Review by Kahmel Farahani
It’s that time of year again and what we all need is a fine sludge and death metal concert to get us in the festive mood. The triple bill at The Dome in Tufnell Park is just the ticket. First on are up and coming death metal band Heriot. Fresh from their set at this year’s Bloodstock festival, the band play a brief but ferocious set. Songs like the raging, scream fuelled ‘Cleansed Existence‘ are certainly a much needed pick me up on this cold and rainy evening.
Next up are veteran alt-metal band Earthtone9. This Nottingham based band have been going in one form or another for over 20 years now and they bring that experience to bear on the Dome tonight with an excellent, direct and thrilling set, packed with crushing doomy riffs and chugging bass lines. Opening their set with a blast of ‘Lo Definition,’ the band smoke their way through a very strong ten song set that ends with crashing ‘Tat Twam Asi.’
Headliners Raging Speedhorn have been a pillar of the stoner/hardcore corner of heavy metal for almost a quarter of a century now and based on their performance tonight, they still have plenty left to give. 
Fresh off the back of their doomy new album ‘Hard To Kill,’ the band are on something of a hot streak right now, with newer songs like ‘Snakebite‘ or the crushing Doom Machine` setting comfortably with their older songs like the brutal mosh of ‘Hate Song.’ The lead vocals are shared between veteran frontman Frank Regan and relative newcomer Daniel Cook. The constant trade-off of vocals gives the show the feel of an old-school hip-hop battle gone hardcore! Raging Speedhorn wear their influences clearly on their collective sleeves so if you want fresh new sounds, its best to look elsewhere. However, if you want a heady mix of doom, death metal and hardcore all delivered with breakneck force then there are very few who do it better than Raging Speedhorn. Unfortunately, technical issues and a bugbear in the sound system forces the band to cut their set slightly shorter than planned. The band still manage to bash out their set closing ‘Hammer Down,’ leaving a very happy and exhausted crowd behind them.
Picture Credit – Fernando Bonenfant Photography
