Liverpool’s favourite nu-gaze quartet Loathe return to some more local grounds following their recent 25-date autumnal US tour. Being their first headline run of UK and European dates since 2021 (of which saw the critically acclaimed I Let It In And It Took Everything played in full), and supported by Love Is Noise and Zetra, tonight’s sold out show couldn’t have come sooner.
With queues for admission stretching out around the block, undeterred by the classically miserable British weather or early set times for this show in London’s Electric Brixton, tonight’s crowd eagerly began to fill up the venue from the moment the doors opened. As the room vibrates with excitement and fans pick their spots on the front barrier, our first supports swiftly take to the stage.
Love Is Noise
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Walking on to a medley of “Love” songs, and greeted with enthusiastic cheers from fans in the crowd, frontman Cam Humphrey wastes no time in getting people up onto their feet and jumping straight from the first few beats. Combining elements of nu-gaze, metalcore, pop punk and even the occasional blast-beat, it’s clear as to why Love Is Noise have been picked for this tour. Primed with a range of singles (including ‘Jawbreaker’ from their recent album To Live In a Different Way), and with energy soaring throughout, each song comes with its opportunity for crowd participation, much to the delight of the standing inner circle. It doesn’t take much encouragement for a wall of death or circle pit to erupt in this eclectic and confident thirty-minute cardio set (or “basic week pure gym” as Humphrey puts it), in fact waves of crowd surfers swam to the front almost immediately upon request, much to Humphrey’s delight. With a performance easily fit for a headline slot, and packed with snare bombs, sub drops and on stage spin kicks, Love Is Noise sets the bar exceptionally high for the evening, and all before 7pm.
Zetra
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Next to take the stage are homegrown Gothic Synthwave duo Zetra. Complete with podiums flanking a ten-foot portal straight out of Ridley Scott’s workshop, the set begins, casting out oscillating keys and spiraling LED visualisations. Leather drenched, and projecting their decadently Sci-Fi style of industrial metal, our audience is quickly acquainted with the pair’s spiritual muse in this theatrical performance. This somewhat unexpected and unorthodox set however gradually divides the crowd into a mixed (but wholly positive) reception. While clear fans fully embrace the dramatics; there is an air of uncertainty from the new listeners. Backed by more than a few chapters of lore, and bringing out a Kittie cover, alongside the first half of their debut album Zetra, our pair of few words rolls out one final transmission for the crowd with single ‘The Mirror’ before slipping away in a cloud of incense and mystery.
Loathe
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With the room now thick with vapour trails and anticipation, it’s time for the main event. As Kadeem France and co take to the stage, fists raised to the gods, the crowd immediately and instinctively start to clamour and spread for mosh pits. By the time opening track (and most recent release ‘Gifted Every Strength’) kicks in, a sea of phones and limbs cascade across the room. This six-minute rollercoaster of octave heavy riffs, hypnotising guitar leads and spacious, ethereal clean passages serves as the warm welcome home everyone was (not so quietly) hoping for. The blend of shimmering choruses and djent driven baritone riffs we all come to know and love from the group are particularly attention grabbing tonight, as the front of house and lighting technicians (both spotted dancing and air drumming throughout) clearly are feeling the set as much as the patrons. Our headliners, seriously warmed up and limber from the recent run of shows (and excited to play their biggest leading show to date), make it no secret at how much they recognise and appreciate the energy and support within the room.
As to be expected, tracks from their sophomore record go off like an atomic bomb. Fan favourites ‘Aggressive Evolution’, ‘Screaming’, and ‘A Sad Cartoon’ test the building’s foundations, with folks leaping off the floorboards as well as each other, while ‘Dimorphous Display’ and ‘Two Way Mirror’ have the room singing back every single word. Erik Bickerstaffe and Feisal El-Khazragi conduct the pace of the evening through a combination of ambient synth duets and crushingly interlocked riff wizardry, glued together by Sean Radcliffe’s intricately technical drum chops. This immersive balance left the audience fully spellbound throughout, hanging on to every note and pulse from the stage. Even with a constant handful of phones in sight (and most notably a laptop, assumedly live-streaming to absent friends bouncing about the front row), the entire building is still undeniably living in moment.
After a brief chant for “twelve more songs”, the group return for an encore of the breathtaking ‘Is It Really You?’ and suitably heavyweight ‘Gored’ before calling it a night. Loathe have always felt on the cusp of being catapulted into the modern metal hall of fame. Vouched by sixteen years of shared chemistry, and hauling enough hits to dominate any stage, it feels prestigious to watch a group at the top of game still play such an intimate venue.