LIVE REVIEW: Vile Creature @ Electrowerkz, London

Since the release of Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm, Canadian duo VILE CREATURE have enjoyed a cult status within heavy music circles, thanks to their crushing sound and strong presence in the scene. With lockdown stifling the impact of their latest record, now two years later, with lockdown a thing of the past, the band take to the stage at Electrowerkz in the heart of the UK’s capital to give a performance that was truly astonishing.

Opening tonight’s mixed billing are UNDERDARK, who released their debut full-length Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-Entry last year to some quiet acclaim. While their post-black metal melange gestures towards Deathwish trendies DEAFHEAVEN and OATHBREAKER, they retain an undeniably raw and uncompromising sound fuelled by a feverish hardcore energy.  You’ll get the gist from the album, but UNDERDARK really ought to be appreciated in the flesh.

They have an assured stage presence well in advance of their years, spear-headed by vocalist Abi, who commands the half-filled room here at Electrowerkz; presenting both viscous snarls and deep, guttural growling, as well as some wailing spoken word. Speaking as someone more-or-less allergic to hardcore, it’s hard not to be moved by these highly emotive flourishes which inflect their fusion style. Hopefully the breakthrough success of their stylistic twins SVALBARD will pave the way for UNDERDARK, whose defiantly anti-fascist message needs to be heard now more than ever.

Rating: 8/10

Nottingham two-piece BISMUTH have become a fixture of the underground extreme metal scene here in the UK, pushing the PAs of venues up and down the country to their absolute limits with their earth-shattering take on drone doom. Until the release of The Slow Dying Of The Great Barrier Reef back in 2018, you’d have been forgiven for having them pegged as a pocket-sized SUNN O))), but with that record BISMUTH proved themselves to be much more interesting and versatile than that.

The duo have been performing this material for four years, and their presence on stage has lost all trace of timidity in that time. These are practised hands playing practised pieces, and that confidence underwrites a sound which doesn’t demand your attention so much as violently seizing it. The Slow Dying Of The Great Barrier Reef proceeds with a great deal of artistic restraint, lulling its audience into a false sense of security with oodles of pick-scrapes, reverb and delay before delivering a sonorous conclusion with unchecked tidal force.

Forgive us if the novelty has started to wear a little thin, but the thirty-minute doom-opus isn’t hitting in quite the way it used to. As we turn to scour the room plenty are standing with their jaw agasp, and remember fondly our first encounter with this enthralling act. As the applause slowly fades, KW of VILE CREATURE takes to the stage to perform a bellowed duet with Tanya for BISMUTH’s setlist aperitif: a heartwarming reminder of the kinship these two bands have found together. 

Rating: 8/10

Self-described “angry queer gloom cult” VILE CREATURE have had an interesting last couple of years. They released Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm back in 2020 on Prosthetic Records, which became a cult hit, sadly stymied by the strictures of lockdown. Their return to the stage at Roadburn Festival was even more triumphant for that, as they unleashed A Hymn Of Loss And Hope alongside BISMUTH: a collaboration several years in the making. Recently joined by drummer Adam McGillivray (who was introduced to us by KW at a Roadburn panel as their “token straight”,) VILE CREATURE have now become a truly effervescent live act. 

Vic now stands alongside KW at the front of the stage for a double-onslaught of vocal-cord-shredding howls, and while their primitive sludge sound took a more nuanced turn with the release of Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm, this is a band who still hit extremely hard. When set against their musical viciousness, VILE CREATURE’s disarmingly warm on-stage personalities are even more manifest: this is a band you love to see succeeding.

While the band have proved themselves to be capable on the big stage, it’s hard to imagine that the smaller club shows will ever stop being their home. Sweat drips from the walls on this ferociously humid June evening, and it’s that sort of intensity where VILE CREATURE truly thrive. It’s a sea of banging heads, hypnotised (or otherwise stunned) by the sonic barrage emanating from the stage. With such an unrelenting performance, you know the band have left absolutely nothing on the stage, and we’d have it no other way.

Rating: 9/10

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