"When I say hail, you say satan."
Dreadlocks, Viking beards, flesh tunnels and rockstar tattoos assembled at the Newtown Social Club for a night (26 September) that encompassed tongue-in-cheek satanic worship, nautical-prog metal, and having drinks copiously spilt all over you.
Fox Company instigated the proceedings with their upbeat, thrashy, merry, alt-rock feels, with solid, thumpy drums during 'Hollywood Smile' and 'I'm Not To Blame': "For all the women I haven't met yet”. The vintage rock, old-world feels of 'Dashboard Jesus' and 'I Keep Keeping On' were played out with solid, garage-rock guitar riffs with the group visibly enjoying themselves.
Fox Company - image © Kim Rudner
Their uplifting, slightly hokey sound was the perfect backdrop to swill whiskey in your regular, booze spot under abrasive neon bar lights with busty women surrounding you.
We Lost The Sea began their eerie, melancholic and lilting chords: immersive, subsuming. Resounding, encircling waves of sound, a dark ocean that claws at you and leaves you subdued, submerged.
The eerie, childlike samples, haunting, melodic-guitar parts, distortion and the mesmerising way the sound clouds your mind, halts your conversation and drags you deep into a dark abyss – heartfelt, soulful, yet simultaneously meditative and devoid of emotion. If mediation metal becomes a thing these guys could front the genre, easy.
We Lost The Sea - image © Kim Rudner
Their set was imbued with such potency, force and ultimately, catharsis and release. The distorted, underwater breathing samples of 'The Last Dive Of David Shaw' – water bubbling and swirling, creating a sense of claustrophobia: ominous, dark and daunting. Then suddenly the tone shifts and there is light again, and the light is melody, floating, lilting, the drums seamlessly entwined as the web gets thicker and the pace quickens.
Headliners Gay Paris bought to the table their raw, thrashy, emotive feels, with interestingly guttural vocals that are somehow still clearer than traditional heavy metal, with distinctive raw dynamics and approach to tempo.
Thematically they shared their music as a vision for: "the moral permissibility of being an atheist" despite the fact that "the last good party is over... welcome the dark arts”.
Gay Paris - image © Kim Rudner
It's resounding, rollicking, hip grinding, microphone swinging, guitar twirling, messy, alt-rock metal. It's swill your beer then spit it out on the crowd kinda music.
Click here for more photos from the show.
Gay Paris will be touring throughout October, November and December.
