Live Review: Casket Feeder With Dishonour the Crown, Chewing Glass Collective & AWAP At The Black Heart, London (26/05/22)

It’s a night of noisy, extreme music and there are few better places in London to have your ears destroyed than the Black Heart in Camden. It’s also the perfect place for Casket Feeder to celebrate the launch of their brand-new album, Servants of Violence (read our review here). An album that is staggeringly good and will hopefully prove to be the launchpad this band deserve.

Before we get to their part of the show, we have to start with the opening band, AWAP. A bastardised combination of politicalised punk, hardcore and metal. If you’re wondering about the name, AWAP stands for ‘Ant Walking Alligator People’ and was the name given by survivors of Hiroshima to people horrifically disfigured by the atomic blast.

The five-piece are on top form, so much so that the handful of people in the venue at the start, grows and grows as AWAP put on a kickass show. So impressive, while having a bit of fun on stage, they play as though there are 10,000 people in attendance and it really wins over any doubters in this crowd. Already, it seems as though the bar has been set.

Which makes Chewing Glass Collective’s job all the more difficult as it seems as though they might be the anomaly of the show. Made up of a growing crew of Bristol musicians working together to create heavy music. The group feature members of Body Harvest, Mortishead, ex SickOnes, Elea Calvet and more. The ‘thrown together’ vibe is present and notable from a visual standpoint but musically, bloody hell, are these guys good.

It’s extreme, it’s ear-bleedingly heavy, it’s fast and frantic, but it’s also got industrial beats that turn the front of the stage into pit mayhem. What starts off head-scratching, becomes unbelievably listenable and watchable. There’s so much to love, so much to enjoy, that it’s such a shame it ends so quickly.

No worries though as the nasty gits from Dishonour the Crown are up next and ready to show the Black Heart what no-holds barred ferocity is really like.

Known for their intensity and their combination of hardcore, powerviolence, death and grind, Dishonour the Crown take the ‘crown’ for being the most eye-wateringly heavy band on the bill. Spitting, snarling and raging, it’s 30 minutes of unforgettable head-banging and circle-pitting brilliance.

You can tell it’s gone down well with everyone inside too, as the set ends and the lights/background music don’t come on. So, everyone kind of waits, expecting another song and then we realise it’s over. The collective disappointment comes off like a stink wave.

Which brings us to the headliners and the reason his show is even happening, Casket Feeder.

A sudden influx of attendees means the room is that bit more packed out and for good reason. Everything feels great about Casket Feeder right now. The new album, the stylistic changes and development of their sound, has really given this band fresh legs. Now, it’s all about delivering that music live and bloody hell, do they!

It’s a blistering showcase of everything great about this band. A mix of old and new, the confidence they exude and the way in which they deliver their brand of extreme suggests they have been around a lot longer than they have.

The pits don’t stop, the head-banging is consistent, the quality of the music never dips, it’s a triumphant show from Casket Feeder. It’s so good to hear the new tracks live and to hear just how strong they are outside of the studio environment.

What a night. Four unique bands, four excellent sets and four reasons to be so proud of the UK scene. If you weren’t there, you missed out.