Despite the pull of England’s nail-biting exploits against Slovakia in the Euro Cup, there’s a fair sized crowd assembled to witness tonight’s openers Slope. Tonight is an evening that finds the old school colliding with the new and in cataclysmic fashion, with Slope representing a fresh breed of heavy music. We’re no strangers to the band’s twisted world having reviewed their latest album (here) and since that record dropped they’ve been out on the road and picking up fans at every stop. However, we are interested to see how their sound transfers to the live environment, and the answer is very well. Sweeping across the stage like a raging tornado they make their presence felt with an earth-shaking, eardrum popping sound. Imagine early Red Hot Chili Peppers jamming with Suicidal Tendencies and you’d have something approaching the ferocity of this crew and with hypnotic, unorthodox beats their effervescence magnetically draws the crowd towards the stage. Delivering a set that’ll live long in the memory, Slope have recruited more soldiers to their ever growing army.

Body Count have had a revolutionary impact on heavy music and the ramifications of their incendiary sound are only just being felt. No other band broke down barriers and united cultures quite like this Los Angeles crew, and just a quick glance at the young faces present tells you Body Count remain as relevant as ever. That’s both a good and a bad thing; it’s sad how little things have changed, but on the flip side it means that when the band appear to their anthem ‘Body Count’s In The House’ they arrive with some force. Each band member is greeted with a huge cheer, the biggest of which is reserved for Ice T and when the band segue into a cover of Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ things really get interesting. In my thirty five years of attending gigs have I never felt such undiluted, visceral rage emanate from a stage; they take all the aggression from Slayer’s tune and filter it through their own sensibility until what’s left is the purest distillation of fury. If proof were needed then Ice’s face will set you straight; anger and frustration are etched onto his visage and (along with the band), delivers a performance as such. This is a no-holds-barred affair that places its foot on the audience’s neck and doesn’t take it off for the next 90 minutes.

By the time we reach ‘Bowels Of The Devil’ the crowd are suitably warmed up and it doesn’t take long for waves of crowd surfers to crash over the barrier and when ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ makes an appearance, things reach critical point. Circle and mosh pits erupt with the whole floor resembling a medieval battle field, but it’s all in the right spirit and no matter how insane things get, nobody gets seriously hurt. One thing for which Body Count are rarely acknowledged is bringing a realism to metal and ‘Manslaughter’ and ‘Necessary Evil’ give us a hefty dose, and when combined with the ferocious type of crossover in which the band peddle, makes for an arresting experience. A medley of Exploited songs is as chaotic as you’d expect and it’s testament to the strength of their own work that it sits comfortably along side ‘Drive By’ and they barely miss a beat, delivering a set that leaves the crowd reeling from punch after punch.

As you’d expect ‘Cop Killer’ raises the roof, but it’s not over yet because the band return for three well-deserved encores, including a caustic ‘Born Dead’ that ensures everyone leaves sated.

Body Count Set List:

1. Body Count’s In The House
2. Raining Blood / Postmortem (Slayer cover)
3. Bowels Of The Devil
4. There Goes The Neighbourhood
5. The Purge
6. Point The Finger
7. Manslaughter
8. Necessary Evil
9. Psychopath
10. No Lives Matter
11. War / UK82 / Disorder (The Exploited cover)
12. Drive By
13. Voodoo
14. Talk Shit, Get Shot
15. Cop Killer

Encores:

16. Born Dead
17. This Is Why We Ride
18. Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)