CROSSFAITH + OCEAN GROVE + BLACK FUTURES – CHALK, BRIGHTON 03.03.20
We set off yet again to the popular CHALK concert venue located in Pool Valley, Brighton for an evening of extreme revelry. We arrived to find that the venue was not yet open and so queued outside for about 15 minutes. Clearly the soundchecks had taken longer than estimated. The evening was running on a tight schedule, so hopefully nothing would give, like shortened sets.
No sooner as we got in and purchased our drinks, than the rumblings from the stage area drew our attention, the first band were arriving……
We were here to absorb the benefits of three bands that none of us had witnessed live before and who hail from vastly different cultures, and yet the love of music has brought them together. This evening’s headline act was called Crossfaith and the two support acts were Ocean Grove and Black Futures. There are only 5 UK dates on this exclusive tour (London, Brighton, Norwich, Wolverhampton and Newcastle) and so folks in Brighton were pretty lucky to witness this, so thanks goes out to local promoters LOUT who put on tonight.
Headliners Crossfaith are Kenta Koie (vocals), Kazuki Takemura (guitar), Hiroki Ikegawa (bass), Tatsuya Amano (drums) and Terufumi Tamano (vision/program). They hail from Osaka in Japan and are listed under their Facebook genre as “Metal/Hardcore/Electronica” which roughly translated is ‘metalcore’, but I would like to put forward the tag of ‘Nu Rave Metal’, as that best explains the Crossfaith sound.
Clearly this photogenic Asian male quintet would seriously have to go some in order to eclipse the previous two bands as the bar was set very high indeed, ceiling height one would suggest. More on that later.
Prior to them entering the stage, the PA sound system was seriously cranked up and was blurting out ‘Imma Be A Raver’ by Yultron, which is like the Crazy Frog but for adults! It’s a seriously bangin’ choon as they say. The super packed crowd were mainly clad in black gear of one sort or another and many of whom were without an alcoholic beverage. So clearly it wasn’t the drink that was whipping them into a frenzy by the time Crossfaith arrived. There was such an air of anticipation, that it had the feeling of electricity in the air.
Let the countdown begin…10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 was blast across the PA, and our camera friendly Japanese friends appeared. There was a long step added to the front of the stage and the guys stood on it so everyone could see them. They looked seriously cool, like manga characters on a mission and indeed they were, as they had to get through 13 compositions in 57 minutes.
The bass, guitar, drums and electronics were set to max this evening as they set off with a couple of numbers from their 2015 album ‘Xeno’, namely ‘System X’ and ‘Xeno’. Jeezuss these guys are as heavy as f**k. It’s like an onslaught from Motorhead or Extreme Noise Terror with added synths. We were being subjected to an amalgam of metal, rave, electronic dance music (EDM) and rap. It sounds like your worst nightmare, but it REALLY worked!
A couple of tunes from their 2012 ‘Zion’ EP followed (‘Monolith’ and ‘Jägerbomb’) and then two from their current album ‘Ex_Machina’ (‘Make A Move’ and ‘Freedom’). Before long they launched into their awesome take on The Prodigy’s hit ‘Omen’ with the assistance of extra vocalist Olly Simmons from The Qemists, who are Brighton based. Funnily enough I had already put The Prodigy in my notes as a likeness prior to them performing this.
By now the atmosphere was electric, I would suggest one million volts as the crowd were encouraged to part in the middle and then rush at each other like two (friendly) warring factions and unite in one large mosh. They then made a large circle in the middle of the dancefloor and raced around it anti-clockwise, it was a sight to be seen – It was crazy. There was so much musical energy being thrust around on and off stage, that I can’t remember a gig this boisterous and charged for years! And I go to many punk gigs too!
We hit 9:44pm and the band went off stage for two minutes. The crowd were having none of it and back they came. The Scooter style happy hardcore intro bars of ‘Deus Ex Machina’ and then ‘Catastrophe’ rang out and the audience were off again. They ended on ‘Leviathan’ from their 2012 ‘Zion’ EP and vocalist Kenta announced that they will come back this Summer! By that I rather hope that he meant Brighton and not England in general, as the people of Brighton that love it hard and fast, music that is, need to attend this promised Summer concert. At 9:57pm it ended. The band have already posted “Brighton you guys were insane! What an energetic show!”. And they were correct.
