Internal Conflict – The Black Horse – Friday October 30th 2009.
Yet again I missed Amongst The Survivors – no Night Service buses in the country's second city, thanks WMT....
Nocturnal Resurrection, continuing the bus theme, are like a London red one... don't see one for hours and then several come along. It took me ages to first see them, but now they are on nearly as many bills as Trigger The Bloodshed! Enough of the frivolity get on with it Chop!! Without covering too much old ground, Nocturnal Resurrection play extreme metal that retains the chug of thrash and mixes in death metal elements. And also doom... and blues... honestly! Suffice to say they're far from run of the mill and their intricacy and fluidity never ceases to amaze. Helps when you've got a rock solid rhythm section – Rych seems to have a ridiculous amount of time whilst drumming – even when at warp factor – whilst Brimstone weaves intricate patterns on his five string. Which allows Zed and Vitus to apply a layer or two of guitar and Nil completes matters with his deep “cookie monster” vocals. Genuinely my only criticism of this performance was that the vocals were too low – the curse of the first band on at the Black Horse strikes again...
Impaled Existence had travelled from Cardiff for this gig and as fate would have it I missed the vast majority of their set. What I saw was staggering, technical death metal clinically executed. Definitely need to see a full set form these fellas soon. My only criticism concerned the clean vocals in their last song which really weren't good. Otherwise I'll say no more and wait until they next play in Brum.
Internal Conflict played a typically bruising set. Tight, punchy, with crushing breakdowns, yet always retaining an underlying structure and melody as odd as that sounds. Riffs, hooks, guitar solos – are they mad? They're playing extreme metal don't you know?!! Makes a refreshing change fellas, always a pleasure to see a band combine class with brutality so effortlessly. They seem to get better each time I see them, and the addition of a second guitarist definitely suits their overall sound. Quality as ever – see you soon I hope. Set list: “194”, “Scar”, “The Sociopath Next Door”, “Without Face”, “And The Penny Drops”, “Koresh”.
Sadly I had to call it a night there – as headliners Amongst The Survivors were still to come and the clock had hit 11.30pm (ish) it was time to disappear to catch the last 120 or face an hour's walk back to Smethwick. Perhaps history will repeat itself once I've seen you for the first time? I'll do everything I can to see you before 2009 is consigned to history..
