Sunday 18th was Heat 12 of Metal to the Masses London at The Big Red in Holloway. Tonight there were only three bands as one band had to drop out – also Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse were playing in London that night so a big thank you to those who came down to support some unsigned local bands. As Mick Wood likes to say, “They are the unseen, you are the scene”.
It was a freezing cold night, so once everyone was settled in with drink and thawed out a bit the first band came on stage to get people moving and warmed up. A grindcore band called Crusm, with a severed hand swinging from a chain attached to his mic, the frontman growled at the audience getting our attention and the whole band gave a head banging performance. You can hear what they sound like on Bandcamp.
Nunchucker were up next, a rock band who to me are akin to The Rolling Stones in terms of the sound and performance by front-man Chris Tate. They thrashed out some toe tapping, hip swinging tunes to get the crowd moving. Have a listen for yourselves on Soundcloud or go see them playing on Sunday 25th at Four Sticks, the classic rock all-dayer.
Bob Tett, Luke Stenlake, Richard Carter and Gareth Sidwell make up tech-metal/progressive rock band Core of iO. These guys were some of the happiest musicians to play at M2tM, as in they really expressed it. I don’t think I took one picture of drummer Richard without a smile on his face. Rightly so, they were energetic and passionate and the audience fed off of it. Their 2017 EP Part II: Europa is available now.
The winners of the night were Core of iO and Nunchucker, with Crusm going through to the Circle Pit. No Metal 2 the Masses this coming Sunday – it is back for the Mosh Pit event on April 1st.
Photos by Danni Garner
