The North West’s new breed of raw riff merchants team up with a whole host of hardcore alt-rockers for Fury Fest, Getintothis’ Brendan Walsh finds much to savour within the savagery.
East Village Arts Club may have seemed a strange place to host a hardcore music festival, especially in the wake of the hugely successful Sound City.
Liverpool is also not a city renowned for the heavier sides of music, with their pop endeavors being much more renowned and the cities in the North East being much more well known for metal music and its subsidiaries.
There were, however, many moments for the city to proud of on Saturday night. Some of the earlier bands did find it hard to move a difficult early crowd, but the skill of inspiring small hardcore audiences is an extremely tough one. In particular, Shield were entertaining and tried their hardest to inject some life into the crowd at Stage 2. But it was the emergence of the Scouse bands that brought forth the moshers and movers.
Relative newcomersare Wirral’s Arcane Addiction, who managed to provoke the crowd with their melodic take on hardcore. The mid-set instrumental fondly took us back to our teenage years with the marriage of synths and finely-timed breakdowns.
Arcane Addiction were followed by the current kings of Scouse metal. Carcer City have been holding the torch for heavier music in Liverpool for a long time now and ahead of a European headline tour was easy to see why.
There was a strong vibe around August Burns Red as they exuded tight musicianship to well constructed songs plus an ever present Scouse attitude. If hardcore music is to move forward in Liverpool, we must take note and be proud of front men like Simon Mora and Patch Pinion of Arcane Addiction and Carcer City respectively who controlled their crowds well and had many people taking notice.
Astroid Boys performing live at East Village Arts Club
There was quite the change of pace following the Merseyside talent with the quirky and enjoyable grimecore sounds of Astroid Boys. With two rapping vocalists, a DJ and a drummer set up on stage, it was a large stride from the hard-hitting hardcore of Carcer City .
It was hard to watch their set without a wry smile creeping across the face, a very fun performance littered with jokes, appearances from other bands and other antics in between songs. How serious the group intends to be taken is up to them but as far as pure entertainment goes, they were brilliant.
The band to follow was another story all together, however. Serving out their self-styled ‘hatemosh’, Desolated make music quite literally, ‘to hit people to.’ With the audience being reduced to nothing more than an extreme cage fight, it was at some times more entertaining to watch the crowd than the awkward stature of some of the band as the scenes in front of them unfolded.
Gnarwolves performing live at East Village Arts Club
Meanwhile upstairs, Gnarwolves were unleashing their highly acclaimed brand of Brit pop punk. Even with the band admitting that it was their third show in two cities in during the same day, they still played an energy while attracting and pleasing one of the larger crowds of the day.
I am the Avalanche performing live at East Village Arts Club
They were followed by fellow pop punk upstarts, I am the Avalanche, who headlined the upstairs stage. Replicating the dynamism with slightly heavier vibes together with a lot more selfies with the crowd, the band even attracted Hollyoaks star, Jessica Fox or ‘Nancy Hayton’ among their screaming fans.
Malevolence performing live at East Village Arts Club
Skipping between I am the Avalanche and the headliners downstairs, Malevolance, rounded off the evening and capped off a great festival. While watching downstairs, we realized how the tiered set up of the Theatre lent itself to the heavier end of the musical spectrum with Malevolance taking full advantage and orchestrating some brutal mosh pits.
All in all, it was a great night for music under represented in Liverpool. If some people take note of some of the Merseyside talent on show and how some of the other bands attracted sizeable crowds, there is no reason why Fury Fest can’t spark a bit of a revival in heavier music in the North West.
Pictures by Getintothis‘ Nicholas Gerrard
Further reading on Getintothis:
Unloved and Unrepentant: Liverpool’s metal scene unpicked
Radstock: O2 Academy, Liverpool
Homeboy Sandman, I Am Many, Benny Diction: The Shipping Forecast
Elephantom: Parallax
Liverpool Sound City 2014: Review round up and top 10 bands of the festival.
Liverpool Sound City 2014: Picture gallery from all three days of the festival.
Liverpool Sound City 2014 – all the bands reviewed from the three days.
Getintothis on The Label Recordings: Hooton Tennis Club and The Inkhearts.
Cyclist.
Moats.
Elephantom.
Nelson.
The new breed of tomorrow’s LIPA artists.
