DEVIL’S DOG, BIRMINGHAM
Tech metallers do their hometown proud as they supply plenty of angular riffs, flecks of nu metal andare celebrating another win with the news of their 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 anda furious while 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 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.
