Live Review: Wiegedood - The Crofters Rights, Bristol
11th March 2022
Support: Grief Ritual
Words: Richard Oliver
It appears that the post-covid live music revival is in full swing as European and U.S. bands seem to be finally making their way onto our damp little island to play some very overdue shows for us U.K. audiences. Not to say that tour cancellations aren’t still happening but thankfully they are getting less and less.
On this Friday evening , with Cardiff a writhing sea of Welsh and French rugby fans I headed over the bridge into Bristol to a venue called The Crofters Rights to watch an evening of some extremely heavy music courtesy of Wiegedood and Grief Ritual. The Crofters Rights is a venue I have only ever been to once and it was a long time ago when the venue was simply called The Croft. It’s a fantastic intimate venue with a very well stocked bar (and a fantastic beer selection), a well sized gig room and a monstrous sound system which aided the intensity of this evening's gig very well.
There was only one support act for this show and that was self-styled South West misery merchants Grief Ritual. Having caught this band previously I know they play a very intense show and this was no exception. The music of Grief Ritual is a mix of hardcore and sludge with a few blackened elements to their sound. The hardcore elements are the most prevalent with teeth shattering breakdowns galore mixed in with crushing sludge riffs and the band aiming to suffocate all joy out of the room with their bleak and relentless music. The crowd on the whole weren’t too enthusiastic with the room only half full for their set but a hardcore set will always be a tough sell with a crowd expecting some black metal fury.
The black metal fury (and then some) was provided by the bucketful by headliners Wiegedood. Hailing from Belgium and made of members and ex-members of Oathbreaker and Amenra, Wiegedood have a lot of hype surrounding them and a dedicated following in the metal underground. It is a hype that is more than justified with Wiegedood being one of the finest black metal bands to emerge in recent years and their live performance is really something to behold.
The band came out to no fanfare being on-stage doing their soundcheck and then suddenly the stage was bathed in red light with ominous noise coming out of the speakers before the unrelenting fury of set opener FN SCAR 16 exploded out and smashed everyone's senses into oblivion. The band are a three-piece made up of Levy Seynaeve on vocals and guitars, Gilles Demolder on guitars and Wim Sreppoc on drums and one of the loudest and most intense three-piece bands I have seen on stage.
With the band currently touring their latest album There’s Always Blood At The End Of The Road the vast majority of the set was taken from that album with songs such as Until It Is Not, Now Will Always Be and Nuages just as, and if not more, blistering than on record. As far as I can recall the only song from their previous three albums performed was Ontzieling from De Doden Hebben Het Goed II. The band did not interact with the crowd utilising dark ambient noise and spoken word samples in between the songs but this just added to the intensity of the performance. Finishing with the absolutely furious Carousel before simply walking off stage with the echoes of that blistering set ringing in the audience's ears and leaving them wanting more.
Wiegedood are a band that simply come on stage and destroy and they more than did that this evening with most people stumbling out of the venue with a wowed expression on their faces. This was a fantastic way to spend a Friday evening and I shall definitely be heading to see Wiegedood the next time they grace our shores with another tour.
Header image photo credit: Tim Finch Photography
