AGHAST!,
with REPRISAL, THE BASILISK and UNITRA.

Lev 2 Esquires, Bedford. Saturday 1st October 2016.

If further evidence was needed to demonstrate fully that if the metal scene in Bedford is virtually dead, then you only had to be on the level 2 main stage tonight.
The mighty London/Hearts extreme noise metallers AGHAST! Were in town, on this, their second date of a nationwide tour, to promote the release of their brand new E.P. entitled Something Else Something Rotten. (It’s out on Monday October 3 on Abducted Records) Aghast are certainly no strangers to Esquires, having first played here as far back as September 2008. In the intervening years, they have regularly appeared in the venue, but never to such a sparse turnout as this. It was truly insulting. Apathy in not turning up for paid shows, amongst the metal fans in Bedford, has certainly grown steady in the past few years. This is so hard to fully fathom out, as we have such a fantastic place to host it.
Brilliant metal nights are regularly held in nearby Hitchin and Milton Keynes, that sort of atmosphere generated, is just only a pipe dream for us here in ‘Deadford!’ With top festivals such as Download and Bloodstock visited by local fans, then why not turn up to something a lot closer for just a fiver?
Despite the lack of numbers Aghast! Once again offer up a most brutal and punishing set. Twelve slices are carved lovingly from their musical joint. Portions of which, contain plenty of tracks from their aforementioned new E.P. with their Intro bringing them in to focus, they blast off with Noise Pollution. This is a unit honed to precise, professional perfection. Sam Holmes shredding guitar work, Dan Henderson’s floor shaking basslines and Nick Plews highly technical drum skills. These three are all complimented fully by the raw, passionate and truly gut wrenching vocals of James Anson. He possesses such an ineffably intense bark.
Aghast! Play music to violently move around to while their relevant lyrics are constantly thought provoking and always urgently topical. The sound is immense, a heady mix of bone crunching brutality. With now so much material available to play from their near decade career, James takes a brief welcome breather to announce that they are to travel “back in time for the old skool hardcore crew.” The decibel level is further fuelled and expanded by Bang To Rights. As a huge long time fan of this band, they are keeping us happy by performing songs both new and old. As Laid Out In Red is fired out rapidly, the few moshers at the front certainly need no encouragement to “lets get headbanging,”It’s as well the movers are on the wooden part of the floor, as with Mouth Breather “The carpet is lava!” Ever After is a fairy story while once more we go “back to the vaults” with Hiraeth. The Aghast! Onslaught of beautiful noise concludes with Am I To Have Wings Or Become Dust. Tonight, proves yet again that Aghast! Contain all the rage! It’s just a damn pity that not more of the Bedford public realise this. I’m sure, that when this metal quartet perform at their now regular Halloween show in Club 85 at Hitchin later in the month, which concludes the tour the venue will be absolutely packed. It’s just a shame that Bedford is so apathetic to anything heavy. Perhaps for this gig, advertising and promotional work was poor, but this was disappointing for atmosphere.

Touring with Aghast! For the whole of October are REPRISAL. Having seen these Surrey lads before at a sweat filled night in Hitchin a couple of years ago I fully know what to expect. In simple terms, this is raw thrash at its fast and furious best. Again, it’s just a shame they are playing mostly to just the other bands. They deserve better than this. Their crowd interaction is good and they managed to get most people present to move just that little bit closer to the front and with it, to see some arms raised high in the air. Reprisal unleashed a fantastically awesome aural assault, delivered full throttle at breakneck speed. With songs such as Atomic Techtonics, Oxygen Crisis and Though Topsy, these fellas understand the importance of huge Slayerish riffs and utilise the ability to adapt steady tempo changes to constantly keep their songs both catchy and interesting throughout. Other joys of noise include their killer hooks, which are combined with a brutal drummer, whose driving rhythms is the heartbeat of such an enjoyable show. A personal favourite, Reprisal’s ‘thrashers’ totally shotblast the room. At least I got their T-shirt back home safely this time!, as I lost it last time! A most brilliant thirty minutes in this bands company. Excellent!

Reaching the final of the recent Esquires BOTB competition, Kettering’s UNITRA were back to open this show. The truth is, the further we move away from the overblown excesses of 1980’s heavy rock, the better it sounds when new bands of today revisit it. Unitra are one such example. All hair and over the top revelry. Playing as a trio this evening, they introduce themselves in true grandeur style, “ladies and gentleman, we are Unitra.” Rock and roll is in safe hands as they raise themselves from the “fiery depths of hell.” Their debut single American Girl is joined by the newer offering of Annihilation. Fist pumping anthems, topped off by the ever popular We’re Unitra. These crazy, loveable lads play with plenty of panache and gusto. There’s, is a set that requires no real concentration, but is collectively just a huge sense of fun. The mood only changes for a brief second, when the band dedicate Hit The Lights, as a tribute to Cliff Burton. The late Metallica bassist passed away exactly thirty years ago this particular week. They certainly gave it full justice. Unitra are always welcome visitors to our venue, devil horns at the ready!!

As a big fan of the Bedfordshire teen rock/metal quartet THE BASILISK, I was slightly disappointed by their below par show tonight. They didn’t look completely ‘match fit.’ Their music was competent and routine, but a spark seemed to be sorely missing. I felt their usual on stage charismatic and visual flare had been left behind in the dressing room. A very noticeable lack of fanbase (of which I witnessed first hand at their E.P. launch in March) may have been a contributory factor. This was tonight not the usual Basilisk bravado I saw so vividly at the Islington Academy in July. As the only local band on show, they really needed to do better in getting their core of friends to support, what is now a very rare ‘heavy’ night on the bigger stage. They performed songs from this years E.P. and spoke of soon having a new one to release, as they have been recording some new stuff.

As an additional comment, may I just enlighten the few fans who did bother to turn up for this night of metal. The manic ‘rave’ driven lighting show that suddenly occurred during Aghast!’s set was due to a rather unexpected Windows 10 update that took over the computer screen! Perhaps technology was also angry with the pathetic crowd response to what, on paper, was a great line up and to me, was fantastically performed by such whole hearted musicians, who deserved better.