Nudist are noise terrorists. Powered by incredible drumming they up the ante with thudding baselines and guitar that pierces even the most hardened gig goers eardrums. The swirling mass of effects and computer sequences add to the feeling of unease you get when listening and watching to them. Its psych, its noise, its rhythmic and it never ever stops, until it eventually winds down after a crescendo that sees the guitars and bassist crawling around the floor of the stage and letting the feedback see them out.
Elevant keep moving forward. They are as ever in a similar camp to Nudist in terms of sonic assaults but their sound has smoothed out in a way, slicker, bigger and tighter sounding. The brutality in their is still there but its tempered with passages of flowing baselines and melodically intelligent guitar playing that throws as much variety as violence the audiences way and all the time its propelled forward and at the audience by drums that can barley contain their excellent rhythmic assault.
GNOD though, I still feel their intensity a day after as I write this. They play for what seems like forever or a blink of an eye, it’s hard to tell. They keep cranking up the levels, musically, decibels, tension and overall magnitude until the audience loses hold on real things like time and place and collectively we drift off toward the land of GNOD.
They really do hammer it on, its loud, it’s repetitive, ghostly screams of lyrics attempt to climb over the volumes of sound created by two drummers playing in perfect synch with each other. The stringed instrument players hit ever more escalating levels of savagery. When it stops, I am drained, purged, cleansed.
Words and Pictures: Richie Yates