With few people braving the elements to attend this three-act metal show (Dawnstalker, Healthyliving and Goat Major) at Newport’s community-run music venue Le Pub, it’s one of those nights where the audience is largely made up of the bands performing. Pembrokeshire trio Goat Major open with a blast of doom metal turned up to the max, and it’s clear from the start that this won’t be an evening of easy listening, even for seasoned metalheads.
Healthyliving, a Scottish combo made up of Falloch guitarist Scott McClean, singer Amaya López-Carromero (who also has a solo incarnation, Maud The Moth) and drummer Stefan Pötzsch, are touring partners of headliners Dawnwalker, and deliver an indomitable half-hour dose of screech-gloom. At times it’s painful on the ears: lead guitars drowned out by overpowering bass and snare drum, vocals reduced to noise, vibrations felt through the walls, furniture and the floor. It all made the experience a physically uncomfortable one.
The closing set from London prog-metal stalwarts Dawnwalker is also dogged by distortion, unfortunately: kudos to any band which writes a song inspired by Reginald Perrin, it’s just a shame the words were indecipherable. Tonight marks the start of their UK tour, and vocalist/guitarist Mark Norgate notes that – with so many live venues having recently closed – they and Healthyliving have purposely chosen to play more intimate pub/club venues.
Conversely, the set from Dawnwalker – especially epic songs such as closing number The Wheel – offers glimpses of how these songs might breathe in a larger auditorium. Again done and dusted inside half an hour, the gig as a whole seemed rushed and by the end, I’d given up trying to interpret the sonic clutter.
Dawnwalker, Healthyliving + Goat Major, Le Public Space, Newport, Thurs 7 Dec
words LYNDA NASH