Loathe // electric brixton // london
an emotional rollercoaster with gravity-defying highs and deliciously grave-defying lows
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5)
LOATHE PERFORMING AT LONDON’S ELECTRIC BRIXTON
PHOTOCREDIT: MAY UDDIN
Things heated up at the Electric Brixton this winter on December 5th as Liverpudlian band Loathe brought their long-awaited headline show to London – opened by Love is Noise and Zetra.
The show opened with Love is Noise, an alt-numetal quartet fronted by Cameron Humphrey. Though short, the set flawlessly blended both a dark and intense vocals contrasted on occasion with a lighter, more ethereal sound. The band energetically warmed up the crowd almost instantly, demanding a circle pit from the get-go to which the audience happily obliged. Going just by the energy they brought to the start, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the group rise quickly through the ranks.
Next was the delightfully cultish Zetra. Opening with a bassline that boomed and rumbled through the audience, the corpsepaint-clad act soon took over the loud energy with a wave of cerebral, atmospheric energy. The audience was dragged into this hypnotic theatrical performance of layered and mysterious guitar and gothic synth work. That being said, there was no shortage of weight as the heavy guitars of the barefoot Adam Saunderson sliced through the moody energy between the members and the audience, reinforced by the sharp keyboard of Jordan Page who towered, enshrouded in a matrix-esque coat. The spell the darkly otherworldly duo cast over the audience lingered long after they vanished, quickly replaced by small boxes of incense shrouding the stage in an oud-y fog.
Loathe broke through the mist with the force of an explosion. The crowd awoke from their hypnotic haze, drawn right into the magnetism that was frontman Kadeem France – spinning and dancing to the gorgeous blend of instrumentals from guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe, drummer Sean Radcliffe and bassist Feisal El-Khazragi. Carrying and amplifying the energy of both their openers, the band artfully balanced deep, guttural screams and growls paired with a Kadeem’s dreamy and airy vocals, backed by Erik as second vocalist.
A circle pit opened and crowdsurfers leapt into action almost immediately in response to the music, triggered by the sudden switch-ups in tone and volume until the energy of the entire venue swelled into a booming and rumbling affair that left the whole of Brixton Hill shaking from the station to Herne Hill. Hats flew, the crowd leapt, phones were in the air – and laptops too, as someone from the audience handed Kadeem a laptop they were recording on to which he hilariously accepted and took onto the stage. Though, at the end of the day, it is a metal concert after all and far stranger things have happened.
The band ended with an encore including the fan-favourite “Is it really you?” and drawing the energy back into the most dreamy, flying-through-the-sky-on-a-cloud atmosphere that was almost so weightless and light the band, audience and staff alike nearly ascended. Only to then slam everything deep back underground with “Gored”.
Overall the concert was an emotional rollercoaster with gravity-defying highs and deliciously grave-defying lows. The openers Love is Noise and Zetra perfectly primed the crowd with their unique and distinctive musical footprints (literally, in Zetra’s case) for the main event that was Loathe. Being their London concert, it’s no surprise that the band is as popular as they are, and we expect to see them headlining even bigger shows not too late in the future as a solid vanguard of the modern developments of the heavy music scene.
REVIEW & PHOTOS BY: SUMAIYAH UDDIN
