Saturday night at the New Cross Inn, an evening where most attendees are there for the headliner. But the real experience for us is from the early half of the lineup.
London-based metalcore band Perpetual Paradox are the kind of live band where you feel the music before you hear it. With the bass rumbling through the floorboards before they practically fall out from underneath you as the first riff hits. It’s easy to get a sense of the tech metalcore sub-genre they find themselves in, even away from the studio, with every blow from drummer Harry Cook landing with pure devastation.
Despite the wall huggers, that didn’t stop frontman, Adrian Caucelo, getting up close and personal with the early birds. Pacing in the space between them and the stage, seemingly daring them to move. Throw in some propulsive, syncopated riffs from Jorge Nuñes, some high-velocity solos from Oliver Miles and a few glimpses of the band channelling their inner 2000s metalcore band with some synchronised headbanging, and you’ve got yourself a party.
With Adrian taking a brief pause to catch his breath and top up the beer, who wouldn’t need a little breather before the title track of their debut album, ‘Deathwish’, made an appearance. Like getting a moment of clarity in the eye of the storm before the hurricane takes out the rest of your house.
There was no wavering in momentum with Dogsflesh bringing the classic heavy metal vibes as the room started to fill out a little more with each track. Despite the dad rock appearance, Dogsflesh played with more of a punk edge, whilst the riffs emulate that of Metallica and Iron Maiden, frontman Rob Moore spits and growls down the mic like he’s been chewing on sandpaper.
With each passing second, a sense of urgency is felt from their music; there’s a need to be somewhere, where that is, we aren’t quite sure of, but with the speed guitarist, Dave Earl, chugging down on those riffs, we’ll end up there soon. Especially when slotting in next to Rob to play in tandem like a classic Judas Priest frontline attack.
There wasn’t anything as calculated as that when it came to Subvision however, their stance was more of a chaotic standpoint, but that’s to be expected from the 5-piece Scottish punk/metal band. With headbanging commencing and battle jackets wherever you looked, the crowd who previously were somewhat frozen, had suddenly started to thaw. Even to the point of heckling the kid at the front with the long hair to show everyone how it’s done.
Amongst the wall of sound the Subvision produced, they somehow managed to find an addictive groove. The slabs of distorted guitar pulsed; there was a beating heart behind the riffs all along. And you just know it’s about to go down when the band pulls out the slow-burning crescendo before the blast of double pedals and gravelly bark. A sentiment which was clearly well received with a member of the crowd knighting them as “the real deal”, to which the frontman proclaimed “, Thanks, I’m not buying you a pint though.” This is it. This is what sets the underground bands apart from their stadium-dwelling idols. Call and response. Genuine fan interactions that make you smile.
By the time the floor was fully packed, the early half of the bill had already left an indelible mark. Between the technical devastation of Perpetual Paradox and the infectious, ‘real deal’ grit of the bands that followed, the bar had been set impossibly high. Headliners or not, the night belonged to the bands who reminded us why we loved this scene in the first place.