Metal Hammer Razor Tour featuring Devil Sold His Soul

Now in its second year, the Metal Hammer Razor Tour organised by monthly presenters of metal music news Metal Hammer strives to expose a bunch of venues up and down Britain to the utter auditory assault of some of the genres’ most promising newcomers.

Hitting the stage first were Belgium based post-rock, sludge masters Steak Number Eight and immediately set the pace for the evening with a collection of songs heavy as concrete and louder than God. Each drum hit and ridiculously crunchy guitar riff felt like a baseball ball smashing into your face. A small break to regain some composure before the tech-heavy, relentlessly hard, head-through-a-brick-wall noise hurricane of Heart of a Coward hit the stage. Front man Jamie Graham putting in a mesmerising performance, bellowing with a death growl that comes from a place hitherto unknown and working the crowd into a swirling hyper-kinetic frenzy.

Next to the stage with an almost cartoonish energy was Heights. Not quite able to rally the crowd like the previous bands, they give it a pretty good shot anyway.

After all that, it’s a wonder anyone in the room has any stamina left. But everyone is here for headliners Devil Sold His Soul and the crowd size seems to double as the moment the band take the stage draws nearer. The energy, excitement and anxiety in the crowd was actually palpable. Setting the tone for what’s about to come, the four band members enter the stage to a piece of music that sounds reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s work on The Dark Knight trilogy, before grabbing their instruments and exploding into one hell of loud prog-metal/post-hardcore racket. The songs saunter between intense intricate riffing and wide-open moments of cinematic grandeur (with the occasional floor-punching break down for good measure).

Technically, they’re extremely impressive. The only major issue present is that either the vocal sound was simply not set up correctly, or singer Ed Gibbs just does not possess the weight of voice to carry this kind of music live. However, the crowd didn’t seem to care, totally enraptured by the band and intermittently constructing swirling pits of flailing human shapes to show their appreciation.

All in all, the evening did pretty much exactly what it promised. No left field surprises, just a large dose of loud, heavy music straight into your face.

Jonathan Day

For further information and future events visit Devil Sold His Soul’s website here.

Watch the video for An Ocean of Lights here: