Live Review: Hellfekted - The Pavilion, Colwyn Bay
9th September 2021
Review by Gareth Pugh
I set out on a wet Thursday afternoon in September on a two hour drive to North Wales, Colwyn Bay to be precise, and probably not the first place you'd think of when you're looking for a triple thrash treat. Arriving at the gig, we were greeted by the unfortunate news that tonight's openers ThraserWolf had had to pull out, due to an illness in the pack, and were a drummer down. Shortly after, the news came through that headliners Blacklist were also unable to perform, this time due to technical issues with the venue. This meant that the last band standing, blackened thrashers Hellfekted, were left to carry the torch for what was now the Uni-Fekta.
It was a particularly strange soundcheck, where the owner of the venue proceeded to test out the sound system with a series of vocal exercises, utilizing death grunts, singing and other voice tricks to leave the small crowd in a state of bemused bewilderment. After this unwarranted and quite frankly bizarre support slot Hellfekted took to the stage, well the stage and floor, as the actual stage was only big enough for two members.
Undaunted, the band launched themselves into a stunning set, playing with an energy and enthusiasm that would lead you to believe they were playing in front of a much larger and sold-out crowd. Frontman, vocalist, and guitarist Liam worked the crowd like a master, while half-man, half-pogo stick, bassist Chris bounced around like a thing possessed, and the two newer members were also on it, guitarist Rebecca knocking out riff after riff, and drummer Matt, a blur of blond hair and arms.
What with only being a young band with an understandably small back catalogue of tracks, they were always going to give a short and sharp setlist, but they made the most out of the unfortunate circumstances, churning out a number of tracks from their impressive debut album 'Woe To The Kingdom Of Blood', with the like of 'Treachery' , 'Fractured' and the title track all being featured, while non-album track and latest single 'Method of Destruction' went down particularly well.
They even managed to get a mini wall of death going, and with only eight of us involved, including Dan and Jack from ThrasherWolf, it must count as one of the smallest of its kind ever! And then that was that. Not an ideal night for any of the bands involved but this is real life, these things happen. It goes to show if you put your all into it, like Hellfekted certainly did, you can still put on a memorable show. Not only that, but they also proved to be a great bunch of people, chatting away both before and after the gig, signing merch and posing for pics. I for one am glad I went, and even after a misty, detour plagued return journey, I still had ringing ears and a massive grin on my face when I got home at 2am.
