It’s a bitterly cold evening outside as winter returns with a vengeance and Jack Frost starts biting exposed flesh, but inside The Craufurd Arms things are starting to heat up as a near capacity crowd assemble to witness three bands who are dragging heavy music (kicking and screaming) into the future. Indicative of this new breed are Obeyer, a metalcore quartet who are progressive in its purest definition and are constantly pushing at the genre’s boundaries. They make an impactful introduction with ‘Second Sun’, placing their foot upon the crowd’s throat and keeping it there for the following thirty minutes. They’ve a modus operandi that recalls bands such as Malevolence, placing metal and hardcore in a particle collider, and the results are suitably atomic. With a new EP (Pallor) dropping in May and a host of shows planned, the future’s looking bright for this bunch.

If proof were ever needed that hard times are the catalyst for harder art, you need look no further than Cage Fight. With a line-up finalised in 2021 and born from the frustration of lockdown, this London-based band deal a rather nice line in crossover thrash and with sophomore album, Exuvia, in the bag and soon to be released, you get the sense that they’re standing on the cusp of greatness. It’s a feeling enhanced by opening track ‘One Minute’, a song that swings with the vitriol of early Cro-Mags and ignites the pit like a spark to tinder. With a skull crushing riff, caustic vocals and a pounding rhythm section, Cage Fight are an aptly-titled crew and offer a no-holds-barred attack that’s akin to two street brawlers trading blows outside Wetherspoon’s on a Saturday night…but you that on the way in. The brand of hardcore in which Cage Fight deal finds the band tightly focused, but they are far from one-dimensional; there’s plenty of variety on offer in terms of song structure, whilst Rachel Aspe’s vocals are an instrument in themselves and afford the band a whole new dynamic. ‘Souvenir’ and ‘Guillotine’ hit particularly hard, whist Rachel makes a sojourn into the crowd to sing from the floor during ‘Eating Me Alive’ which increases the insanity exponentially. ‘Hope Castrated’ makes a cataclysmic closer and sets things up nicely for their second long player. Watch This Space.

Formed in Woking in 2011, Employed To Serve soon came to prominence via their unique amalgamation of metalcore, mathcore, punk, post-hardcore and death metal, fusing these disparate genres into a cohesive whole. Throw in some technical guitars, a groove-laden rhythm section, along with some off-the-wall vocals, and you have something wholly original, and in our age of reductionism, it’s to the band’s credit that they sound like no one but themselves. With the aid of a crisp, crunchy sound and lit by expressive stage lighting, the band hit the ground running with ‘Treachery’, and rarely looking back over the course of 70 tumultuous minutes. If there’s one thing that links the various genres which comprise Employed To Serve’s sound then it’s a directness and a serious lack of fluff. The band don’t use two notes when one will suffice and as such their songs take the most direct line to what the f*ck its all about. It’s an approach which means their set is in constant motion, like wheels within wheels, each song has its own momentum, from the medium-paced ‘Fallen Star’, to the crushingly slow ‘Sun Up To Sun Down’ to the amphetamine-fuelled ‘Familiar Pain’, Employed To Serve are a moving target that’s hard to pin down. At every gig there are always a few people whose attention starts to wander, but not so at an Employed To Serve show, the band’s motion keeping the crowd constantly engaged as they throw all sorts of neat moves. It means that the curfew comes around far too soon, but not before ‘From This Day Forward’ sends all home with a spring in their step.

Employed To Serve Set List:

1. Treachery

2. Atonement

3. Beneath It All

4. Sore Tooth/Force Fed

5. Fallen Star

6. Sun Up To Sun Down

7. Familiar Pain

8. Good Fro Nuffink

9. We Don’t Need You

10. Breaks Me Down

11. Now Thy Kingdom Come

12. Mark Of The grave

13. Whose Side Are You On?

14. From This Day Forward

Cage Fight Set List:

1. One Minute

2. Respect Ends

3. Pig

4. Souvenir

5. Guillotine

6. Pick Your Fighter

7. IHYG (I Hate Your Guts)

8. Eating Me Alive

9. Hope Castrated

Obeyer Set List:

1. Second Sun

2. Radiant

3. Trauma Host

4. Become Cold

5. All Sullen

6. A Momentary Death

7. Nothing Exists Beyond Me