Recently releasing what MV called on these pages “the best British hardcore album in years” (and as an aside don’t Google that phrase at work….) means that Rough Justice’s set is at least in these parts one to look forward to. Singer Jimmy is quietly spoken and unassuming – at least until he deals with hecklers – but the music is not. It’s everything that the album promised, from the opener “Coward” onwards. The first single “Backwards Mask” does the vicious, yet melodic, thing that so categorised the album, and the way they spit out their vignettes on their own existence and situation is totally authentic.
25 minutes on stage here is understandable given that they also share their drummer Josh Baines with the headliners (“our homies and best friends” reckons Jimmy), but they are a very different and excellent proposition in their own right. The just released album’s title track proves it – and when it comes to Rough Justice the future of UK hardcore is right here.
When Long Island’s Pain Of Truth finish here, there’s a breakdown something close to being beaten slowly with a concrete block. As opposed to the rest of the show where they’d pummeled you with it.
Basically, it’s like this. This is NYCH, which is different to what Rough Justice do. If they are northern grit, then PoT are New York violence.
Last year they released their debut album, and the songs they play from it have very obviously been bursting forth their whole lives. Michael Brian Smith talks about his brother getting him into hardcore and they are all lifers in it. “Lifeless On The Ground” is full of so much energy that it makes a lie of its title, “in Your Heart” is a hymn to the music itself, while “This Falls On You” is dedicated to the “moshers” – and there are many.
This is breakneck. The title track “Not Through Blood” is a brutal beauty and “Scarred” is a New York minute not on the postcards.
They end with their self-titled song. And they scarcely need to name a track after themselves because, for Pain Of Truth, this isn’t just from the heart, but tattooed on the Aorta
For reasons of lifelong disability MV regularly finds itself on accessibility platforms around the country. Tonight at Malevolence is no different. However my compatriot next to me, upon hearing the opening riff to “Slaves To Satisfaction” grabs the walking stick he had got attached to his walking frame and heads off to the pit.
That story if nothing else underlines both the reaction to and the devotion towards Sheffield’s latest metal heroes.
There is such a positivity in the room from the moment they begin with “Malicious intent” There is a line in that song, that seems to exemplify the atmosphere that is in the room: “Let this world throw what it wants at me” screams singer Alex Taylor and right now, right here it could because for the 500 people crammed in here Malevolence are all that matters. Crowd reactions like this do not happen on a regular basis.
There is little doubt either that the band are on top of their game, buoyed no doubt by the adulation. “Karma” engenders the evenings first circle pit, and there is a trip back to the second album for a brilliant “Severed Ties”
As Taylor explains they were last in this city 10 years ago, which perhaps goes to show how long the five piece have been doing this, and if they are sensations now rather than being overnight they have worked extremely hard for everything that they’ve got.
Co vocalist Konan Hall add some melody to the balladic “Higher Place” but they are back with the energy up with Self Supremacy” which gets the evening’s biggest circle pit.
It is worth pointing out, that whatever else they are, Malevolence are a fantastic heavy metal band, the lead work from Baines is mighty and “Remain Unbeaten” is up there with anything any modern metal band can offer – if of course Malevolence are a modern band.
Taylor explains that he joined the band some 14 years ago and everything they have done has surely led them to this point. It all comes out in a tsunami of sound that is “Still Waters Run Deep”.
They just have one song left (“Don’t Boo I’m knackered” laughs Taylor) and “On Broken Glass” very much is the evening in microcosm. Band and audience are at one and any negative thoughts banished.
When they had emerged on stage they had done so with an intro tape which suggested they were the heavyweight champions of the metal world. 32 wins and no losses, it had said.
To carry that on one stage further everything here delivered a knockout blow to any of the obvious competition. Indeed, there’s a very real chance Malevolence are the best band of their type on these shores right now, because this evening was essentially a victory lap.
