Keelhaul @ Nice 'n' Sleazy, 28 April
Given that Britain seems to be swept away in mass wedding hysteria, it’s heartening to see that at least a few people have dragged themselves away from hanging up the bunting to see Black Sun and their vicious audial assault. Kevin Hare’s lead-lined riffs and rabid utterances makes their performance of the already intimidating Red Rain into something nightmarish tonight, while Russell McEwan’s heavyweight drumming strikes up such a primal rhythm that it sounds less an accompaniment than the insidious rumbling of war drums. Code Black proves a fittingly confrontational end to an especially crippling performance.
Swiss battering-ram Knut aren’t short on aggression either, but this is an altogether more technical affair, a well-oiled manufacturing line of precision-synchronised riffs of stuttering complexity, but with enough of a world-eroding insistence to keep heads banging for the entirety of their set. Didier Séverin may not appear the stereotypical hardcore frontman, but with a roar that would frighten lions he certainly sounds like a match for their alternating displays of astounding guitar acrobatics and natural-disaster heaviness. Brutality was never this complicated before.
It’s been seven years since Keelhaul last stopped by, and at this same venue no less, so that’s why this beastly attack gets the warm reception it rightly deserves. They’ve always been known for the density of their compositions, but it’s only live that you can truly appreciate just how much is happening at any one time. While Will Scarf is busy achieving the same stylistic impression as an hour-long drum solo, Aaron Dallison’s bass is lost in a world of its own and the guitars are creating their own winding paths.
Even if the thought of four skilled musicians taking vastly varied divergences may seem cacophonic, in practice tightness and inherent groove reign supreme which explains why the reflective LWM can achieve such calm when there’s no visible sign of them holding back. After this much intensity, a mere wedding seems a trifle anticlimactic.