An absolutely stacked lineup of sludge and noise metal bands from around the UK was brought together by promoters Fuzz Bat and Tinnitus North. This was Tinnitus North’s debut Edinburgh show and Fuzz Bat’s first gig back in Legends after three years.
Local three-piece sludge and noise band A.V.L kicked off the night, opening with both the drummer and frontman Ryan Denham banging on a pair of toms for their introduction to the stage. The dimly lit, grungy atmosphere was the perfect place for this small-town metal band to fill the stage with their experimental noise and raw, unfiltered vocals while also getting shirtless – because what would a sludge metal gig be without at least one person getting sweaty?
Well known in the underground Edinburgh metal scene, A.V.L have been playing venues such as Banshee Labyrinth, Legends and Bannerman’s in Edinburgh since they formed as a band in 2023, and have played local festivals such as Red Crust’s Winter Warmer. Their harsh vocals blended with contorted distortion makes for a floor shaker of an evening with bass to be felt from head to toe. With songs such as “Garden of Midas”, “The Appropriate Amount of Guilt” and “Cauldron” being performed, I felt as if I had just got a taste of what this band has to offer and I can’t wait to hear more noise and see the phenomenal performance that this band will progress to.
Mrs Frighthouse embraced the stage next with what I can only describe as a horrifically beautiful presence, donning gruesome visuals of an excision surgery on one of its own members. The wife and wife duo of Carys and Luna Frighthouse brought a more industrial vibe to the evening while keeping the topics as disturbing as the visuals in the most frightfully true way. The duo’s music consists of pain-shattering truths on sexual assault, the transgender experience and inequalities faced by minorities that they are not afraid to draw attention to, making people who are living within the majority question all they know.
Their performance was filled with raw emotion that felt like being punched by injustice head-on, while not being able to tear your eyes from the stage. Mrs Frighthouse’s stage presence was a performance that wasn’t being performed, it was being lived. Artists that produce music so truthfully harrowing deserve the biggest space in today’s scene. This duo from Glasgow only released their debut album in September of this year, titled Solitude Over Control, but have already amassed a following of people who are eager to see where this musical journey brings them in a genre they have defined as “sapphic metal”, which I can solemnly swear I will be closely following along with.
Believe in Nothing, the headline band for the evening, kept the unease going with frontman Caine Hemmingway pacing through the crowd with a headtorch strapped around his neck, stopping in front of a crowd member oblivious to what was about to unfold. Caine then forcefully shoved a hammer headfirst down his throat, leaving a pool of drool on the hardwood floor and a crowd full of gaping jaws, some in surprise and some in complete disgust and horror. This really set the scene for the remainder of the night’s performance from this Eastbourne sludge noise band.
The tour underway for the release of the band’s debut album Rot, released on Halloween this year, is stopping off at multiple big and small towns across the UK, but somehow I feel that Legends was the perfect venue for this tour and Edinburgh the perfect city. The room was packed with fans and new listeners alike immersed in the experience of the show with Caine mixing sound live while also swallowing metal chains, opening the mic up to hecklers who didn’t understand his performance, and throwing hammers.
In the middle of their show, Caine once again divulged himself with a walk through the crowd holding up what looked to be a piece of plastic to their faces, but when reversed it showed a reflection of the audience member’s face: a mirror. While he showed them his notebook full of etchings urging the audience members to contemplate whether they would be remembered, reassuring them that they could let go. The evening got even darker as, while the band continued to play their distorted riffs and drum fills, Caine took to the stage with a message, calmly yelling and repeating what had been in his notebook and asking “Is it all really worth it when you’re just going to be forgotten anyway?”.
Coming to a close in the night, Believe in Nothing performed a haunting yet melodic collaboration song with Mrs Frighthouse called “Deserts are Glass”, embodying a sound that I can only describe as the end of the world and hope as a whole. With this band only being formed last year, I’m excited to see and hear how they progress and grow; if this is what their earlier, lower budget shows have to offer then I can’t imagine what heart-wrenchingly artistic performances are to come.
As they ended their set each member left the stage one by one, with the guitarist even throwing his guitar straight from the stage to the cold, sticky club floor with no goodbye, no thank you from anyone, opposite to what most bands would do. This really deemphasised the whole trope of looking up to your idols and instead emphasised their own beliefs and even band name: Believe in Nothing.
Believe in Nothing: official | instagram | bandcamp
