First up were Glasgow based Seraph Sin who it must be said were bloody good. A slightly hesitant start but they very quickly broke into their stride. The crowd this evening were kind of small but they didn’t half bounce. Seraphs Sin’s sound is weighted a little bit more towards the metal side than industrial and the mix works well, with a gritty guitar sound and some meaty thrash riffs in the mix they were greeted with a good crowd response.
One of the standouts was the drummer who was really good, solid but with decent groove and air of a showman about him with plenty of flips and stick tricks as he belted out a machine-like beat. Seraph Sin have a fantastically energetic and emotive frontman in the form of Gabriel Lennox who after the first few songs interact easily with the crowd. All in all I’m sold, definitely a band I’m hoping to catch more of in the future.
With a co-headline tour between Pig and Mortiis swapping slots each night I had to ask myself Who’s next? The answer tonight was Mortiis who stormed the stage to put on one hell of a performance. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Mortiis for some time and this was to be my first time catching him live. I wasn’t disappointed he’s a hell of a performer, feeding the highly-engaged crowd with a monstrous energy whilst throwing himself around with a fierce intensity. Even without the trademark mask he looks otherworldly on the stage.
Indeed, the three-piece put on one hell of a performance, tight as hell and producing a wall of sound to the crowd who responded with loud cheers. Considering it’s a three piece there’s a lot of sound coming out of just one guitar and drums: The drums were fantastic, seemingly effortless and machine precise with solid rolls working smoothly around the kit with plenty of flair.
The crowd whilst small were bouncy as hell, to the point I became concerned that the small guy in the Burzum shirt might get his head stuck in the ceiling. Bolstered by great sound and unusually good lighting for the ruby lounge this was a spectacular and intense performance.
In an ominous move whilst outside having a mid-band vape there were a notable number of people leaving the Ruby lounge and heading for the car park opposite. So, it was a smaller crowd that greeted Pig when they took to the stage for their first UK tour in 23 Years. A slower and more ambient act that the two previous bands Pig initially seemed to drop the momentum. They built it back up after a slow opener but compared to what had gone before it was a relatively subdued performance.
By no means at all was it a bad performance indeed it was damn good but with a notable stylistic difference between the first two acts and a loss of crowd they did struggle to follow. Pigs performance was more refined than the visceral raw power of Mortiis and Seraph Sin.
The remaining crowd of about 50 were certainly fervent in their support but the lower numbers did leave less energy in the venue, and the feeling that Pig might have had a larger crowd if they’d played before Mortiis who was clear favourite that night. That was a shame as I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard of PIG in the past and that En Esch and Günter Schulz joined Raymond Watts in the line-up meant that there was a lot of KMFDM in the mix, and yet still there was a notable lack of bite to the performance.
The small crowd were dancing away throughout and when they did the planned encore, after only about 10 seconds off stage, the crowd were whooping and genuinely warm and lavish in demonstrating their appreciation. It must be noted that the encore was much more energetic and immediate that the earlier part of the set. The earlier set could have done with a bit more of that vibe throughout.
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY RICH PRICE