Integrity at Birthdays, London - live review

Subterrenea live

Crowd shot
(Image: © Katja Ogrin)

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Tonight, two of modern metalcore’s big hitters, Bury Tomorrow and While She Sleeps, are playing London to far larger crowds than the modest one here tonight. Arguably though, were it not for INTEGRITY, the music they make may not even exist. However, just being hugely revered, massively influential and only a year shy of your 30th birthday as a band isn’t enough to cut it when you’re faced with a couple of hundred diehard fans. And although their riffs are still heavier than concrete drowning in quicksand and frontman Dwid Hellion is as gruff as he’s ever been, the years have slowed Integrity slightly. As pace and energy are such key components of hardcore, this does blunt the band’s attack from time to time. Another key to great blackened hardcore is heart, and the passion with which they deliver both classics like System Overload and new tracks from their forthcoming album, Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume, shows why they’ve maintained such longevity. The current crop of bands could do a lot worse than continuing to follow the path that Integrity resolutely tread.

Stephen joined the Louder team as a co-host of the Metal Hammer Podcast in late 2021, eventually becoming a regular contributor to the magazine. He has since written hundreds of articles for Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Louder, specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal. He also presents the Trve. Cvlt. Pop! podcast with Gaz Jones and makes regular appearances on the Bangers And Most podcast.