Temple of Boom Studio, Amblecote has held some of the area’s best events this year with the past four ‘Boom! Headshot!’ nights, drawing on the simple-but-magical combination of excellent underground bands/artists and intimate rehearsal room settings. So for this fifth instalment expectations and excitement are running high - and rightfully so considering the line-up in store…
Kicking off proceedings in supremely groove-laden fashion, Mothertrucker bring the party crashing in with a fine selection of instrumentals packed with mammoth riffs and dark atmospherics. Their music guides us through a series of subtle twists and turns, from the bowel-shaking heaviness of Duff McCagan’s Caggin Wagon to the agile interweaving lines of Vigo the Carpathian. Closing with the tense Kings of Kabaddi, the ‘Trucker leave the crowd thoroughly juiced up and ready for more.
Next up is the explosive sludgecore onslaught of Crash Night. Their towering opener, Falling Star, provides a slower lead-in to the rest of the set, which for the most part comprises of short, fast blast assaults accompanied by rabid screaming. Each track seems to add to a building sense of malevolence within the room which peaks in the untitled closing piece, an exercise in nastiness that winds up becoming a ten minute noise jam to soundtrack the bodies now being flung from wall to wall.
With the pit in full swing, the timing for Vicious Bastard to hit the floor couldn’t be better as their ultra-precise, technical grindcore kicks up an intense shit-storm. Among their brutal compositions an extremely sped-up cover of Holy Diver is thrown in to great effect, before the band leaves us with From the Smoke Came Locusts, a fine demonstration in the art of monolithic breakdowns.
Our taste for metal satisfied, the night now takes an abrupt stylistic turn as Crushing Blows serve up a helping of punked-up psych-pop, diving straight into the sugar rush of recent single I Dream of Becoming a Girl. Live, the duo’s music comes across a lot more raw and aggressive than the studio recordings, guitarist Chris flailing and digging into each melodic hook, while Andrew expertly juggles drum and keyboard duties while still beating the hell out of both instruments.
The time now somewhere around 1AM, a sufficiently hyped up (mainly drunk) audience are joyous recipients to the sound of Papayér’s emotionally supercharged, anthemic post-hardcore. Tunes like Dark Repellent and Duan De Waal make cathartic gang-chant sing-alongs, even for a crowd who have barely heard them. All three musicians tear their vocal chords to shreds with each lyric, while displaying a mastery of dynamic control that serves to pull the heartstrings along the highs and lows evoked within each structure.
Tonight’s final performance comes from History Of The Hawk, who seem to have spent the meantime winding up like a spring. When they do finally charge into You, Me, Let’s Cybercide Baby the room explodes. Both band and audience become a whirlwind of gleeful chaos, frontman Nathan stumbling in the midst of it all like a mad drunk, screaming and grabbing at people. Guitars, microphone cables and items of clothing are displaced, while tumultuous versions of tracks like Freyer and Little Parisians burst through the wreckage. X is the New Y ensures that any remaining destructive tendencies are exorcized until the last remnants of musicality are lost under a pile of sweaty bodies.
And so ends another Boom! Headshot! - leaving us exhilarated, exhausted and a tad disturbed. Roll on the next one!
