Hollywood Undead and Loathe bring the riffs to Brixton Academy 9/10
LOATHE opened up the show for HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD; being the only support band for the night I had high expectations for them, and I wasn’t disappointed. Hailing from Liverpool, LOATHE dominated London’s stage, with their heavy metal sounds and intense riffs. The band’s choice of flashing lights add a cinematic appearance to their show, the light set up almost blending into the drummer’s beat. Their heavy metal sound has hints of progressive metal to it, this experimental sound being particularly prominent during ‘White Hot’. My friend, a huge progressive rock fan was particularly taken by LOATHE and despite having never listened to them, he massively enjoyed their performance and the crowd seemed to feel the same way, giving them an enthusiastic applause at the end of each song. My only deterrent was the light, as a photographer it wasn’t ideal with 0.5 second flashes of light, but it did add a very mysterious atmosphere to the show. Overall the dark and heavy band LOATHE would be the last band you’d expect to support HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, but of the two other times I’d seen HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD headline, they were by far the best to support them yet.
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Now that the crowd was pumped up, they were eagerly anticipating HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD’s presence, it was safe to say that a large majority of the people there were for them, the crowd adorned with HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD merch. This was my fourth time seeing HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, and my third time at Brixton Academy, one of my favourite venues due to the light, sound, and the floor, which is sloped so everyone can see the stage. I hadn’t listened to their latest album, ‘Five’, and so when they opened up with ‘Whatever It Takes’, I was going into it with a very open mind to their newest songs, and was pleasantly surprised. It was a setlist that was very new music heavy, and I ended up being converted into falling in love with their music again, songs such as ‘Riot’ & ‘Bad Moon’ were incredible hearing for the first time, immediately catchy songs that I was to go and listen to again, a mixture of their trademark catchy lyrics and raps, mixed with a slightly techno undertone to their newer stuff, but still remaining true to their formula of rapped verses and catchy choruses.
They also treated the crowd with plenty of older hits, such as ‘Dead Bite’, ‘Another Way Out’ and ‘Hear Me Now’ – although highlights for me were ‘Bullet’, slowly eased in after a surprising cover of OASIS’s ‘Wonderwall’, which then blends into ‘Bullet’s upbeat opening. The song that has extremely upbeat instrumentals but morbid lyrics and for such a dark song, the entire crowd singing along and not missing a beat, it was probably the second most received song, the most being ‘Everywhere I Go’, a song that I always recall being sung by crowds as they queue or wait for the band to enter the stage, and the crowds reaction to seeing the song live is a sight to behold. HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD bid the crowd farewell with ‘Day of The Dead’, I debated whether this was worthy of being their encore song, but it is a perfect round up of what HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD is all about in one song, and this show really was the Day of The Dead for the Californian rap rock band. 9/10
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