Devil Sold His Soul, The Modus Vivendi, Khalo, Prize Fight Winner, Days Ruin, Elements of Refusal.

Esquires Bedford Lev 2 Friday 7th April 2006.

With every week that goes by, it seems that ‘One For The Underground’ can’t get any heavier; yet every week the line-ups seems to get longer, and the bands find new ways to excite and exhaust the crowd. This week is no different as headliners Devil Sold His Soul, accompanied by no less than five support bands, take the Esquires audience on an emotional roller coaster ride of experimental, progressive and post-hardcore carnage.

Beginning the evening are Luton’s ELEMENTS OF REFUSAL, who are the first of the six bands to mess with your mind as they frantically twitch through their first number, a mix of crushing guitar parts and barking vocals, yet with strange moments of sparkling clarity. Passionate and volatile, they manage to cultivate a catchy sound, while simultaneously making your ears bleed. Covering the kind of extremes of emotion that they reach for, there's only time for four of their long and exhausting songs in their emotionally draining thirty minute set.

Following on are DAYS RUIN, playing what will be their last gig for a while, due to the temporary departure of their drummer. There are harsh and discordant elements to the Bedford quartet’s experimental sound; smashing cymbals, and guitars that schizophrenically flicker and scorch are bound together by muscular growls from vocalist and bass player, Faz. There are moments of brilliance in every song, but Days Ruin are almost certainly at their best when they’re at their heaviest. By the time their set comes to a close the sound has become almost penetrating.

Despite a few technical difficulties, PRIZE FIGHT WINNER go in for the kill straight away, with a tight, hard-hitting set that sees catchy sung melodies mixed with frenzied hardcore screaming amidst crashing drums and huge hooks. Like all of the bands tonight, Prize Fight Winner experiment with elements of light and dark, mellow and heavy, as they teasingly offer a few seconds reprieve from distraught screams and pounding beats, only to plunge straight back in before finishing their set with a bout of particularly violent head-banging.

LostProphets and Aiden eat your hearts out; when KHALO take to the stage they’re sporting perhaps the best selection of perfectly coiffured haircuts ‘One For The Underground’ has seen for a long time. But from the off, the primeval, guttural growls, crashing drums and big catchy hooks prove that there’s more to this band than simply looking good. Keyboards and icy atmospherics give their set a haunting fragility, as they strike a perfect balance between gothic ambience and catchy hooks, and the monstrous growls that erupt from various band members. As the lead singer leaps mic in hand from the stage during their final song, ‘Kiss’, the sound comes together in an irresistible climax of swirling electronics, thrashing drums and emotive harmonies.

By the time THE MODUS VIVENDI take the stage an impressive crowd has gathered, and the mesmerizing performance from the Milton Keynes band is more than enough to hold their attention. There’s just a hint of a rock ‘n’ roll swagger hidden somewhere in The Modus Vivendi’s quite original sound as raw vocals grow to new heights of aggression. The guitars chime and soar before exploding completely, and it’s hard not to find yourself drowning in the band’s long, absorbing songs, which stray unpredictably from traditional song structures. Their passionate and emotive set comes to an end as the bass player sprawls off-stage in a frenzied loss of control.

But it’s headliners DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL who take the art of combining beauty and brutality to new levels. As the Esquires audience waits expectantly, the band ease in gently, letting throbbing electronics and luscious guitar chords float in the air before exploding into a crushing wall of noise. Bathed in a pool of green light, vocalist Ed Gibbs screams like a man possessed while strobe lights flicker and dazzle like flashes of lightening, accentuating the frantic energy of their performance. The years they spent honing their skills in Mahumodo before the addition of a new vocalist and permanent bass player, Iain Trotter saw them evolve into Devil Sold His Soul have obviously been used to good effect, as the band have perfected their ability to slip seamlessly between screeching and soaring; guitars soothe you with gentle twinkling, yet you know it can only be the calm before the storm, as you wait for them to hit back with another frenzied attack.

All of the bands tonight, with their interesting combinations of dark and light, crushing hardcore and soaring melodies, have proved that in some cases, opposites really do attract.