One of metal’s hottest live acts at the moment, Japanese metal band Crossfaith, who completed their tour as main support to Bring Me The Horizon only the night before, were headlining a night of quality metal from across the globe at The Camden Underworld. With Polar and Hacktivist flying the flag for the UK, plus the uniquely named We Butter The Bread With Butter onboard, it promised to be a most interesting show. James and Fran went along to see what went down….
Starting the night off Polar (9), despite playing to a half empty room are still able to connect with full force. Frontman ‘Woody’ commands the stage masterfully, getting the pits moving yet also reaching out to those early punters skulking at the back of the venue. Polar turn in a thoroughly engaging half hour set, new single ‘Create’ played halfway through only confirming how much potential this band have.
We Butter The Bread With Butter (2) are significantly less entertaining. Interspersing stale breakdowns amongst poppy dance sections WBTBWB never really feel like they have any songs, just disparate ideas mashed together in a vague attempt to seem “whacky.” The smug, self-satisfied expression on frontman Paul Bartzsch’s face is that of a man convinced of his own hilarity. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem as though anyone’s had the heart to burst his bubble yet.
Next up Hacktivist (6) and their rap-djent hybrid also fail to impress, one of the bands twin MC’s seeming to do not much more than mouth lyrics and impart useful nuggets of wisdom between songs including: “fuck the system,” “this song is a fuck you to war” and “this song is for everyone who hates the police” (yes, I really do wish I were making these up.) Then there’s the music itself, the spitfire fast rapping sits very uneasily with the thick guitar grooves of djent, the aggression inherent to metal is largely tempered by the lack of aggression in the rapping.
Crossfaith (10) though, are nothing short of phenomenal, opening with the catchy, yet sonically huge synth lines of ‘Monolith’ before exploding into the glitter bomb riffing of ‘Jagerbomb.’ The entire Underworld are in the palm of Crossfaith’s hand from the opening notes, frontman Ken turning the moshpit into a sea of flailing limbs with but a single gesture. Yet this is nothing when compared to the pure bedlam that erupts when the band play their cover of Omen – a high point in a set that, even without Omen would put most other bands live shows to shame.
Check out our exclusive photo gallery from the show with shots of members of all four bands below. Photo’s provided by Rocksins’ newest team member and photographer Fran Dignon!
