First up, Workhorse Movement. Hotly tipped by some, Workhorse movement tonight are welcomed well by the crowd, and their formula of shouty vocals and riffarama certainly gets the pit going. Sound wise, the riffs of Biohazard and NYHC meet the vocals of the rapping frontmen, with the two frontmen trading raps and lines with each other with precision, but coming across like House Of Pain meets Cromags. Despite their tightness as a live unit and their effectiveness in churning out skullcrushing riffs, they don’t seem to have evolved many songs yet, but a good few t-shirt slogans. They walk the walk and talk the talk, but ulitimately may prove to be too abrasive to ever make a real impact.

Pitchshifter have come on leaps and bounds in the last 2 years. Last time they played the Wulfrun, they sold 667 tickets in advance, and tonight 900. If I was the editor of the NME, I’d be severely disconcerted to see this band become so big without an inkling of radio play or mainstream coverage. From the off, Pitchshifter show why. In a set culled mainly from the current Deviant album and its predecessor, 1998s’ dotcom album, Pitchshifter show themselves to be a tight, formidable act, lightyears ahead of the act they were 18 months ago. A major personnel change less than 5 months ago is totally unnoticeable, such is their tightness. Playing months on end in America has done wonders for their confidence and ability as a live unit, frontman JS Clayden playing up to the crowd and coming across as confident, yet selfdepreciating. The opening “Wafer Thin” shows PSI to be probably the best, most forward looking metal act in the UK today, and most likely to inherit the charts. Their sound, firmly organic, yet rooted in technology, is unique in the metal scene, yet strongly reminiscent of bands like Pop Will Eat Itself and Jesus Jones 10 years ago, all of which effectively melded technology and guitars in the days before keyboards and samplers , short hair and politics were accepted were to be metal. Neither were those two bands, who mainly stuck in the alternative genre, but their template shines through. What seems cutting edge now was deemed techno-rock 5 years ago, but this is lost on most of the crowd, who wouldn’t have puberty 5 years ago. Its like being back at school, and JSC plays the teenage rebellion card to the hilt. “Dead Battery” is dedicated to getting shit music out of the charts, hopefully for one week we can something other can NSYNC and Britney on the radio and TV (cue huge cheers), the “fuck all boy bands” chant done to the max – all honest, yet striking  a remarkably predictable (ie uproarious) response.

The main concern for the majority of fans would be the new personnel : drummer Jason Bowld  and guitarist Matt Grundy. Both fit in like they’ve never been anywhere else, complimenting the bands sound perfectly. Jason  is a more capable drummer than their previous percussionist D utilising  a full kit rather than before, giving the sound much more impact as far less of the complex drum patterns are run off samplers now, given the full impact of the live band. Guitarist Matt looks the dead ringer for Martin gore (of depeche mode) , but plays loudly and proudly, relishing every moment on stage. With the syncopated rhythms of many of the new songs- the stop start crunching – the band play like they’ve been together years. Perhaps the biggest factor in making the sound of the band unlike any other at the moment is the bass playing of Mark Clayden, who plays bass much like a guitar in using it as a lead insturment, distorted to fuck, full of attitude and silly poses.

Biggest cheers of the night are awarded to the recent singles “Genius” – with the anthemic “if dysfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius” hookline and the anti-patriotic “Un-united kingdom”, which shares its same concerns with  the only song dating from their first 4 albums tonight: the seemingly inevitable “Triad” from 1994’s Desensitized, included due to its explicit anti-Nazi message more than anything else. Criminally, 1996s’ “Infotainment” is ignored tonight, despite its groundbreaking status which made PSI the band to look out for in the nu-british scene, and it laid down the template for the prodigy to rip off perfectly, with far far bigger success. Aside from the annoying habit of JSC to announce “this is an old song” for songs less than 2 years old,the lack of these tracks such as “Virus" is almost unforgivable..

Pitchshifter seems to making serious headway in the US at the moment, along with One Minute Silence, and on the basis of tonights show, its not hard to see why. With the current UK press firmly embedded in the “if its America, it must be better than any English band” attitude, Pitchshifter have come to disprove that, standing their own – if not better than – among legions of trendy US nu-metal bands, simply by being more original. Their sound is like a metal techno amalgamation, with some seriously catchy tunes thrown in.  Genius indeed. Now, where did I put that sampler….
Oh, by the way did I mention they rocked?

Setlist:
Intro / WAFER THIN / CHUMP CHANGE / GENIUS / SCENE THIS / SUBJECT TO STATUS / DEAD BATTERY / HIDDEN AGENDA / TRIAD / CONDESCENSION / FORGET THE FACTS + MICROWAVED (medley) / KEEP IT CLEAN / PLEASE SIR / EVERYTHINGS FUCKED/ UN-UNITED KINGDOM / WYSIWIG

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