LIVE REVIEW: Municipal Waste @ Islington Assembly Hall, London
Coolest mixed bill of the year? Crossover thrash, hardcore and death metal may all have plenty in common but it’s still not often you get all three as wonderfully represented as they are tonight at the Islington Assembly Hall. The legendary MUNICIPAL WASTE are on their first proper UK headlining run in a little while and they’ve brought two of the brightest up and comers of their respective scenes to keep them company.
Rochester death metallers UNDEATH have been here a fair bit lately – including on a headlining tour of their own at the start of the year and an appearance at Download Festival in the summer – but no-one is sick of them yet and there aren’t many bands better equipped to guarantee smiles on faces from the outset. The galloping Rise From The Grave gives way to the groove of Necrobionics and there are even three new songs in the set which – shock – all absolutely crush. Frontman Alex Jones cuts an imposing and charismatic figure even if his vocals are a little lost in the mix, and as the band close with Lesions Of A Different Kind off their 2020 LP of the same name, it’s Jones’ promise of a new album next year that should leave the already reasonably sized crowd most excited of all.
Rating: 8/10
Representing “hardcore for the freaks”, New Jersey outfit GEL may well steal the show this evening as they raise the energy considerably even in comparison to the efforts of their predecessor. They keep the momentum high and the stage banter to a minimum as they rip through a reel of highlights from their stellar debut full-length from earlier this year, as well as a fair few from their 2021 Violent Closure EP. Attainable has two-steppers everywhere, Honed Blade is super bouncy, and Violent Closure and XOXO are two of many that demonstrate what an absolute machine drummer Alex Salter is. They sound sharp as anything too, tight and raw and raging as vocalist Sami Kaiser conducts proceedings with a savage echoed bark. No doubt they’ll be headlining venues like this on their own soon.
Rating: 9/10
Ryan Waste might have to remind Tony Foresta that they are “one of the old bands”, but you certainly wouldn’t guess it from their performance. MUNICIPAL WASTE have been masters of party thrashing for over two decades now and it has clearly turned them into a well-oiled machine as they tear through a blistering set that draws on material from all the way across their discography. The crowd is a near-constant circle pit, spun ever faster by tracks like Blood Drive and Beer Pressure and The Art Of Partying, and there’s plenty of vocal participation too in the likes of Breathe Grease and Headbanger Face Rip and the absolute classic Sadistic Magician.
More than anything else, the Richmond thrashers feel like one of those bands that are just larger than life; the stage risers, the studded belts, the bandanas, the co-ordinated guitar moves – these guys know how to put on a great show and even with a full hour-long set neither band nor crowd seem to slow down for a second. Particularly impressive is a breakneck run of cuts from their now 20-year old debut Waste ‘Em All, but even more recent efforts like High Speed Steel and Crank The Heat and the super bouncy encore of Demoralizer are just as incendiary and proof above all that the band have just as much life in them today as they did when they first came flying out the gates all those years ago. To quote the oft-chanted Born To Party: “MUNICIPAL WASTE is gonna fuck you up”. You got that right.
Rating: 8/10
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