HIGH ON FIRE DVNE / MADE OF TEETH JAWBOX
THE GARAGE, LONDON THE ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON
Matt Pike’s metal warriors take a hatchet to Highbury
SHIRTS BEING OPTIONAL
is clearly going to be a running theme tonight; MADE OF TEETH
open, their bassist opting for this route as the power trio deliver a half hour of noise rock. There are occasional moments where they switch into more serpentine, math rock segments and it draws in much of the steady stream of punters gradually filling up the venue. Where Made Of Teeth deal in unbridled chaos, DVNE
weave transcendent beauty into their expansive, progressive post-metal. Pulling entirely from last year’s phenomenal album Etemen Aenka, even without moving or speaking more than 20 words between songs, they’re utterly spellbinding.
Cuts like Court Of The Matriarch and Omega Severer
both seethe and soar in equal measure, their impact magnified tenfold from their recorded counterparts. Though they’re flanked by two arguably harder-hitting bands, the quintet steal the show with ease with a near-perfect mix and truly mesmerising performance.
Not only shirtless, but a living legend to boot, is Matt Pike. Not content to lead the legendary Sleep, he’s found a second wind with his own whiskeyand weed-drenched speed metal outfit HIGH ON
FIRE, who’ve packed the Garage to the gills. While he’s perhaps flown a little too close to the sun of late, seemingly embracing the conspiracy theories he’s sung about for years, some of them allegedly rooted in the thinking of conspiracy theorist David Icke, he steers well clear of putting his foot in it tonight. Instead, it’s a raucous, sweatdrenched performance that does away with subtlety to instead swing for the fences.
Opening with a crushing Turk
before launching into the only song in the set from latest album Electric Messiah, Spewn From The Earth, it’s electrifying and Matt is on top form as he growls his way through. There are no showy stage tricks but it’s not necessary with a band like High On Fire; they know what the wild crowd want and they deliver. Carcosa’s sludgy heft gives way to an unnecessary drum solo to open Fertile Green, but there’s no loss of energy and they close on the classic Snakes For The Divine. Again, there’s precious little said to the crowd, but there is no need. Instead, High On Fire demonstrate when it comes to making heavy fucking metal, there aren’t many who can touch them.
WILL MARSHALL
Having a gig delayed two years by Covid is a pain in the arse, but for post-hardcore legends Jawbox it seems like water off a duck’s back considering they were last headlining here in ’94. Contemporaries of Washington DC punk royalty like Fugazi, Hoover and Shudder To Think, they helped shape a decade of underground music with a sound that mixed abrasive crunch and wonky, shouldn’t-work-butthey-somehow-do melodies. If singer/ guitarist J. Robbins blames Barcelona for busting his voice, it barely registers beyond a dash of added huskiness, and he’s spry as a fox onstage despite having been at this whole lark since the 80s. Bassist Kim Coletta, meanwhile, beams as she locks everything together with effortless skill and confidence. Tongues, Static and Cooling Card cut as sharp as the day they were minted, and it still seems deeply unjust that Savory, the band’s biggest ‘hit’ (i.e. it got played on Beavis And Butt-head), wasn’t some sort of mega-hit. If there’s a minor misstep it’s their rendition of Wire’s Lowdown – rather too near the sonic mark to really cut through, especially when set against the band’s own material or the night’s shimmeringly resplendent take on Tori Amos’s Cornflake Girl.
ALEX DELLER