Up River, Giver, Vultures, Broken Lungs Live at Subside review (22/2/18)

Coming from the ashes of Crime and Punishment 2011, Someone said Fire and various other metal bands Broken Lungs* (7.2/10) played their very first show at Subside supporting Up River. Despite it being their first ever show Broken Lungs sounded tight, heavy and well rehearsed, the result of over a years writing and playing together before taking to the stage. Joe Jones bought the same intensity of his older bands, strutting up the room and screaming, while at some points while rolling on the floor. Broken Lungs are a mix of hard rock riffs and heavy metal vocals, reminding me of metalcore bands such as Every Time I Die. One slower 'love song' showed off their versatility while I was generally pretty impressed by guitarist Nik's riffs and solos. Broken Lung's first show was a confident first step from a band who already seem to have figured out their identity and sound.
Tamworth's Vultures (6.8/10) are a hardcore band who also mix screaming vocals into short sweet hard rock songs. Looking cool as hell and having a touch of desert rock in their sound.
It's a shame that Giver (7.6) didn't have a bigger crowd to play to, considering that they'd travelled all the way from Germany. Giver take cues from 80's thrash metal legends but they've updated and tweaked the sound to make it heavier and darker. With his long hair, vans and 'no macho bullshit' t-shirt their singer embodies the look and feel of 80's trash and crossover, and their crushingly heavy sound gave my ears a battering. Brighton's Up River (7.2)
are more of a melodic metal band, taking cues from both post punk and post hardcore. Yet the softer side of their music was left distorted and warped by Subside's sound-system. Up River are the kind of metal band who make me imagine destruction and chaos, cities collapsing and and being swallowed up. Up River make metal that is doom laden and dark, so heavy that I presume their guitarists neck brace was from head-banging too hard. While their front-man screams into the floor and strikes Jesus Christ poses, whatever demons he is exorcising make for a cathartic experience for anyone watching.
This was a decent way to spend a Thursday night, all bands were heavy as fuck yet all different in their own ways

Links
www.facebook.com/upriverhc/
giverhc.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/vulturespunkband/
www.facebook.com/brokenlungsuk

The best albums of January 2018

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard albums aside 2017 was a disappointing year for rock albums. while Creeper, idles, and milk teeth impressed me, new hopefuls such as Circa Waves and The Amazons were all rather disappointing. However 2018 has already proved to be a much healthier year for guys and girls with guitars. Kicking off with Shame's glorious début album 'Songs of Praise'. An album which finds the young Londoners mining the cold dissonant post punk of Joy Division as much as the sleaze of their peers Fat White Family. 'SOP' is 10 rough diamonds, mixing politics with pop and 'Idles' aggression with indie anthems in waiting. Dream Wife's self titled début was a similarly euphoric rush of pop tinged grunge anthems. Their thick Icelandic accents delivering a sadly often over looked message that women can not only rock as heard as men but that they deserve respect as people too. Dream Wife pull off this while sounding gloriously delirious, their début album is a blast. L.A.'s Starcrawler are another example of women making fantastic rock n roll. While Starcrawler are far more than just a vessel for Arrow De Wilde's blood spitting stage gimmicks, and their début is as good a record of glam rock tunes as you'll find this decade.
Another woman coming breaking out early this year is U.S. rapper CupcaKe. Whose buzz has been building over the past few years. Ephorize has the hallmarks of her unique sound from the ballsy trap flavoured production and her rapid fire flow delivering a barrage of pure filth. CupcaKe is good at delivering her sexually explicit lyrics in the form of witty one-liners and pop culture references, yet with Ephorize she shows an introspective side that marks her out as more than a one trick pony

Honourable mentions 
Jeff Rosenstock - POST
Khurangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
Marmozets - Knowing what you know now.