Live: Feed The Rhino + Heights @ Rock City Basement [24-09-11]

If there was even an inkling of suspicion that the UK heavy music scene is falling on its backside, then they would have been well silenced in the Rock City basement this evening.

Over the last year or so Heights and Feed the Rhino have proved to be two of the most exciting home grown prospects that we have to offer and it was their chance, no, their duty to prove that all the hype surrounding them was warranted.

Hertfordshire’s Heights spend more time scaling the amp stacks and the bar than they do the stage but they’re performance makes for a spectacle rather than just any other throwaway basement show. Their divergent and raucously heavy sound that they deliver on record is reiterated in their live performance. Thomas Debaeres’ unmistakable vocals are delivered with uncompromised emotion, as he continuously fends off the hordes clambering to reach the mic during the anthemic lyrics of ‘The Lost and Alone’ and ‘Forget’.

Heights set a precedent that was always going to be hard to trump for Kent’s Feed The Rhino. They’re blend of hardcore punk with tasty rock ‘n’ roll grooves makes for an interesting combination but one that works all too well, and it’s not long before their tangled sound has infected punters’ ears.

Reminiscent of F*cked Up’s Damian Abraham, singer Lee Tobin soon ditches his t-shirt attire and roams topless around the pit with his belly and beard out in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, delivering ‘The Butchers’ and ‘Caller Of The Town’ with all the ferocities expected.

They’re set is loud and uncompromised and their performance laidback, screaming of a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously, but there was always a thorn in the side of FTR’s show, that slight niggle hinting that they were always going to struggle to match the bar that Heights set.

Platform Rating

8/10

Ross Timms – Platform Online

Tags: basement, Feed the Rhino, gig, heights, live, metal, Music, nottingham, rock, rock city