked at him I thought “Fuck! It’s Lemmy!” although I should never have said that as someone might think I am old!
Their deep resonating sound is a conglomerate of doom laden crust and was as powerful as a speeding express train. The gruff growled vocals spewed out some venomous low but sonically driven incomprehensible tones added to the furnace of total brutal riffs and beats and a great warm up to the Peste Promotions gig.
The thing with crust and grind though is that the tracks are mostly in short bursts but the good thing is they can fit more tracks into their sets so the bad compliments the good.
Perpetually in motion these guys turned into monsters on stage although I wished Chris would have faced the audience a bit more as I wanted to see his face change as he growled out the tracks with his body arched in reflection as he passionately flawed each of them in turn, but I did manage to grab a couple of pics when he turned round!
Pine Barrens
4-Piece from Manchester that play an excellent fusion of Black Metal, Crust and Hardcore. Pine Barrens have already supported bands such as Weekend Nachos, Black Breath, Wormrot, Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition, Victims, Alkerdeel and The Afternoon Gentlemen.
When I first saw Thom move to the front of the crowd I thought he was a punter until he took his blue shirt off revealing a black T Shirt and grabbed the mic. He looked ordinary up to that point, but as soon as he opened his mouth I was amazed at the velocity he produced by his growls and screams it was truly breath taking.
What an aggressive performance from Pine Barrens! Thom the front man with a face of putty, I say that because it contorted with every note he sang and the band followed suit working their magic into each track.
Dan broke a string with his ferocious onslaught of strings and whilst changing it the band carried on their little melee of deep resonating chunky slapping bass and drum entourage which kept the crowd amused.
Aggressive, and ferocious it all went together like a jig-saw be it with a lot more noise! Inspiring and dramatic this performance left nothing to chance. The hard core crust elements whipped your ears and really gave you something to feast upon and left a lot of people open mouthed, myself included.
This band know exactly how to execute a climax as their tracks ripple with oozing infection and are highly contagious in approach and execution.
I can safely say that Pine Barrens are a real live experience, their stage show evokes, depth, passion and imagination and definitely worth going and seeing live. I was anticipating it to be a good set as they were recommended and I can see why, backed by musical prowess that was unleashed by a barrage of aggression, definitely catch them live! Not to be missed!
Horsebastard
Scouse chaotic Grind-Core madmen influenced by the likes of Discordance Axis, Assuck, Brutal Truth and Capitalist Casualties. These blast beat loving, grind fiends intend to wreak havoc and destruction as revenge for every single innocent horse that has been slaughtered for the sake of a Tesco Value burger!!
Now what did we have here? Ahh yes Horsebastard the mere name should have you fearing for your life and cowering in a corner somewhere scared to lift your head in case you see the beast! They unleashed the bastards and most of them were in the crowd as the vicious onslaught broke loose and encapsulated them all. Hurling their bodies into each other, nose rings flying out of every nostril, limbs were spasming wildly and faces grinning inanely as the Horsebastard beast sprang into action and gripped the frenzied crowd.
I have witnessed a few mosh pits before but NEVER one as viciously, and violent as this and so glad that I was – now kneeling on the most uncomfortable bench ever, squashed tightly against a cold wall, as glasses were falling off tables and bodies were getting slammed ferociously to the ground – Horsebastard were fuelling the already insanely hot faces (and bodies) of the melting crowd by throwing themselves into the audience and moving about wildly to the uncompromising and unyielding, as well as terrifying sounds that secreted themselves from the speakers.
Chris the bands ‘voice’ growled so fiercely the bottles on the tables were shaking, whilst Ste on guitar who has only just joined the Horsebastard army was striding around into the hordes of people gathered near the front – (I won’t call it a stage as there wasn’t one – it was just a mat probably 4x4) with a grimace that could only be described as disgustingly happy!
