Crack open the mulled wine and roast some chestnuts on the pyro- tonight may be the oddest line up I’ve seen this year. We have melodic giants of the UK scene, Holding Absence, supporting Sheffield’s own heavy scene creations, While She Sleeps. We then have further support coming from Guilt Trip and Mouth Culture.
Mouth Culture came onto the stage with an amazing confidence and energy to introduce the night. The vocalist himself was constantly on the move and passing the mic to the audience, as their fans were clearly throughout the crowd. I could see raised hands moving with the beats and fans by the barrier shouting as loud as they could the lyrics, back to the singer. At one point the band itself quieted down and we could hear the shouting coming from the audience as they carried the song. We had our first surfers during this band too, emerging just before their set finished.
The guitarists were pretty static in their places, which is understandable as the stage was overrun with amps and drum kits. They would do what they could within their little circle, and with the help of some great lighting by the venue and the vocalist shouldering the main burden of “bringing the heat”, it didn’t affect the energy of the room. The vocalist had a stable voice, I can see why they and Holding Absence would be pretty well matched on a tour together. He never seemed to be straining or pushing too hard to reach any notes.
The drummer too provided some great mannerisms when it came to hyping up the drops and the melodic sections of the songs. I don’t know if this is just me though being distracted by the great lighting the set had. The smoke machine was billowing near to the drummer at the back, which then created some amazing rays and silhouetted the drummer for a great effect.
After what seemed to be some technical difficulties, our next band of the night came on with a bang. Guilt Trip came on to the heavy riff of their opener, which was received by a “woo” from the crowd. The energy of the vocalist was enough to get the crowd pumped as he pranced around the stage, almost like an Irish dancer, it was magical. The crowd definitely seemed fuller at the barrier for this band. The band have a pretty decent following already, I spotted their band tees at a few recent gigs so I’m not surprised those fans have found their way here. The band has that heavy sound that contrasts Mouth Culture, but acts as a perfect compliment to While She Sleeps.
The vocalist was backed up by the guitarist on the harsh vocals, which meant he had more time to jump around (even throwing a few spin kicks in on stage). The other guitarist handled some of the crowd interaction too, demanding the crowd to get closer and start a pit going. The crowd was a bit reluctant to do so, but a group of men in the middle could be seen jumping up and down and throwing their hands in the air.
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Holding Absence are a band that are at the forefront of the British Rock scene. The hype this band has is something that I would compare to Nothing But Thieves. They have such a great stage presence and their songs touch on so many raw subjects, it’s hard not to be captivated by them. When the band came on it was obvious, by the sheer amount of people in their merch, that a lot of the fans were here tonight for these guys alone. The surfers were coming in their twos and threes from the second song, making all the photo pit photographers keep looking back in paranoia.
The vocalist had such great energy on stage: throwing punches and kicks with the drops that makes you want to dive into a pit yourself so you can join in. It’s no lie to say the vocalist has one of the most recognisable voices right now in the UK scene, with his amazing power behind hitting the high notes and making use of those growls to add the perfect amount of imperfection. The guitarists were in their spaces, moving around, doing the ol’ knee on the amp and one in particular was taking some of the responsibility of hyping up the crowd by demanding people jump. That same guitarist was even adding some harsh vocal back up, something that caught me off guard at first as I didn’t even realise he had a mic.
By the end of their set, there were people on shoulders singing with the band. The vocalist thanked everyone for coming, giving them a great send off to an incredible year they’ve had, and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
While She Sleeps came on to their song “Sleeps Society”. The stage was incredible. The energy of the room was palpable. The chanting of the lyrics is almost as loud as the band itself. Then we got the pyro… the venue went silent. The crowd began to chant “Yorkshire”. Then we realised… the fire alarm was going off. The entire venue had to vacate, obviously the venue had to take precautions for health and safety, even though we all knew it was pyro that set it off. You’d have thought the venue would check if it would set them off but alas. So, the crowd and crew alike had to gather outside.
It took under 30 minutes for the venue to give the all clear and once again we filtered into the venue. While She sleeps got right back onto the stage to a “nah then” from the guitarist, and began their next song of the set. The crowd was more than eager to get going again, I could see the crowd swaying and surging and an insane amount of surfers all came at once. At one point, the vocalist even held hands with a surfer who’d made their way to the photo pit.
The vocalist of Malevolence made a cameo, not too shocking as he’d already been spotted outside but cool nonetheless- it’s great to see Northern bands celebrating Yorkshire, which can often be missed off of tours. The amount of surfers really couldn’t be counted, the security at the barrier running all over to support the team catching the crowd going over. The band continued on the set, all seemed well…then someone got hurt crowd surfing. The theory being so many people were coming at once, that security couldn’t catch one man going over. The man hit his head and had to be carried out on a stretcher. The band then announced that crowd surfing is no longer allowed.
Continuing on with the set after a short discussion about the curse currently happening. The band had the vocalists of each supporting band come on and feature for a verse on their songs. Despite all the things that went wrong, the band handled it so well and carried the set like absolute legends. While She Sleeps clearly have a deep love for Sheffield, the vocalist even speaks of how he would come to this venue as a teen and now the band was performing here.
Tonight was a special occasion for all Sheffield metal/rock fans and definitely one they’ll remember. The band does this event annually, and it’s definitely not something to miss. 2024 will be an exciting year for all the bands involved, especially for While She Sleeps as they’ll be releasing their new album Self Hell in March which is available to pre-order.
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Photos by Jayne Slater
