LIVE FROM THE PIT: Death Pill, Lindow Moss and Sourflake

Tucked inside The Grove, a tiny venue in Nottingham, the night begins with the four piece punk band, Sourflake. Coming with them to the stage, comes copious amounts of energy and zeal, their sound infusing old school metal riffs, a pulpy rockabilly edge and plenty of classic punk beats and attitude. The vocals are clear and strong, the singer throwing politicised lyrics at us, mixing it up with punchy rap/poetry. The band purvey a very cool air of nonchalance and there is a relaxed synergy between them. As they draw on this steady well of communal energy, it pulses out through their music and into the room, getting the crowd jolting back and forth. 

The band are tight and the sound has a lot more soul than comes across in their recordings. The audience are thoroughly enjoying what they catch of the lyrics, there's plenty of staunch leftist politics, of course, combined with lots of humour. Towards the end of their set, they pump up the vibe with some more witty lyrics and do a take on Skepta’s ‘Too many man’. Here, the singer is talking out into the room, and the scene as a whole, shouting in time with the original tune, ‘I wanna feel safe in here!’, and speaking truth to power, the room is about 90% men despite the mixed line up. Go Sourflake!

Death Pill

 Up next is local band, Lindow Moss, and a real change in tempo and style as we get into some very grimy blackened punk metal. The lead guitar does some almighty shredding and we get thrown with some powerful tempos. In an impressive array of movements around the restricted space on stage, the vocalist’s guttural shrieks pull us down into the depths of black metal. Between the blasts, we get some really nice big drum sounds, clashing and lo-fi effects with monumental guitar riffs, which border on a thrashy old-school metal vibe, giving a lot of depth and the desire to throw yourself in the pit. The band seem to be having a lot of fun, belting out their heavy rabble, and the venue, The Grove, has an excellent grasp on the sound engineering so we can really hear the intricacies of what they are playing. When they do slow down, briefly, they have the crowd enthusiastically nodding right down from their waists. Gnarly as hell, Lindow Moss really rep’s the local scene and gives the line up a shake.

Before explaining anything, the headliners, Death Pill, blast off hard, and the main singers furiously animated face, whites of eyes prominent, carves an imposing figure, screaming and growling at us with a hardcore banger. Throughout the set, they give the audience plenty of range, so we can all find our groove, from blast beats to low and heavy bass lines and then back to jumped up punk beats. Flipping between the gruff roars, high pitched yelling and a soft singing, there's so much variety here in the vocals, all delivered with a refreshing edge full of riot girl flavored punk that we just don’t get to see enough of anymore.  

Death Pill

When we shift to a doom laden track, it creeps up to us before descending into a vaudevillian gothic wave, with a wash of Tom Waites. The singing comes in eerily sweet and it feels like a sludgey magic spell being cast over the room. As it continues, Death Pill begin to dismantle the song, reconstituting it into an epic proggy instrumental. The finale pulls on more of this saccharine gothism before imploding into a deathcore anthem.

When Death Pill joined the stage at the start, they hung their Ukrainian flag, pride of place behind them, as well as decorating the mic stands and drums with small bouquets. It’s an important symbol that unifies the three women on stage, divided by a brutal, unjust war. Though they are keen to share how their music talks about all aspects of life, war and the Russian occupation, is of course front and centre. They share poignant reminders with us about the reality they are forced to live with. Where many friends they used to hang out with in the vibrant Kyiv music scene, watch gigs with, much like we are luxuriating in that very moment, are on the front line defending their freedom, frequently with their lives. An unavoidably real, but essential turn for us, blissfully ignorant in this small, safe, city venue. Things can change in an instant.

Words: Alana Madden

Photos: Oz Davy