VEXED PULSE
DEVIL’S DOG, BIRMINGHAM
Tech metallers PULSE do their hometown proud as they supply plenty of angular riffs, flecks of nu metal and the occasional two-step in their polyrhythmic assault. Now just over halfway into their headline tour, VEXED are celebrating another win with the news of their Anti-Fetish track being longlisted for a Grammy. They open with that song’s colossal, pitch-bending riff, an early laptop mishap failing to dampen spirits. Chaos swallows the room as they tear through We Don’t Talk About It anda furious Hideous, while Lay Down Your Flowers’ glitching breakdown is terrifying. Willem Mason-Geraghty’s snare bombs detonate with bonecrushing force, and Megan Targett’s gutturals and shrieks could flay skin from bone. But it’s her melodies that really send the likes of Trauma Euphoria into the stratosphere. The crowd are all too willing to get involved, with walls of death aplenty and bodies hurtling round the pit all night. Forty-five minutes pass far too quickly in a blur of techy riffs, seismic breakdowns and raw, incisive lyrics. Vexed prove without a doubt that they’re a band not just with important messages about empowerment, grief and trauma, but one with the songs and stagecraft to make them unmissable.