LIVE FROM THE PIT: The Callous Daoboys, Knives and Love Rarely

The Callous Daoboys returned to the UK for the release of their newest LP I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven bringing their Mathcore sound to Camden’s Underworld that all but shook the venue to its core. 

Opening up the night was the five-piece Leeds outfit, LOVE RARELY, that were a masterful blend of genre and energy that did a fantastic job setting the bar. With vocalist CJ’s fluctuation between intense screamo and beautiful melodic singing and guitarist Danny Dewsnap intricate angular riffs, going hand in hand with Lew Taylor’s dissonant playing and sharp on point backing vocals; added to that the funky bass-lines and clinical drums made for an incredible composition. Genre blending is absolutely this band’s best friend as they went from mathcore, to midwest emo, to metalcore all in the same song, this coupled with an energy you can not object, they made for a great opener.

Next up were KNIVES, with a lot of buzz on the underground with this band, the atmosphere kicked into action as they walked on. The band wasted no time getting down to brass tacks and calling for stage divers and moshers to erupt as they played, and erupt they did, people flew, the band gave it their all in a cacophony of chaos and music. The band had an incredible sound of pure aggression, taking elements of post punk, hardcore and even some jazz elements to tie it all together with the help from saxophonist Tegan O’Connor and their incredibly effective sax undertones in the songs. 

It is hard to really put into words how much this band command the stage and the audience, Jay Schottlander has an energy about them that just oozes pent up rage which has an insane after effect on the vocals; the time the band were on stage they had the whole venue jumping, stage diving and intensely mosh around Underworld’s famous front pillar, KNIVES unleashed chaos and it led to an incredible feat of live music.

And for the finale for this sold out crowd, the headliner THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS took to the stage; if anyone thought KNIVES’ set was chaos, they clearly left before this final act got on stage, from the outset the energy sky rocketed, the biggest pit of the night opened up as more stage divers took flight. This Georgia mathcore group really made a statement with how a show in underworld should run, picking out all their most intense songs for an hour-long set that was non-stop. 

The show was miraculous for two reasons, one it was a miracle the roof was not blown off by sound the crowd piling on each-other, and two it was a miracle that vocalist Carson Pace was even able to scream and sing to the level he did, it was completely unnoticeable that they had contracted bronchitis during the tour, seemingly effortless screamo and beautiful clean vocals came from the singer. The show honestly stands out for that fact alone, nothing can stop this band, let’s see how ENTER SHIKARI fans like them when they return to the UK to support them. 

Words and photos: Ben Blissett