If Rammstein ever fell foul of a global lighter fluid shortage, they could take lessons from the two-drummered AYWKUBTTOD in how to take a crowd’s faces off sonically. From the opening pounds of The Giants Causeway, this set from Cologne’s Live Music Hall for German TV show Rockpalast is a brutal barrage of psychedelic hardcore bawling, frontman Conrad Keely straining like a piles-stricken goblin and thrashing his guitar like it’s a Buzzfeed quiz compiler.
Even the subtler moments – the piano-led Bells Of Creation or the proggy Will You Smile Again? – build to noise assaults designed, it seems, to soundtrack the final scenes of Pompeii, while it’s a miracle any instruments survive the full 12 minutes of Totally Natural.
It’s an approach with little variation and it totally overpowers the strained melodicism of Another Morning Stoner and Caterwaul, made all the wobblier by co-singer Jason Reece forcing his way through the crowd to stand on the bar, lobbing full pints. Wild, intense, but way too ragged.
