Beyond Your Design, Hellfekted, Reaper, Born Pariah – The Hairy Dog, Derby – 22/10/22
Beyond Your Design, Hellfekted, Reaper, Born Pariah
The Hairy Dog, Derby
22/10/22
Review by Rob Sutton
Photos by Klare Sherwood
Derby isn’t a place I go to often for gigs, this in fact being only my second time in the city but when an offer comes to review an EP launch at the Hairy Dog, I can’t really refuse. Now the venue itself is one of my personal favourites, we have a covered smoking area with a food van at the front, a main bar room with really good toilets, a main event room with a huge stage, plenty of space and a bar. Although the toilets in here are not to the same standard as in the pub. Oh and a games room as well, honestly what more do you want from a venue? Oh, cheap beer, check. £4 a pint… Winner!
So, moving on from the venue and to our opening band for the evening Born Pariah, who start things off as they mean to go on – Thrashy. Now as we know, Thrash really isn’t my first choice when it comes to Metal subgenres, but these guys describe themselves as more Groove than Thrash. To me they do still have an awful lot of Thrash elements to them, but certainly the riffs on display here really highlight a more groovy side and I do really dig this, as they really get the crowd’s heads bobbing along. This is amplified by the heavy hitter behind the drums. He really is hammering that kit and provides a real thud to the grooves. Another special mention has to be to the bassist, who actually gets time to shine on multiple occasions, yes boys and girls we have bass solos!!! Joking aside these fitted beautifully within their songs and was a really nice change from the usual guitar intros.
While the music is solid and performed to a high standard, the stage show, not so much. I like a band that engages with the crowd and Born Pariah barely even announce a song. Not only that, but for the most part they are just stood on stage with a slight Bob, aside from the drummer who was actually going full beans and completely stole my attention. Born Pariah looked like they were bored on stage and sadly that left me a little bored too, luckily the music was good though.
https://www.facebook.com/BornPariahUK
Reaper are a band that Ever Metal are all too familiar with and are one of Editor Beth’s personal favourites, though this is the first time I have actually reviewed them. So where do I stand? Well first off there is way more stage presence, in fact Reaper don’t stand still and this is made more impressive by the speed they are playing at. Now the quote from Dan (vocals / guitar) used for tonight was ‘Thrash, Rock and Prog, 3 dead genres for the price of one’ now I’ll be honest Reaper are way more Thrash than Rock or Prog, but those influences are clear to see and do give them a nice USP, but I wouldn’t stray too far from the Thrash side as they do it bloody well. I mean the solos are frankly mind-blowing, the drumbeats are blisteringly good, the bass holds the low end to perfection and just everything fits together so beautifully. Not to mention the great interactions with the crowd and the excellent use of the masses of space on stage (although the merch plug was really cringy) but for me Reaper highlight what Thrash is all about, fantastic showmanship, fast music, a lot of energy and really good fun. Dare I say it… one of the top Thrash bands in the underground scene right now.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialReaperUK
Hellfekted are up next filling the main support slot on this tour with Beyond Your Design. Now last time there were a few things I wasn’t that keen on from Hellfekted, but since then they have had some mega shows and an appearance at Bloodstock. All this seems to have given the band a real boost, which means tonight’s performance is on another level of good. As with Reaper, these guys use every inch of the stage to their advantage which makes for very entertaining watching as well as sheer admiration as once again, the speed these guys play at is just mind boggling. All this on display really does get the crowd nodding away happily but the cries for circle pits are a little off putting. OK attempt one got a solitary participant and attempt 2 got another, but for me after the first go, maybe shout for a pit instead. To be fair to Hellfekted, their take on Blackened Thrash really is a sight to behold and I haven’t seen a band like these perform with such precision and speed. Honestly, if you haven’t watched them or heard them… do it!
https://www.facebook.com/Hellfekted
Although the support bands have been absolutely on point tonight there really is only one reason this gig is taking place and that is the release of Beyond Your Design’s latest EP. First off, they have a stand-in drummer for this show from Reaper and this is a very welcome addition, even if it is only for this show as the last few shows have been without and while the backing tracks are good, nothing beats the real thing. While the rest of the bands this evening have sounded predominantly Thrash, Beyond Your Design are way more Metalcore sounding, though I won’t mention the band they sound like (please see my roast of these guys)(Wasn’t TRIVIUM by any chance was it, Hyperactive Metal Pixie ™? – Dark Juan). This has meant that there are way more parts that you can happily sing along to and boy is their material catchy! Seriously ‘United we Fall’ was stuck in my head for days after this gig! This is really helped by the quality of the clean singing being crisp and very understandable.
Now as before, BYD really do own the stage filling every space they can and couple this with a very commanding front man, the crowd are in the palm of their hand, and yes, this time we do get pits, we get shouts back and we get headbanging. There were a couple of guests throughout the set, firstly Liam from Hellfekted comes back on and adds a very nice level of Thrash to their sound but had to mention the dreaded phrase ‘circle pit’ at least this was third time lucky. Also joining on stage was Dan from Reaper taking over from Rob on guitar, while Dan did a mighty job on the guitar, releasing Rob to be just a vocalist was fucking amazing! The man is like a caged animal! He just flipped and completely dominated the stage, got right into the crowds faces and just put on an almighty show. I wish he would do this more as I loved it! BYD played a phenomenally engaging, stupidly tight and just an all-round incredible set, I honestly can’t fault this show… Best set of the year? Maybe so…
https://www.facebook.com/bydbanduk
This may have been a fair way to travel and with a lot of thrash on the bill, I didn’t expect to enjoy the gig this much but my god the bands smashed it. I would highly recommend any of the bands as well as the venue! What a night!
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Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. All photographs property of Klare Sherwood – KS Photography. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
