UNEARTH
MISERY INDEX / YEAR OF THE KNIFE / LEACH / TURBID NORTH ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL, LONDON
Boston’s metalcore chaosmongers lead a five-pronged assault
Unearth are determined to leave London in ruins
Misery Index take an economical approach to death metal
KEVIN NIXON
THE IRONY OF the Hell On Earth tour rolling through on Easter weekend isn’t lost, as five bands descend on Camden’s Underworld with doors so early it’s practically a matinee. There’s a whiff of technicality buried beneath the hulking riffs and cavernous bellowing vocals of openers TURBID NORTH. They play to a far smaller crowd than their groove-heavy strain of death metal deserves, even if much of their sound is washed out by cymbals. Swedes LEACH dial up the Lamb Of God and thrash influences along with a healthy dose of their country’s own particular strain of death metal – the Entombed shirt is no surprise – for a set that gets a good few necks moving and plasters shit-eating grins on the sparse crowd that ventured in so early.