Live Laugh Loathe As One

Ethan McConnell 

Local Music Director 

When you think of the genre of metal, what comes to your mind?  The first thing that comes up are probably artists like, Korn, System of a Down, or Metallica, loud rambunctious sounds by men who love to wear a lot of black. The genre has always been known for its distorted guitars and jumping percussion layered with lyricism of dark themes, creating a strong community surrounding it. But with the band Loathe, it’s time to forget everything you thought you knew about metal and start fresh.  Based out of Liverpool, Loathe has found a way to not only evolve the sound of metal, but also curate something strikingly beautiful creating a whole new sub-genre entirely. I’ve had the opportunity to see Loathe every year for the past three years, most recently this past Friday along with Texas band Trauma Ray and Bay area based hardcore band, SPY. Their performance that night was a perfect reminder that metal isn’t just about aggression, but also emotion, evolution, and the art of pushing sound to its absolute limits. 

SPY 

Coming out from the Bay of California, we had SPY as the first opener for the show. I hadn’t heard of SPY until that day, and their sound was genuinely interesting. With the first opening songs, it reminded me of SPEED and Kublai Khan TX but if you were to transmit the noise through an old Walkman and I mean that in a good way. It was like I was sitting there at a private park show, you had your big intro, your fuzzy doom wop guitar riffs and your slowed breakdown sections all pieced together. How I would divide this band from other hardcore bands would be the delivery of the vocals from frontman Peter Pawlak. His screams were snarled like a rabid animal wanting to be released. A lot of times when he would do his growls it kind of sounded gurgled, making the feeling more intense. I mean from the first song people were crowd surfing and I’m sitting in the merch line like “Doors just opened”. 

Trauma Ray 

Now taking a whole new turn with sound, Trauma Ray from Fort Worth took the stage. If you stay in Texas and have not seen them, SEE THEM1!1!1!1! The dream-like vibrant guitars with a hint of buzz, feel soft woven but still leave a heavy stain on you with their piercing vocals provided by Uriel Avila. You have lyrics that rip into the theme of identity and self-reflection, which I think resonates so well with the main audience of this band. Such raw energy poured into the tracks from their recent album debut Chameleon showed a perfect blend of heavy and atmospheric. You have heavily calculated drum fills from drummer Nicholas Bobatas and droning bass lines from Darren Braun to help execute that shoegaze feel. Hearing iconic songs like “Bishop” and “Relay” live felt so ethereal hearing live. To hear screams erupting from the crowd, band members leaping across the stage, and even security headbanging between duties, you realize that this noise isn’t just chaos; it’s something that genuinely brings people together. 

Loathe 

Loathe (often stylized as LOATHE) has been around for a little over ten years with founding member and guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe bringing in vocalist Kadeem France and Sean Radcliffe on drums forming in 2014. Later in their career they would add Fiesal El-Khazragi for bass. The band has always been dedicated in their craft when it comes to making music especially when they didn’t release their first project until 2017 with, The Cold Sun and This Is as One split EP. The band would go on to do several performances at festivals. It wasn’t until 2020 with the announcement of I Let It In and It Took Everything, that the identity of Loathe would change for the better.  

Before this, the Loathe discography would just be your, in my opinion, standard heavy metal band. And I’m not here to say that’s bad but feel as if you can always expand your soundscape from the usual heavy riffs and guttural screams. With the release of I Let It In and It Took Everything, it was truly a different perspective while still pertaining to familiar aspects of their previous releases. You had characteristics of nu-metal, alt-indie rock, and shoegaze meshed into this one big beautiful fourteen track project.

The sound is so fine-tuned with no element overpowering each other, and yet you still get your heavy riffs and guttural screams. On tracks like “Screaming” and “New Faces in the Dark” you hear this executed well. This project is spacey and piercing and shakes you up giving an out of body experience with how well calculated everything is. I was deep in this pit and of course there were people falling but they were helped by other crowd members. A dude lost their glasses and somehow found them with the help of the crowd, and the energy never stopped until the last note was dropped at the end of the set. Vocalist Kadeem France would give remarks about how the Austin show gave so much energy and love that he couldn’t believe it. From the fans to security all the way to management at emo’s and everyone who was a part of the show in some way shape or form, this experience was made possible through each and every single one of you, and I will never forget it. Hearing sentimental songs like “A Sad Cartoon” to deep cuts such as “Babylon” left me in such utter shock to hear live still trying to process that I was physically in the same vicinity of possibly the greatest metal fusion bands of our generation. From the first time seeing them when Sean Radcliffe signed my phone, to seeing how their stage presence has evolved to something much greater than they could ever imagine, it’s been incredible to witness the growth and genuine love for their fanbase that they bring to every performance.

 To end this off I just want to say, if you have an opportunity to see an artist you like but you’d be by yourself, go see them. Don’t miss out because you’d be alone, trust me when you’re in a moment of seeing an artist you like performing one of your favorite songs you’ll realize you’re when you have a whole crowd of people who are feeling that exact euphoric feeling you are. It’s been a rough past few weeks for me personally and through it all I’ve been trying to take my mind off things to feel better and saw that Loathe was in town (thank you Maria for selling me your ticket). I went back and forth about if it was worth it but ultimately decided to jump headfirst. I do not regret it at all, I met some cool people in the merch line, talked to members of Trauma Ray while I waited, met up with a friend and told them about my experience. So, I will say this to you as I leave. See that band you’ve been wanting to see, try that new restaurant you’ve been passing by, go start that crochet hobby or whatever you’re trying to get into. Who cares if you’re doing it alone, as long as you’re doing it for yourself, that is all that f#@$%! matters.