Unfortunately, due to getting lost in Dublin, Noize arrived too late to see Dublin four-piece Wounds and only caught the end of screaming youngsters Rolo Tomassi. Rolo Tomassi have concocted their own mix of music which seems to be about two parts metal, three parts electro and seventy parts lungs.
Eva Spence (lead singer) is a fragile looking girl but her appearance deceives as she has a scream on her that would make a pack of hungry lions scarper. From hearing the tail end of their set they sound slightly musically confused especially concerning structure but as a fairly new band it’s understandable that they might have a few kinks to work out.

After several sound checks and stage re-arranging the lights finally darken and Gallows jump on stage to their eery opening music. Frank Carter is the last to make an ominous arrival, a hooded figure appearing from the darkness. Lags drops the first riff and they go straight into “The Vulture Act II” the first release from new album “Grey Britain”. They continue with “Come Friendly Bombs” from their successful debut “Orchestra of Wolves” before Frank Carter gives himself a breath to address the crowd.

The Academy is a pretty small venue and Carter is unimpressed with the lack of intensity in crowd movement. After a couple more numbers he decides to do something about it and stalks his way into the crowd mic in hand to show us how it’s done. The Watford quintet take the audience by the throat with both hands for the anthemic “London Is The Reason” and the equally hard-hitting “Leeches”. As they ram through the set Frank is travelling the lengths of the room on a sea of hands while his brother Steph somehow makes it to the upper balcony and decides to play guitar from there. It’s a wonder Frank has any voice left to talk to the audience with, especially as this is the last night of a UK tour and he puts every fibre of himself and his oesophagus into each show. Most of the set so far has been majoritively from “Grey Britain” which is no bad thing as it’s an album of epic proportions but they are wise to include some of the older tunes which made them so successful. The double hitter of “In the Belly of a Shark” and their debut single “Abandon Ship” proves to be a killer combination as the audience seems to morph into one giant circle pit mess. Frank looks over the crowd pleased with the chaos his shrapnel spitting voice has mustered.

The set comes to a close with “Crucifucks” coming just after the epic “Orchestra of Wolves” which reduced the crowd size as security hustled out the crowd surfers and one daring fan who made a jump from the balcony to the stage and stage-dived into the crowd. All in a night’s work for one of the most genuine and original rock bands grey Britain has to offer.

By Sara Irvine
Photo by Brendan Docherty