Brighton rockers BLACK PEAKS whip up a storm.

BRIGHTON CENTRE, BRIGHTON

Back in the days when, you know, gigs were a thing, Black Peaks shows were the amongst the most ferocious out there. Unsurprisingly, their first gig in 16 months is no different. Streaming from their hometown and facing each other across the stage, backs turned to the room of empty, socially distanced tables and illuminated by stark spotlights and bare bulbs, the effect is intense, intimate and atmospheric. And as eerie shots of the Brighton Centre’s desolate bars, hallways and stairwells break up the live action, it creates a stillness that the band repeatedly shatter with their whisper-to-a-scream post metal. It seems that Will Gardner, who has unassumingly become one of the game’s best vocalists, has spent lockdown gargling glass, such is the ragged force of his paint-stripping vocals on knotty opener Aether and Saviour, where his screams land amongst jagged barbs of guitar. By the climax of Say You Will, he’s bug-eyed, arms outstretched, lost in Black Peaks’ maelstrom of bruising rhythms. It’s over far too soon - the band play for just 50 minutes – but the lasting feeling is of how much our industry has lost over the last year. It’s an incendiary reminder of what we’re fighting for. DANNII LEIVERS