Having seen Horsebastard play at the Basement sometime last year I knew I was going to be in for a fuel pumped ride of gnarly aggression but since line-up changes they seem to have got more depraved, if that’s possible! Their track titles are just hilarious and immediately spark a tongue in cheek flavour, yet somehow you just have to take them seriously, be it with a large dose of salt and caustic soda!
One of the onlookers heavily pierced asked Chris to slap his face and as Chris did so and quite harshly, this guy hugged him and then ran off into the crowd cheering and throwing people about... he did come back for more and Chris slapped him again even harder this time to which he did the same thing again. I was quite surprised to see a few females going absolutely ballistic and one of them who knew the slap happy guy picked him up and swung him round a few times his legs kicking out and actually hitting someone close by.
I really did think it would turn into a free for all, but in fact as soon as Horsebastard stopped – the crowd returned to normal – if that is the word to use? It was like Horsebastard turned ‘normal’ folk into raving lunatics who could not control their bodies or emotions – quite a spectacle! Beware the Horsebastard lives once witnessed never forgotten!
Sadly Horsebastard only did a ten minute set but then again I don’t think anyone could take anymore as everyone by that point was thoroughly spent and if Mr Slap Happy had received any more hits to the face he may have needed serious hospital treatment!
Mörkhimmel
Mörkhimmel started in 2007 as a project between Slavek (ex - Massgenocide Process) and Maťko (ex-Benton, S.I.K.A.). During these early stages of their band, their sound was spawned from of a love of D-beat Crust bands such as Discharge, Disfear, Bombraid, and Disgust as well as Black Metal bands such as Darkthrone, Hellhammer, Venom, and Bathory. Since then the band has had various line-up changes (Currently Slavek, David, Andy, Hawren and Honza) and has toured Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Poland. Now Mörkhimmel embark on their first UK tour before appearing at Obscene Extreme festival in summer this year!
I just hope I have spelled everything correctly here but my Czech isn’t what you call even remotely good – so please excuse any mistakes here.
Last night’s performance from Mörkhimmel was nothing less than a pure unadulterated frenzy, but the frenzy did have plenty of melodic wash that was tipped over you in buckets!
Slavek, the bands front man towered above everyone with his long black tresses clinging to his sweat ridden contorted face and his hands gnarled into an aggressive pose as he venomously clawed the air in order to push more ferocity from his vocal chords as he could muster.
The band’s skins man Hawran’s flailing limbs spasms with each and every beat as the sweat dripped from his body. It was a ferocious array of gnarly, vehement atmosphere. The crowd stood transfixed on the mat! And heads were shaking, a few bodies actually moved in time to the rhythms that embellished their ears but most stood mesmerised not wanting to miss a thing.
Slavek introduced their tracks in turn and when he said something in Czech laughed at the thought of us poor buggers wondering what the tracks meant. I have done my best to try and translate but this will only serve to give the band a further laugh!
They played my favourite track “Endless wall of fuckers” and it was received well, not surprising though it was note perfect and the sound was as clear as a bell – well for a grind gig that is!
The guys despite the language barrier were warm and friendly and had literally bought a wealth of swag with them – T Shirts, CDs Albums in Vinyl, boxes and boxes of stuff was laid out in the back of the room.
A really superb set – I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them live again but sadly it will probably be a while coming as they are off to finish their tour 8.5. (Wed) - BRISTOL (UK) Stag and Hounds" 9.5. (Thur) - BRIGHTON (UK) – Chequers 10.5. (Fri) - Day off. 11.5. (Sat) - GIESSEN (Germany) - AK44" and then home for a well-deserved rest – but come back soon Mörkhimmel you were literally spellbinding!
Special Thanks to Kabir for a fantastic evening of pure fun and violence! Ian for the amazing sound, Pete Burns for being there and supporting the madding fracas, and of course to the four talented bands Mörkhimmel, Horsebastard, Pine Barrens and Swinelord – excellent line-up! Great to be part of it – roll on the next one! For all things fucked up, brutal, aggressive and down-right gnarly get to one of these gigs
