Live Review: Will Haven w/Row Of Ashes, Wall and The Grey At Camden Underworld!

An event that at one point we feared may never happen, tonight at London’s iconic Camden Underworld marks a special moment in the long history of hard hitting Sacramento, Californian Noise Metal act Will Haven. Originally planned for 2021, this 20th Anniversary show for their seminal third album “Carpe Diem” will be the first time that the band have played the album live in full as one of as one of two shows before the band roll up on Download Festival this weekend. The band have signed copies of the album on sale as well as a 20th Anniversary shirt and they fly out of the door like hot cakes, such is the love for the record, despite its age.

Opening tonight are Row of Ashes [9/10] and if we’re honest they’re a brilliant suprise and exactly the kind of reason why fans of bands need to turn up early because you never know when you’re going to experience a hidden gem of a hitherto unknown band. Having heard them now, if we were drawing up a list of bands to open up for Will Haven on any occasion, there aren’t many more ideally suited, the Sludge Metal fueled Post-Hardcore offering bringing no end of substance to the occasion with abrasive riffs and Chris Wilson’s powerful and raw vocals at the fore. The pairing of “Worcester Man” and “Bleaching Heat” hit like a shovel to the skull.

Bored in doors but not from the summer heat,  Wall [8/10] are in instrumental duo hailing from Oxford born of the Pandemic. They comprise guitarist Ryan Cole and drummer Elliot Cole, a pair that you may know better for their roles in Desert Storm and Grand Mal. Tonight they treat us to half an hour of Sludge riff Metal riff worship music inspired by the likes of Black Sabbath. What’s great about the sound that the brothers have created is that it is not only timeless but Intricate enough to be capitivating without being needlessly virtuoso or overly technical. You can hear the reminders of the school of old there while everything still  sounds fresh and that makes for a damn good time.

Cambridge instrumental trio The Grey [8/10] will be familiar to anyone who saw Will Haven in 2018 and then subsequently in 2019 as they were hand picked by the band themselves as a match made in heaven. What The Grey do is create the kind of mezmerising Metal that you can get lost in with dark cinematic flare, sinister edges and dissonance. Their dynamic is huge, their expansiveness epic and that provides hypnotherapy for the soul in a post apocalyptic soundscape that resonates. As with Wall, they avoid endless noodling and stick to relatively solid song structures which does leave one wondering what they would sound like if they had a vocalist…

If anyone thought that tonight’s show on the eve of Download Festival wouldn’t sell, then they were sorely mistaken because by the time that Will Haven [10/10] take to the stage, Camden Underworld is as damn near sold out as you can get, packed to the rafters with fans who won’t be attending the festival and who want to witness the 21st Anniversary of “Carpe Diem” in style on a Thursday night. The venue quickly becomes a sea of sweaty bodies headbanging to the endless supply of stuccato riff breaks and bombastic breakdowns from guitarist Jeff Irwin while Grady Avenell’s trademark gravelly larynx threatening vocals ring in our ears. Cuts like “Saga“, “Dolph Lundgren” and personal favourite “Moving To Montana” have never sounded as good a they do tonight, the atmosphere in the venue being electrically charged for the show. Every single nuance from the album, those little bits of programming between the tracks are all present and correct thanks to second guitarist Anthony Paganelli who manipulates the devil’s juke box. The only thing that is missing is original bassist Mike Martin who hasn’t been part of the band since 2010 and Adrien Contreras has more than held his own for the past decade. Avenell jokes about Irwin’s age with the record being 21 or 22 years old depending on where you count from but tonight it doesn’t matter because it’s an absolute triumph and evidence if it was ever needed that the classics never get old.