Live Review : A Pale Horse Named Death + OHHMS + Petrichor + MAIRU @ Phase One, Liverpool on November 4th 2019

A month on from my nu-metal euphoria I have returned in all my chubby glory to review A Pale Horse Named Death. Again. I for one could not be happier.

My ability to attend gigs has decreased rapidly in recent months so I am absolutely determined to savour every moment of tonights doom-laden sorrowfest.

I rock up to the club like “What up, I've got social anxiety and I want to go home”... nah, but I am late from work and I was making my journey on public transport. So inevitably I miss a bit of MAIRU.

Last time ROCKFLESH came in contact with Liverpool based MAIRU the band received a rave review for their original take on instrumental post-metal. It's easy to hear why there is a lot of love for these guys as they warm up the crowd with their prog-esque atmospheric doom. There are small helpings of vocals here and there, but the emphasis lies truly in the power of their compositions.

MAIRU have an air of modesty about them; they stand on the stage without any pretention or gimmicks and bring their growing audience to a place of awestruck appreciation.  An excellent opener!

Next up is assault on the senses Petrichor, melodic/doom from Yorkshire. It is strangely theatrical with the band all kitted out in corpse paint and jars of burning incense on the front of the stage. They look positively black metal and yet their music is more on the sensitive side of the metal spectrum, drawing heavily on their listed influences of Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. There are interesting counterpoints where the singer has a deep and mournful clean vocal on top of the bassist who is roaring his tits off. Good stuff.

Following on from Petrichormelancholy we have OHHMS…

What an Earth can I say about this band? Having never listened before or seen them before, and being pre-warned with “Oh those guys…. You’re going to be bored, they tend to go on a bit” I didn’t have high hopes. Those hopes sank even lower when I saw the bassist had about 68 pedals. 

Well I was wrong. OHHMS went on to give me probably one of the scariest gig experiences I have ever had in my 18 or so years of being a metal head. It was scarier than the time I busted my nose up in a wall of death at Download. Scarier than the time I took a New Rock to the jaw. Scarier than the time I was mistaken for a hooker whilst I was innocently just standing outside a venue. Scarier than the time Til Lindemann actually looked at me.

There is no terror like almost being taken out multiple times by a bass player and vocalist who basically do not give a fuck that you are standing there. You are standing in the space they want to perform in. You have to move.

I write that with no vitriol or annoyance. I write that with admiration and amusement. What a gorgeously joyful energy OHHMS send out with their performance tonight. I don’t even care that I was nearly flattened about 34273492 times. I’d stand front row at one of their gigs anytime.

The band present some avant-garde doomy sludge with such passion and chaos I don’t want it to end, but all good things must and the set is over in what seems to be no time at all.

As wonderful as I found OHHMS, the best has truly been saved for last in the form of tonight’s headliners, the “Lords of Doom” themselves, A Pale Horse Named Death.

The band open with ‘To Die In Your Arms’ from their debut album ‘And Hell Will Follow Me’. The set is a perfect blend of the best tunes from all three of their albums, featuring ‘Shallow Grave’ (a song frontman Sal jokes is about killing an ex… oh boy, I get where you’re coming from there man, I really feel you on that one), ‘Love the Ones You Hate’ and ‘Growing Old’.

There is little to criticise the band for – the riffs are tight, the performance enthusiastic, and frontman Sal is as ever humble and witty. If anything, his voice is noticeably stronger than it was 6 months ago when we last met (and if you read my last ROCKFLESH review of APHND you’ll know I was blown away with the band back then as well).

My absolute favourite moment of the gig was when my Pale Brother Malte (a super fan friend and all round nice guy, who has clocked up some serious mileage following the band all around Europe on this tour) insisted I took his space on the front row as the band played my favourite track ‘Die Alone’. The same Malte also acquired my very first gig plec for me as well.

I spent a lot of the gig with my eyes closed, not watching the band, but rather letting the music wash over me. I’ve had a really difficult five months now, and being at this gig tonight was nothing short of cathartic for me.

But it’s not all doom and gloom and pain and misery, as Sal, Johnny, Eddie, Eric and Joe successfully trolled the audience by playing the same riff over and over, getting slower and slower and slower… and slower… and slower…

For about 10 minutes straight.

A Pale Horse Named Death ladies and gentleman. Lords of Doom. Pale Soldiers. Practical Jokers.