Live Review: Erra -The Mill, Birmingham
14th March 2023
Support: Silent Planet, Invent Animate, Sentinels
Words: Matt Noble
New Jersey’s Sentinels were last in this venue with Fit for an Autopsy just under a year ago. Their low-tuned take on modern progressive metalcore starts the night off nicely. It’s hard to make out some of the guitar and bass riffs in the mix, but they seem first and foremost to be about pounding proggy beats and jaunty, mind-bending polyrhythms. The drumming is really fantastic, with such a tight control of rhythm on display. They go through all kinds of tempo and meter shifts, and some of the patterns are really cool. With all that said, when you do catch a guitar lead in the mix, they’re always very melodic and well-executed, and the vocal performance is also very good.
You get a few enthusiastic movers and headbangers in response in the moshpit, but it does seem the crowd are still getting warmed up, despite the band’s valiant efforts to engage them. The music is very interesting and multi-layered, but not necessarily in a way that’ll physically move a room of uninitiated listeners. Still, when Sentinels get everyone’s hands in the air for the ambient opening of their final track, it feels very atmospheric. It’s a nice juxtaposition with the completely punishing music that follows on from it. I enjoyed this set a lot and thought the music was really engrossing, it’s just unfortunate about the mix and their early stage time.
It’s not long before a large contingent of the crowd start throwing down to Invent Animate. Their music is much more bouncy and high-octane, and naturally seems to ignite movement from the audience. It helps that their sound is very clear this evening, too. Last here on the Never Say Die run, I unfortunately just missed them due to their early start time - though judging by the numerous people wearing Invent Animate merchandise, there’s plenty who didn’t. Their bounciness, low grooves and excellent vocal display really lets them stand out. Lead vocalist Marcus has a seriously impressive screamed and sung range, even with some delicate, fragile falsettos at times. Even bassist Caleb can boast some clean vocal pipes, holding down the verse to ‘As If It Never Was’ seemingly effortlessly.
The crowd get going and pitting before closing song ‘Immolation of Night’ even properly drops! It’s the biggest and best mosh of the night, and the energy really is there on the floor. The audience are absolutely rabid for Invent Animate and it’s easy to see why, based on the setlist that is designed for crowd movement and the band’s fantastic stage presence. It adds a layer of polish, with the way that they move and perform in sync with one another. They come across as really professional and you could really imagine Invent Animate going up the echelons into true greatness, based from tonight. You can see a few fresh black tees of theirs around the crowd after they’ve played. Between the concert and time of writing, Invent Animate released the album ‘Heavener’, and it’ll be really interesting to see what it does for the band. Definitely see these guys next time they’re here if you get the chance!
A bombastic start to Silent Planet’s set gets the crowd going again after a brief interlude. There’s an ambient backing track that adds a cool spacey layer - presumably tied into the band name - and frontman Garrett virtually makes the show his own tonight. His guttural vocals are excellent, his presence is fantastic, and he makes the room feel just a little bit smaller when he gets into the crowd to perform ‘Native Blood’. He’s open with his lyrical themes, whether dealing with the plight of the Native Americans in the aforementioned ‘Native Blood’, or with the deeply emotional and raw ‘Panic Room’, dealing with PTSD. He is more than capable whether going for the brutal high screams, low roars or emotive storytelling-style cadences.
I just feel that though the rest of the band are watertight and a brilliant instrumental unit - the drummer puts on a monstrous performance - the guitarist and bassist that flank him do not quite match their frontman’s showmanship. Their stage presence isn’t as good, sometimes standing still while Garrett gives it his all. Additionally, the ultra-melodic clean vocals could have more character and grit to them, and suffer tonight from a few pitching issues, though when the two harmonise, it does sound very cool. It’s really unfortunate that they come on after Invent Animate, who set a high benchmark for Silent Planet tonight. It doesn’t even seem like they quite have the same audience reaction - perhaps that’s testament to just how stellar Invent Animate were, though. In any case, when the power dies out during a particularly heavy rendition of ‘:Signal:’, they’re unruffled, and the frontman chats to the crowd off-mic before launching into a new one as soon as they’re up and running again. They still leave to rapturous applause and closing number ‘Trilogy’ is a triumphant finish to their evening. Silent Planet very much hold their own on a bill brimming with prog-metalcore talent.
Erra are genuine giants of the progressive metalcore genre. You only have to search ‘progressive metalcore’ on Wikipedia to see them as one of the first bands mentioned. But they reflect this - offline - by their ownership of the night’s best pits, participation and singalongs. Starting off with a very cool, futuristic intro video, they waste no time in setting the scene with aggressive opening number ‘Gungrave’, and second song ‘House of Glass’ is also very strong. There’s emotion and ambience, but the right amount of dirt too. ‘Eye of God’ is furious, and ‘Breach’ even has some blastbeating. The technicality is obviously brilliant, and it becomes apparent very fast that this is an excellent display of what the genre can be. I’m really surprised at how the quality does not dip at any point. Usually when I see a band I don’t know that well, there’s a song or two that loses my attention, and there’s somewhat of an ebb and flow to the set, but with Erra, this is not the case at all. More surprising still is the fact it’s only Erra’s first ever headline show in Birmingham, England.
The band are very humble and appreciative towards the energy in the room tonight. J.T. does an excellent job at goading the crowd for more without coming across as arrogant. Plus, the video backdrop that rolls constantly on top of a wild lighting display makes for a really immersive experience. I find that the softer, ambient moments are just as memorable as the frantic, heavy sections. ‘Skyline’ rouses a huge cheer when its soft, broken chord intro chimes out, and ‘Vanish Canvas’ has some gorgeous guitar melodies, for example. Jesse’s clean vocals are capable of some very impressive high notes. But the one-two of ‘Scorpion Hymn’ and ‘Hybrid Earth’ see Erra at their hardest and the audience at their most feral - at least before the encore kicks in.
Returning to the stage for a couple more, the pits get wider than ever for ‘Pull From The Ghost’, which has some really effective skipped beats. ‘Snowblood’ then rounds off the evening, starting chaotically before an ethereal section leads up to a brilliant groove that they settle on. Its beat feels really simple, but there’s lots of crazy polyrhythmic wizardry lurking within. Hats off to Erra for a wonderful showcase of what cutting-edge metalcore can be in 2023, with aggression, huge melodies, and mind-blowing technicality all blended together for a genuinely memorable set of songs. They’d been on my radar for some time, but this is a band I feel the need to delve into and get to know better for the next time they’re back.
