The first ever Astral Noize Events‘ all-dayer took over Brighton’s The Green Door Store on March 30th, boasting a veritable onslaught of artists who provide a unique take on heavy music in a dingy venue that feels tailor-made for metal. Bristol-based ensemble Svalbard, who released one of last year’s most ferocious and direct bouts of takes-no-prisoners extremity with It’s Hard To Have Hope, were the night’s headliners, offering up a thoroughly rousing strain of overtly political blackened post-hardcore.
Before that, unfathomably heavy sludgers Opium Lord rattled the building’s foundations with gargantuan riffs, Calligram raced through cuts of ferocious blackened extremity and Nottingham’s Underdark offered up some intense anti-fascist black metal. Also appearing were Earth Moves, whose emotionally draining form of multi-faceted metal left fans breathless, as well as Astral Noize Records debutants Ill In Pain, whose acidic cocktail of grind, blackened hardcore and punk maintains a raucous energy reminiscent of Full Of Hell. The night was also kicked off my the doomy tones of post-metallers Sobek, who offered a slightly left-field approach to slow-paced metal with tracks that unfurl intriguingly.
Keep scrolling to view some images (courtesy of Tim Birkbeck) that go some way to capture the intensity of Seek & Destroy fest 2019.
Sobek
Ill In Pain
Earth Moves
Underdark
Calligram
Opium Lord
Svalbard
Images: Tim Birkbeck (@timbirkbeckphotos)
Words: George Parr
