A night of unusual and slightly frightening post-punk tonight with the visually striking Evil Blizzard headlining Stockton’s Old Theatre. They brought along London’s Angerland along to tenderise the audience beforehand.
Tenderise they did with brutal bursts of political-tinged punk. The four-piece delivered driving heavy rock riffs mined from the depths of post-punk and powered along by some impressive drumming. Tonight, both bands had a touch of electronics about them, and Angland combined this with an excellent guitar tone, which worked perfectly with their heavier set.
The latest single, ‘Neon Dead,’ and the classic sounding ‘National Anthem’ went down a storm, with the backdrop video visually interpreting the songs. The final track, ‘Clown King’, taken from their same-titled EP, was an absolute banger to close on and showed depth to the songwriting. There was no messing about as the band tore through a set that I thought was not long enough.
Evil Blizzard are a band that work hard on the stage presence as much as they do with the music. Each member supports a mask, which does not get removed all the way through the sweaty hour. Side (drums/ vocals), Filthy Dirty (guitar/ vocals), Blizzpig (synth), Prowler (bass), Fleshcrawl (guitar/electronics) and Stomper (bass), who stands as a traditional bassist in this already bass-heavy band. There is an Uncle Fester, a pig face, a mummy, a phantom of the opera and a Glamorous white leopard print clad with a permanent smile strapped to his face.
Originally, they used to take to the stage with four basses, but their recent album and the loss of Kav, Filthy Dirty, now comes complete with six strings, allowing some new tones to the band’s mix of psyche sludgy punk. A mix that still pounds the audience with its heavy, heavy sound. A sound that is carefully structured so as not to muddy up is head noddingly good. The atmospheric sonic wall of sound that the guys create when they get down to churning out the riff clearly shows these guys aren’t just about gimmicks and shock appeal.
There are some temporary glitches to begin with, which leads to a joke about Keir Starmer being in charge for 24 hours, and it’s all gone wrong. Side the drummer takes a heavy amount of vocal duties as the two bassist and guitarist weave, slide and pound the dirty sludgy melodies out.
Huge slabs of heavy rhythms as they open with ‘All Pigs With Snouts In The Trough’ first track off their new album ‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’. The track is joined tonight by ‘Tiny People’ and ‘Darkness’, also from their new album. ‘Darkness’, in particular, sounded especially evil tonight. The pounding drums and pulsating rhythms reverberated around the room in the slow pulsations.
The creation of creepy atmospherics with minimalistic sonic spheres is what the band has done well for a long time. Once, four basses ruled the music waves, adding the six-string guitar and mixing in more synth/electronic sounds, courtesy of Fleshcrawl, has really opened their music up. The bass-led dirge is still there, but now we get sinister elements and even a spot of soloing.
‘Stupid People’ captivates the crowd, who hang off the band’s hook as they trade insults and heckle with many a four-letter word. A favourite track, ‘Unleash The Misery,’ sounded epic tonight. It cut through the drudge, sounding as fresh as ever, with its brutal hammer-like drumming intro. The music is effect-heavy, allowing the and to mix and subvert genres into heavy bass-led brilliance that stood up to many a band I have witnessed on this stage. Seeing Prowler whip out a slide to run down the four bass strings impressed me instantly.
The cavernous ‘Evil’ has Filthy Dirty and Stomper prowling and pulling many rock shapes and hair flicks from Prowler as they dominate the stage. The music is brilliant. There is no denying that. You have to hand it to them how they craft their music and don’t tie themselves up with the same sound from track to track. Each time they churn out the riffs, I want more; their unique brand of noise is as addictive as their stage presence.
With a single-song encore that turned into a full-on jam, even featuring audience members on Filthy/Dirty’s guitar, the night ended all too quickly. The quiet of life afterwards was perhaps a little more noticeable. Evil Blizzard made many a new fan here tonight.
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