Isis/Jesu/Kill The Thrill
The Medicine Bar - Birmingham, UK - April 20th, 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
When my girlfriend and I arrived at the venue around ten minutes before the doors were opened, a look around the crowd revealed an interestingly diverse sea of faces. Rather than the group of backpacked hardcore kids I was faintly expecting, there was a tremendous disparity in age, apperance, clothing - only the accent seemed to be the same. Yep, the Brummies were out in force for Birmingham's own Justin Broadrick, in his new guise post-Godflesh. Presumably, a few of them were going to stick around for the headliners too.
However, opening group Kill The Thrill may well have wished that everyone had stayed at the bar for their set, so hideously mangled by technical difficulties was their time on stage. Presumably, language barriers had some small part to do with it - at one point, I noticed a beleaguered sound guy fiddling desperately with knobs and shouting 'Eighteen? Is that right?' while the lead vocalist/guitarist replied 'Oui, dix-huit, dix-huit!' and gesticulated with increasing exasperation. Add to that the fact that halfway through their third song, the sound was clearing well enough to reveal the layers of insistent melody behind their harsh Swans-meets-Godflesh-meets-Killing Joke industrial metal, when almost immediately after one another, the lead guitarist and bassist both snapped strings on their instruments. An unfortunate showing for the French trio, then.
Then came Jesu, armed with a much clearer sound (and a kick-drum that thumped insistently at the ribcage) and a set filled with emotional epics filtered through Godflesh's destructive force. Sadly, Justin's plaintive if somewhat atonal groanings were fairly inaudible for the majority of the set, but when tracks like 'We All Faulter' can simultaneously pin you to a wall with glacial heaviness, yet cause you to trance out on blissfully sublime melodic underpinnings, vocals are really just another string to the bow. Jesu's set showed admirably just how far Broadrick has come since Godflesh's end, his increased emotional maturity and more positive outlook radiating from every note of the hypnotically constructed songs.
Isis had a very tough act to follow after this. Luckily, most of the Birmingham-centric crowd stuck around to see the Bostonians in action - and it took a while too, Aaron Turner making damned sure his group had the audial punch and clarity necessary to make their compositions hit hard. The extra care paid off though, as Isis launched into their set and their melodic-yet-powerful, occasionally minimalistic and occasionally staggeringly intricate songs captivated the crowd. Concentrating mainly on their last two astounding albums, Turner and co. showed their masterful grasp on tension-and-release dynamics over the course of a set that showed that, musically speaking, Isis are unmatched by any of their contemporaries. However, to me, the night belonged truly to Jesu - while Isis were had the more all-encompassing vibe, the intimacy of Jesu's material had the greatest impact.
Kill The Thrill's Official (label) Website
Jesu's Official Website
Isis's Official Website
Official Season Of Mist Website
Official Hydra Head Website
Official Ipecac Website
The Medicine Bar - Birmingham, UK - April 20th, 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
When my girlfriend and I arrived at the venue around ten minutes before the doors were opened, a look around the crowd revealed an interestingly diverse sea of faces. Rather than the group of backpacked hardcore kids I was faintly expecting, there was a tremendous disparity in age, apperance, clothing - only the accent seemed to be the same. Yep, the Brummies were out in force for Birmingham's own Justin Broadrick, in his new guise post-Godflesh. Presumably, a few of them were going to stick around for the headliners too.
However, opening group Kill The Thrill may well have wished that everyone had stayed at the bar for their set, so hideously mangled by technical difficulties was their time on stage. Presumably, language barriers had some small part to do with it - at one point, I noticed a beleaguered sound guy fiddling desperately with knobs and shouting 'Eighteen? Is that right?' while the lead vocalist/guitarist replied 'Oui, dix-huit, dix-huit!' and gesticulated with increasing exasperation. Add to that the fact that halfway through their third song, the sound was clearing well enough to reveal the layers of insistent melody behind their harsh Swans-meets-Godflesh-meets-Killing Joke industrial metal, when almost immediately after one another, the lead guitarist and bassist both snapped strings on their instruments. An unfortunate showing for the French trio, then.
Then came Jesu, armed with a much clearer sound (and a kick-drum that thumped insistently at the ribcage) and a set filled with emotional epics filtered through Godflesh's destructive force. Sadly, Justin's plaintive if somewhat atonal groanings were fairly inaudible for the majority of the set, but when tracks like 'We All Faulter' can simultaneously pin you to a wall with glacial heaviness, yet cause you to trance out on blissfully sublime melodic underpinnings, vocals are really just another string to the bow. Jesu's set showed admirably just how far Broadrick has come since Godflesh's end, his increased emotional maturity and more positive outlook radiating from every note of the hypnotically constructed songs.
Isis had a very tough act to follow after this. Luckily, most of the Birmingham-centric crowd stuck around to see the Bostonians in action - and it took a while too, Aaron Turner making damned sure his group had the audial punch and clarity necessary to make their compositions hit hard. The extra care paid off though, as Isis launched into their set and their melodic-yet-powerful, occasionally minimalistic and occasionally staggeringly intricate songs captivated the crowd. Concentrating mainly on their last two astounding albums, Turner and co. showed their masterful grasp on tension-and-release dynamics over the course of a set that showed that, musically speaking, Isis are unmatched by any of their contemporaries. However, to me, the night belonged truly to Jesu - while Isis were had the more all-encompassing vibe, the intimacy of Jesu's material had the greatest impact.
Kill The Thrill's Official (label) Website
Jesu's Official Website
Isis's Official Website
Official Season Of Mist Website
Official Hydra Head Website
Official Ipecac Website
The support band were German, but I didn't quite catch their name as he said it so fast.