Crossfaith setlist reads:
‘System X’ (from 2015 ‘Xeno’ album)
‘Xeno’ (from 2015 ‘Xeno’ album)
‘Monolith’ (from 2012 ‘Zion’ EP)
‘Jägerbomb’ (from 2012 ‘Zion’ EP)
‘Make A Move’ (from 2018 ‘Ex_Machina’ album)
‘Freedom’ (from 2018 ‘Ex_Machina’ album)
‘Endorphin’ (from 2020 ‘Endorphin’ single)
‘Omen’ (with Olly Simmons from The Qemists) (The Prodigy cover) (found on 2011 ‘The Dream, The Space’ album)
‘Countdown To Hell’ (found on 2013 ‘Apocalyze’ album)
(encore)
‘Deus Ex Machina’ (from 2018 ‘Ex_Machina’ album)
‘Catastrophe’ (from 2018 ‘Ex_Machina’ album)
‘Leviathan’ (from 2012 ‘Zion’ EP)
Find out more – crossfaith.jp
As mentioned earlier, there were two other acts on the bill and first up, a little later than planned, were Black Futures who I must confess was my whole reason for attending this evening. I liked their look from photos I had been prior to this evening and also the few songs that I had already heard. They had to get through six tunes in their half hour slot including their ‘intro’ and ‘outro’ tapes.
Black Futures are according to themselves “A no-holds-barred aural assault of Anarchic Electro Psych Punk Noise that is something like Death From Above and the Chemical Brothers’ bastard offspring”. Thus are London based future punkers are in essence a duo consisting of ‘Space’ on vocals, guitar and electronics and ‘Vibes’ on drums and vocals.
Tonight we had an intro which set out their stall right from the off. Their music was loud and the duo were accompanied on stage by two people donning white hazmat suits, who initially stood there waving giant flags around with the ‘Black Future Existential Expedition Club’ logo on it as their take on NASA or similar. The lighting was terrific and the music was Prodigy-esque. In my notes I had written “God this music makes you feel alive” and indeed the whole event did.
All of their half a dozen tunes were taken from their incendiary 2019 debut album ‘Never Not Nothing’ on Sony Music, which features a call-to-arms monologue from Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. It was a no brainer for me and at the end of the night I purchased a copy from the lads.
Their full on energy set reminded me of when I saw Front 242 back in their prime, except these guys went out into the crowd (‘Space’ and the two hazmat’s) and preached there. People weren’t quite sure what had hit them! Watching them, I was going over in my head “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes”. This is exactly the pickup that I needed. They were brilliant! Totally brilliant! In fact I drove the very long way home so that I could simply blast out my new CD purchase in full into the darkened night air.
When I was obtaining my purchase, I was discussing music with ‘Space’ and ‘Vibes’ and I mentioned IDLES, whereby I was informed that ‘Space’ actually produced the IDLES albums. I wasn’t totally sure if my leg was being pulled, but I went with it and so as I eventually arrived home, I checked my albums, and there it says “Produced by Space” – OMG! Not only a talented band, but a super-talented producer too!
I also learnt that they had in fact played in Brighton two years ago at the Green Door Store for the Great Escape. This wasn’t so pleasing to me as I had totally missed it – argh! I sincerely hope that they make a welcome return pretty soon.
Black Futures setlist reads:
‘NNN’
‘Love’
‘Me.TV’
‘Riches’
‘Tunnel Vision’
‘Trance’
Black Futures were followed by Ocean Grove who are Dale Tanner (vocals), Matthew Henley (guitar), Twiggy (bass/vocals) and Sam Bassal (drums) and they are from Melbourne, Australia. When they are working in the studio they have an extra band member who is called Running Touch.
Tonight, they seriously rocked through 8 tracks in around 31 minutes. They look as though they are ready to rock and indeed they don’t let the side down. The punters luv ‘em!
Half of tonight’s set was culled from their 2017 ‘The Rhapsody Tapes’ album (namely ‘Stratosphere Love’, ‘The Wrong Way’, ‘Slow Soap Soak’ and ‘Thunderdome’). The guys are releasing their follow up album on 13th March, which is titled ‘Flip Phone Fantasy’. The other half of the tracks they performed are from this new album, namely ‘JUNKIE$’, ‘SUNNY’, ‘Thousand Golden People’ and their finale ‘Ask For The Anthem’.
I’m pretty sure that the girls in the audience this evening rather enjoyed watching frontman Dale parading around in his black pants. His vocals certainly reminded me of the grungey raspiness of Kurt Cobain meets the shouty hip-hop terror of Keith Flint (both of which are sadly no longer with us). The band’s overall sound was certainly grunge central, but with added Prodigy bounce and certainly more than a nod to Faith No More. It’s Nu Metal I would surmise.
There was bounds of energy from these likeable lads who have been knocking around for a decade now. It appears that this evening might have been their debut Brighton concert, but the way fans took them to their hearts, one would think that they would return in less than 10 years.
Ocean Grove setlist reads:
‘JUNKIE$’
‘Stratosphere Love’
‘The Wrong Way’
‘SUNNY’
‘Thousand Golden People’
‘Slow Soap Soak’
‘Thunderdome’
‘Ask For The Anthem’
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I’d say that Crossfaith are much more easily defined under the term ‘electronicore’, metalcore but with electronic elements, commonly seen in bands like ‘Attack! Attack!’ and early ‘Asking Alexandra’. Good review though, and was nice to talk to you before the gig.
Thanks for your interest Kieren.