Carcer City at Hevy 2011
The Beatles, Cilla Black, Mel C... just when you thought that Liverpool couldn't gift us with any more fine musicians and along come Carcer City. Admittedly, Scouse metal is perhaps a little more aggressive than what their aforementioned townsmen may have produced, but this quintet do it terribly well.
It was on Friday night in the Front and Etnies tent that I would get to see Carcer City live for the first time. I was really quite looking forward to it as "The Life We Have Chosen" had burrowed its way into my ears some time before, and I would not be disappointed. Here we have a band who don't cut corners when it comes to packing the solid abrasion of hardcore in their sound, but it's delivered with such style it doesn't become overwhelming in the slightest. Each brutal shudder of drums and guitar is joined by a real sense of bounce that gets you really feeling the music. There seems to be the impression that this bunch of lads clearly went to a hell of a lot of gigs in their time before giving it a go themselves. They were in that crowd once and it's by earning their stripes in the pit that they seem to know exactly how to get a crowd moving. Of course the dishing out of t-shirts mid-set always helps too... well, who doesn't like free shit?
Carcer City manage energy and rhythm to an extent that makes their ferocious blast of hardcore become really fucking sexy. Some people can just look infallibly cool no matter what they do; if the band had all fallen off stage at the end of the set they would have made it look good.
Vocalist Patrick Pinion dropped in that a new album is due out this winter with an incredible thirteen tracks. Even to just listen to that will require me to go sign up at the gym- it'll be one heavy experience. Even so, I can't wait to become familiar with the next chapter in this band's story because it's sure to be hot.