LIVE REVIEW: SHVPES @ The Sugarmill, Stoke-on-Trent

When Stoke City were in the Premier League, and a footballer arrived in the English top flight from one of Europe’s glamour clubs, people would say, “They may be good, but could they do it on a cold Wednesday evening in Stoke?” Well, this question applied to SHVPES, a rap-metal quintet from Birmingham, who were stopping by in the Potteries as part of a headline tour of the UK.

First up were local hardcore lads BLACK COAST, who put on an animated set full of loud, pulsating tunes, and a performance which contained much aggression, and only became more menacing as things proceeded, with frontman Charlie Hewitt frequently standing on the edge of the stage during the instrumentals glaring at everybody, and regularly jumping off into what was, at this point in the evening, a rather sparse audience, stomping around and shouting and screaming, at times directly into their faces.

Rating: 7/10

However, the very positive response justified the collective’s rapidly-growing reputation on the British underground metal scene, and if anybody watching thought that DEATH BLOOMS were going to be far more gentle, then there were very much mistaken, as the Liverpool four-piece, a band currently very much on the rise, moved things up by a notch and then some.Throughout, their vocalist, Paul Barrow, addressed the viewing patrons in a similar way to that of a drill sergeant barking orders at their troops, demanding that they move closer to the stage and bob their heads with further vigour, which was an effective accompaniment to the quartet’s intense sound.

Rating: 7/10

Keeping up the overall sense of brutality were Nottingham’s THE FIVE HUNDRED, who were armed with a setlist full of crushing technical grooves, haunting melodies, and throbbing breakdowns. However, with their set going faultlessly, the microphone of the outfit’s frontman, Jonathan Woods-Eley, who up until that point had been delivering a constant stream of glass-shattering roars, gave out. This wasn’t noticed at all by those at the front, but it left the members of the crowd who were stood further away hearing mainly hearing instrumentals with very subtle vocals, and despite the fact that the issue with the microphone was sorted out post-haste, it did take the gloss off what had been an incredible performance.

Rating: 6/10

Going back to the question that was asked earlier, and the answer to that became pretty clear from the moment SHVPES began playing their set. With the stage shrouded in darkness, one by one, the band walked quietly towards their instruments, until vocalist Griffin Dickinson came in from the entrance to the venue, charged forwards, leapt on, and lit everything up, with vocal tones that were more in the vein of Zack De La Rocha than of his father, a certain IRON MAIDEN legend.

The West Midlands five-piece immediately worked the audience up into an absolute frenzy with a live performance that was packed with so much high energy that if at that moment, the whole of Stoke-on-Trent had a blackout, than the whole room would not have been affected whatsoever. Griffin did a marvellous job of constantly rallying the crowd, frequently holding out his microphone for those who wanted to sing along with him an effective combination of hoarse roars, fast-paced raps, and soft melodies.

It seemed, as the band worked their way through the setlist, that backstage prior, they had been let loose on energy drinks and coloured sweets, such was the sheer volume of hyperactivity on show. The audience were in their element, though, lapping up everything the immensely-talented quintet threw at them, which was great to see, and gave the venue an atmosphere more akin to that of a Saturday night in the run-up to Christmas rather than an evening in midweek in early February. The sad thing about this, however, with the reach of SHVPES getting wider, and slots at two US festivals in May, alongside highly-regarded collectives such as the FOO FIGHTERS, KORN, and TOOL, which may mean that, although great for the lads and what they want to achieve, this was one of the very last times they would headline such an intimate setting as that of The Sugarmill.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Stoke-on-Trent from Jordan Darby Photography here: