It was one of those instances where you feel you’re being undeservedly spoiled. The Hope and Ruin had a gig on – nothing unusual, granted – the fact that four bands were on the bill and it was completely free however made it seem like an astoundingly good deal. I cleared my schedule of whatever plans I might’ve had on a Sunday night to embark on this four hour long musical extravaganza (bring your camping chair!). The fact I hadn’t heard of any of the bands playing made the whole thing even more intriguing.
From what I could work out, the headliners were Gloma, and the occasion was the release of their brand-new EP. Uncharacteristically, I decided to do some prior research and came across the music video for Gloma’s new song “Gossamer”. I liked what I heard, and the fact that they were all donning ski masks for the inverted colour video shoot out in the woods created a first impression of a much more intimidating looking version of Kneecap, perhaps. Or a homemade take on Slipknot. I digress.
The first band was an alternative metal trio named Sunlifter; they were heavy and emotive in equal measure. Contradicting their intense and well-polished sound with heartwarming sentiments (“This next song is about love, so hug the person next to you”… everyone did). Three-piece bands are always fun to watch because they have usually achieved some kind of mastery of their instruments – and these guys are no different.
Teasing into the next band when their singer was brought on stage for Sunlifter’s last song – the second band in the list were a crazy, screamo-metal band. Quite unexpected really; at this point was also where the whole show got very mosh-pit oriented. Not good when you’ve got half of a £6 pint left in your hand. Mashed were extremely heavy; the singer had seemingly unending energy as he bounded round the stage screaming at the top of his lungs the entire time, how do they do it? I was just thinking how they sounded very nu-metal and Korn-esque when they announced their final song and burst into a faithful cover of ‘Blind’ (with a bit more screaming).
Seethes’ brand of churning, thumping heavy metal was a hit on stage. Once again, very intense – screams of ‘no mercy’ echoing the room before a breakdown of pounding drums and slow, heavily distorted guitar and bass. Despite my thirst, I was too apprehensive to buy another drink at this point; any unfortunately swung limb from the mosh pit could have led to disaster.
The big headliners; Gloma delivered on the anticipation with their unique mix of shoegaze and heavy metal. Artfully switching between slow, atmospheric and jangly to heavy and fast paced with a bass heavy, whirring guitar sound. I was pleased to see they wore the ski masks on stage, and their new single is great. They’re relatively small at the moment, but I reckon these guys are going places.
All in all, it was a very good night. Maybe It wouldn’t be my first choice to see a stack of high energy, vicious heavy metal bands like this lot – as evidenced by my missing the memo on the dress code – but I did enjoy myself. And it was free. Did I mention that? There’s often plenty of free gigs showing off the Brighton up-and-comers which are always worth going to. Life’s a journey of discovery after all.
The Whistler 