Review by Sheri Bicheno
Photos by S.W Photography
The first gig of the year is happening, and even though it's on a school night, it's set to be an absolutely incredible event!
Hailing from a small part of Eastern Europe, Moldova's remarkable metal band launched their Motocultor Across Europe Tour with some special guests on January 10th. Over the years, Infected Rain have consistently won over the UK metal scene's fan base, not just with the extraordinary energy they bring but also with their genuinely wonderful personalities. You can often tell when there are genuinely good people on stage by the way artists interact with their fans or those who come to enjoy their music.
During this visit back to the UK, Infected Rain brought along a lineup of high calibre. Heading to one of my favorite venues in Camden, London, I unfortunately missed Berlin's hard rockers Skin On Flesh due to the typical challenges of getting into London after work. However, after listening to their punchy, unapologetic sound with lyrics full of intensity and inclusivity, you HAVE to go and check them out.
Catching the end of the Australian Melodic/Blackened Death band, Miruthan, and the energy was absolutely mystifying in the crowded Underworld. With themes of dark folklore and apocalyptic chaos, this set the perfect tone for my night. The heavy guitar riffs and powerful drum beats had heads banging across the shadowy stage.
The intensity was palpable, with a mysterious stage presence and vocals that shook the floor with their force. It's a performance I hope to see in full someday—this band embodies everything you'd desire in raw Blackened and relentless Death metal genres.
Next was a band I’d not seen live before and when I say that this was a unique line up, I was not exaggerating. After the pure force of Miruthan, a twist in energy was sprung from the stage in the shape of French outfit Elyose. With dark but elegant and powerful genres surrounding their performance, this was like walking into a Nightwish meets Spiritbox realm.
Grove laden guitars packing punches with avant-garde Gothic notes was a really good texture that just seem to work so well with the right aims. Justine Daaé is a mesmerising front woman - her voice engulfs the stage and emits such a beautiful tone that invites operatic vibrations to go hand in hand with cinematic, djent fuelled guitaring and synths.Vendredi Noir serves as a stunning example from the 2023 album Déviante which starts out as a haunting synth tone and lowers itself until you’re smacked in the face with an almighty djent fuelled riff from Anthony Chognard entwined with some utterly mind blowing power from behind the kit.Justine’s vocals take on an ethereal tone and haze their way through the song with injections of powerful notes, fuelling the theatrical elements of Elyose.
The incredibly dynamic guitar work paired with Justine’s voice is balanced perfectly, ensuring neither dominates the other. When combined with the powerful drumming, it creates one of my favorite tracks of the set. The song exudes intense headbanging vibes and captivating, enchanting tones, blending the unique styles that Elyose crafts for themselves. The crowd is raising their fists in the air, fully immersed in the energy emanating from the stage.
With a new album Évidence released just a few days ago, this tour is going to be insanely awesome for this band.What a way to kickstart it!
Tonight’s support act came storming into the Underworld through Brazilian Melo-Death Semblant.
Echoes of cheering crowds peeked through the dusky stage with a beautiful ambient intro of echoing vocals and gorgeous synth keys trickling under the brutal force of the intro riffs and blast beating kit.Intro track Incinerate is a bludgeoning force that comes in with maddening riffs and dual vocals of scorching growls from Sergio Mazul and beautiful chimes of Mizuho Lin that create a magnetic chemistry through the vocals blending together.
Sergio employs every atom in his vocals with remarkable energy and fearlessness and Mizuho uses a range of striking tones that injects pure beauty and power into the melodics of the vocals.Dark of the Day gives a sinister edge within the intro’s melodics. Julian Ribero harbours some of the filthiest groove edged riffs driven by powerful rhythm sections that fold into some utterly neck snapping grooves amongst the intense double kicks behind Thor Sikora’s kit.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the fan-favorite Lunar Manifesto, we were treated to an impressive performance of The Shrine. The melodies remain dark and intense, while incorporating a lot of speed and gothic style elements into the track. It evokes a nostalgic feel of Lacuna Coil at times - Mizuho’s beautiful vocals complement the intensity of Sergio’s energetic screams, blending seamlessly with the captivating riffs and Piper’s intricate basslines, providing a perfect sense of familiarity while taking no prisoners.
