Live Review: Terror Hardcore Matinee @ Camden Underworld!

Essentially a half dayer consisting of 5 hardcore bands headlined by Terror, Camden Underworld is the venue for a creature double feature that is getting live streamed around the Globe. A raft of line-up changes has seen Cro-Mags JM, drop off the bill while Lion’s Law don’t cross the channel.

Jesus Piece [8/10] are the surprise opening band this afternoon and freshly back from a run in Japan and Each track from them hits like a bomb blast with slab after mortuary slab of Metallic Hardcore riffage from songs like “Workhorse”. This band should not be opening a show like this and they prove that while “Only Self” is a solid album, the crowds get 20% more from the band live. When the call for “Oppressor” comes from the fans, the response is “Hold your horses my man”. When it finally appears as the last song in an adrenaline fueled set, the audience go wild. What Jesus Piece need for their sophomore album is a producer who can help them capture that live energy like a Genie on a bottle.

It maybe their first album in a decade but “Unfinished Business” is now nearly four months old and Boston Massachusetts Hardcore crew Death Before Dishonor [8/10] have proven if it was ever in doubt that they still have what it takes. This afternoon they take the stage as a quartet, missing a second guitarist and frontman Bryan sweats through is gray t-shirt in a high octane set that mixes the old with the new. Played with newer tones and sharper sound quality, the older songs sound fantastic and the newer material sits perfectly beside it. Madball maybe in influence but they have enough of their own sh*t going on.

Unless we’re very much mistaken, Terror guitarist Martin Stewart performs the main vocals for World Collapse [7/10] during tonight’s slot whole Scott Vogel appears for a cameo midway for the heaviest moment of the bands set. It’s possible we could be wrong and the pair could just look very similar. World Collapse look like a hardcore band but play a set that walks a path between Hardcore Punk and Post-Hardcore sounds largely due to the emotive clean sung vocals. At times those vocals seem at odds with the bands music as a whole though they manage to carry it off well enough. Unlike Death Before Dishonor, they don’t seem particularly pleased to be at Camden Underworld and there is no crowd interaction between songs even though they have a couple of minor technical issues. Maybe it’s just nerves.

An old school Hardcore Punk band with the emphasis on the punk – that’s Sex Pistols rather than Blink 182 – who have been together some 35 years, Outburst [7/10] are still as mad at the World as they ever have been. The Barney Greenway esq vocals from Brian Donahue are barked and on point while the bass is effectively a second guitar, such is its prominence in the mix. Cuts like set closer “Thin Ice” are staples that are well suited to a venue like this and a packed crowd enjoy every minute.

It’s been a long wait with one thing and another for us to finally see Los Angeles Californian Hardcore homewreckers Terror [10/10]. There songs play out to literally thousands of stage dives, with stone wall classics like “Overcome” and “Spit My Rage” being stand out cuts in a career spanning set list that sees members of each band watching on from the side lines and interestingly Martin Stewart has a Satyricon t-shirt on. The Outburst guitarist joins in the fun, launching himself headlong into the crowd mid set and when a lady grabs the Microphone mid song from Scott Vogel, the big man steps to one side and let’s her scream an entire verse before giving a nod and round of applause. Terror may only play 50 minutes but the Camden Underworld becomes a capacity crowd sweat box of energy and the audience love every single second. There is no let up from the band, not much talking between songs save a couple of on point shout outs for the other bands that played tonight so there is nothing to suck the energy out of the room. Vogel mentions his love for René Natzel of World Collapse and how many times he’s begged for them to come out and play a show with them over the years. Well tonight is his night. Set closer “Keepers Of The Faith” is nothing short of blistering.