“You call that a fucking mosh pit, Leeds?” Bryan Garris’ lip curls slightly to suggest there’s a hint of real disdain for Slam Dunk North’s not-quite-wholehearted efforts to rip itself apart for Knocked Loose‘s brutal lesson in violence on Sunday evening. It’s understandable. After having seen these twin stages packed way past the sound desk for most of the day, there seems to be a slight dip in numbers for hardcore’s finest. Regardless, those not here are missing the most ferocious performance this festival has ever seen.
Technically an off-date from their European stadium tour in support of Metallica, tonight feels like they’ve been taking notes from the old masters, perhaps even poaching one or two sound techs, as they make this hillside in the north of England sound like a stadium being pulled apart from within. Oblivion’s Peak manages to outstrip its not-inconsiderable recorded iteration, steroidally mutated into something legitimately terrifying. Mistakes Like Fractures is pumped up with Slayer-slaying levels of mouth-shattering impact and infernal tone. Even cuts from feral but massive third album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To dwarf what we’ve seen before.
YWGBYST’s massive strip-lit cross glows and flashes at the back of the stage throughout. It’s an eerie focal point in the waning dusk light, and savage pyro is deployed tastefully sparingly. But the real theatrics come from the band themselves. Absurd as it seems to call Bryan any kind of ‘good cop’, that’s the role he plays, motivationally cheering the audience on in contrast to ‘bad cop’ counterpart and guitarist Isaac Hale’s unequivocally malevolent commands. “It starts right now: Violence.”
A whole host of cameos follow at the end of the set, too, with HERIOT’s Debbie Gough piling into God Knows, Pest Control’s Leah Massey-Hay picking up the POPPY part on Suffocate, Malevolence’s Alex Taylor aptly dropping by for All My Friends and, in a real surprise, Loathe’s Kadeem France with Static Dress’ Olli Appleyard crashing Billy No Mates.
Very few outfits could convincingly start a song with the announcement that, “This is one we wrote about getting murdered!” and finish it with confetti cannons. But Knocked Loose prove themselves in a class of their own on a truly unhinged Counting Worms. And as the atmospheric Deep In The Willow crashes out into massive closer Everything Is Quiet Now, the savagery down the front is perfectly matched.
It’s an awesome, statement showing: surely about the best a genuinely brutal band has ever sounded. (SL)