Ending on the beautiful ripples of keys and riffs on What Lies Ahead and the blast beats of Enrage to inject some AWAKENING energy through the ground of the Underworld, Semblant have reminded London exactly what they are made of and leave the stage smiling and with a crowd that is ready to take on the full force of what their headliner is about to unleash…
The Underworld is totally brimming full of bodies - and for a Monday night, this is a wonderful sight to see…
The stage plunged into darkness with blue and green soft hues of light seeping through, the mystical tones of intro A Second Or A Thousand Years sees the crowd into a mysterious ambience and thought provoking melodics.
Right before we dropped straight into a vortex of staggering riffs and beats as Infected Rain take to the stage and unleash a monstrous energy.
The Realm Of Chaos crashes in with perfectly orchestrated groove riffs of Vadim Ojog that balance with the sheer velocity of power from Eugen Voluta’s kitwork right before Lena Scissorhands unleashes the most visceral and spellbinding vocals of the night. Lena is without a doubt, one of the best vocalists and front women in modern metal. Her spirited aura on stage is totally encapsulating the energies that go on in this venue and she flawlessly delivers her ranges of vocals into both absolutely stunning and filthy notes that go hand in hand with the band’s core.
Pandemonium delivers a magical blend of synthesizers and stunning melodic clean vocals amidst the intense growls and technically driven guitar work. This track boasts immense depth, and I truly enjoy experiencing it live. Picture yourself navigating through intense beats and breakdowns, only to be elevated into a serene and beautiful soundscape.
“Are you ready to have some fun!?” Lena addresses the crowd and is met with the Underworld positively vibrating back to her.
Next song from newest album Time comes along as beautiful synth drenched ripples and some seriously striking bass work from Alice Lane.
The bass notes act as the backbone to this track, offering chuggy but low frequency and filthy tones that command the pace of the guitars pulling in different directions. The grooves and tech notes here are so strong and also see’s the drums work more with the pace of Lena’s vocals.
The synths are really really stunning here too and highlight the effects of the visceral energy in the track by balancing the ambience of the lighter tones. A really beautiful track and has an outstanding stage energy to match with the there being so much movement and Lena and Vadmin’s headbanging locks that can be seen from the back of the venue.
“I want to tell you a story…” Remember when I said earlier that this is a band that has personality and in that, comes some really humble and warm moments you see sometimes in humans that work to where they get to be…“Two things happened here last time we were here..A girl fainted in the crowd.And i was headbanging so much, i caught my hair in the ceiling a ripped my hair. One of my locks fells out… RIP one of my locks.
So we encourage movement and feeling alive!”
And with that, Fighter is unleashed into the crowd below.
This is one of my favourite tracks of Infected Rain as its totally consuming and such a killer track to represent them. Vadim and Alice work so well here with the melodies and harmonies of this track and in a blink of an eye (or more like a smack in the chops) the direction drops into a maddening drum tempo change from Eugen and there’s a steep roll down into a Djent and groove fuelled pummelling.Lena uses her range of stunning vocals from gutturals to cleans and back to barking growls here to shift the energies of the track and emit the crowd into a frenzied state.
Lena then commands the room split into two - so of course the Underworld opens up leaving a few of the nutters in the middle 100% calling to get bulldozed.
On 123 and the tirade of riffs on THE ANSWER IS YOU, the room reunites in the form of smashing bodies in a wall of death and soaking the energy from the stage.
With a touch of a cultural metal with NEVER TO RETURN, this track entwines some hypnotic rhythms and interludes over some softer vocals before dropping into one of the night’s most powerful tracks of the night.
The guitars are massive and emphasize Lena’s vocals with a sense of catharsis. This is my favorite track from the latest album, and honestly, I was hoping it would appear in tonight's set. It's one of the most powerful and beautiful tracks that Infected Rain has recently released, crafted with a variety of moods and a full spectrum of energies that range from intensely heavy to beautifully ethereal.
Finishing on BECAUSE I LET YOU and 2014’s Sweet, Sweet Lies left the Underworld positively shaking and II love that this set has most of Infected Rain’s newest album to see live - seeing their energy in person for Time has been nothing short of stunning and by far one of my favourite performances of the last couple of years.
The energy the band put into their stage work, interaction and overall really positive vibes gives you as the watcher, or a fan, the opportunity to feel like part of what they are doing.
Infected Rain are hands down, phenomenal and I cannot wait to see what unfolds for them in the next year or so. They are on a peak at the moment and going stronger.
They deserve every single bit of their success.
PHENOMENAL
Huge thanks to Metal Blade Records!
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