THE BLACK HEART, LONDON
South London’s VOICES have bravely voyaged across the Thames to fill Camden’s cherished Black Heart with their idiosyncratic and ambitious misanthropy. The five socially distanced bodies (the band are bolstered by Shrines’ Matthew Adnett on second guitar) occupy ground that would ordinarily be filled by a host of palpating metalheads, and the sense of space imbues tonight with an odd sense of ritual. The band tear through their challenging avant-metal with gusto; riffs sound icebox-fresh while drummer David Gray’s calm demeanour belies some frantically inventive playing as the band weave between supple, free-flowing grooves and convoluted savagery. Frontman Peter Benjamin, meanwhile, lurks at the fringes with what looks like a single greasy tear trickling down his cheek, crooning louchely one moment, shrieking like a bulge-eyed wraith the next and mumbling about Custard Creams between songs. Tracks like Rabbits Curse, Vicarious Lover and a truly crushing Dnepropetrovsk pour down like cold rain over filthy London streets, and while a technical hiccup mars the set’s final moments it’s still a riveting performance. As chillingly disorienting as being lost, drunk and alone in the labyrinthine backstreets of an unfamiliar city with no hope of ever finding your way back home.