Rockfreaks.net

support Throwe + Henret
author AP date 15/04/24 venue Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN

For the second year in a row, I am unable to attend the iconic Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands, but as a bit of salve for the wound, a number of the artists from this year’s line-up have fortunately included Danish shows on their European itineraries surrounding the event. One of these bands is the grindcore faction Cult Leader, who are playing their first-ever headlining concert in Copenhagen tonight. I was introduced to the band via their excellent sophomore album, 2018’s “A Patient Man”, which puts a pretty different spin on the genre not usually renowned for harbouring an experimental spirit, and have been looking forward to experiencing the material from it live ever since then. It has been quite the wait, too, with the pandemic lockdowns having spoiled their planned return in 2020 — and as such, nothing, including the proverbial Monday blues, was going to get in the way of my attending this show.

Henret

There are no set support bands on this tour, so the venue has pulled in a pair of local warm-up acts to get things started. First up is Henret, whose fusions of metallic hardcore and deathcore seem like a surefire way to energise the crowd. The band’s musical style is laid bare by the opener “Choking Black” off their 2023 début EP “Abandon Hope”, and from there on we are subjected to eight vitriolic tracks that all subscribe to the same basic formula in which chugs and breakdowns reign supreme. Vocalist Anders Iversen immediately makes himself at home, dropping onto the floor and demanding everyone to move closer to him. The initial response from the audience is timid, to say the least, but once the third song “Ruled by Fear” is unleashed, a couple of hoodie-clad youngsters make the first move, moshing and two-stepping much to Iversen’s satisfaction. Indeed, even if the songs leave a lot to be desired in terms of their originality, Henret’s performance is deserving of rowdiness on the crowd side; no one in the band is ever still, and Iversen in particular carries out his duty as the front figure with remarkable gusto. When the breakdown in that song hits, he times one of his many jumps perfectly, slamming his feet into the ground on the first crash of the drummer’s cymbal, and inspired by his antics, more people soon join the ruckus. We are then given a taste of what is to come in the shape of a brand new single — and as a spoiler, I can reveal that it continues exactly in the vein of the EP, rinse and repeat. Iversen’s showmanship and astonishingly brutal growls in the likes of “On Deaf Ears”, as well as the overall energy of the five musicians render Henret an entertaining live act, but if they intend on making a breakthrough in their oversaturated genre, they’ll need to inject some fresh ideas into their dime-a-dozen deathcore creations in the future.

Throwe

Curiously, there is a scent of incense wafting through the air as the lights are dimmed, an aesthetic touch usually reserved for bands not operating within the hardcore sphere. Throwe’s blackened take on the genre is presented through the opening track “Myriader” off their 2022 début album “Forfald”, but while the band’s music does seem more dynamic than Henret’s, it is once again their frontman Kim Rock that completely steals the show. Hovering on the stage edge like a wraith, there is a sense of imminence about his antics, and after one of the guitarists has ripped out a classic solo in the end of that song, Rock suddenly drops down and clears the first rank of the audience in preparation for “Hammer & Nails”. Charging back and forth across this liberated space, he ensures that no one near the front is left untouched by his ferocious performance, leaning and moshing into people, and even clutching some of our heads in order to scream his vitriol right into our faces. The only time he spends on stage from then on is during a couple of rehydration breaks between the songs; otherwise he merges into the crowd and leads by example to whisk up a maelstrom of action. Rock is a master of drawing attention to himself, but in the brief moments that my attention is unfixed from his mischief, it is also apparent that the rest of the quintet is not holding back either. Producing music that sounds like a dark and slowed down version of grindcore, there are plenty of ominous melodies, groovy riffs and driving rhythms to latch onto in tracks like “Mørke”, which, as Rock explains, is designed to be a vessel for channeling our negative feelings. The concert is brought to its conclusion with a crescendo verging on black metal in “Ødelæg dig selv”, with Kim clutching and swinging his microphone stand in the middle of the moshpit, arching back in throes of passion with each scream. This man is a force of nature, and while his band of musicians display intense showmanship in their own right, it is Rock who carries the weight of Throwe’s concert tonight and renders it extremely entertaining.

Cult Leader

Ambient, cinematic music fills the venue during the last changeover, setting the stage for an extreme juxtaposition when Cult Leader unleash their first piece of grinding mayhem. Guitarist Michael Mason and bassist Sam Richards mimic the explosive music with frenzied movement, throwing themselves around vocalist Anthony Lucero in violent lurches. And although I had of course heard them on record before, the savagery of the frontman’s growls nonetheless takes me and, it seems, everyone else by surprise, paralysing a crowd that was jus seen moshing like there was no tomorrow during Throwe’s set. The opening track, “I Am Healed” off 2018’s “A Patient Man”, collapses into eerie, whining guitar noises that create a seamless transition into the following “Curse of Satisfaction”, which provides no respite from the band’s assault on the senses. At one point, Lucero leans in and grabs an avid fan in the front by the collar, compelling him to share the vocal duties in this dissonant, albeit unexpectedly groovy track. As I had been hoping, the energy that Cult Leader brings into their live performances is raw and corporeal, the perfect accompaniment for music designed to disturb, rattle and confront the listener. But it is also built to challenge and open minds, with the third song “Isolation in the Land of Milk and Honey” providing the first example of the quartet’s experimental spirit by virtue of a melodic and contemplative segment in the end. It teases and eventually transforms into the melancholy, folk-laced “to: Achlys”, a slow and brooding piece that sees Lucero singing in a reflective baritone voice. A moment of calm that both baffles and inspires awe amongst the attendees.

I would wager that most people came here for the catharsis that sheer vitriol can offer, however, and those people need not wait long before Cult Leader reassume their aggressive stance and let loose “Great I Am” from their 2015 début album “Lightless Walk”. It is a short and fast explosion of ferocity loaded with screeching guitar riffs and vocals that sound like primal groans from the core of the Earth, an ethos that continues into the following “Suffer Louder”. Richards is absolutely losing it on the right side of the stage during these songs, while Mason somehow manages to bang his head in sync with Casey Hansen’s rapid fire drumming on the left, their unhinged antics inspiring the largest and most intense moshpit of the evening thus far to form. In their wake, there is a moment of complete silence, with Lucero impatiently pacing back and forth across the stage… which strikes me as deliberately ironic, considering that the following song played is the titular “A Patient Man”. It is another track that defies one’s expectations of what is essentially a grindcore band, leaning into dark Americana, while the following “Broken Right Hand of God” exposes Cult Leader’s affinity for heavy and pensive doom metal. Lucero’s lamenting refrains of “I must walk on!” sound as burdened as the music itself, as he labours through the downtrodden, yet spectacular crescendo in the end of that song. The show is brought to a conclusion by another pair of fast and adversarial cuts, sealing an evening full of contrast and bold musical experiments that set Cult Leader apart from the majority of their traditionalistic peers.