Live Review: Knocked Loose - SWX Bristol, 03/12/2019

Earlier this year, Knocked Loose announced they’d be turning England blue, and bringing their latest album release to various venues across Europe for the first time since its debut. Shortly after announcing this, many of their fans were blowing up Knocked Loose’s social media to point out that their Bristol show conflicts with Stray From The Path’s Bristol show, and urged them to combine shows. As soon as they became aware of this, they knew the best thing to do was turn their two separate shows into the biggest show of the year. For one night only as SWX, fans got to see some of the best bands in hardcore right now.

With such a heavy lineup of a grand total of EIGHT bands, the night had to start early just to make time for all the bands. This unfortunately meant that many people had missed the first few bands on the lineup. We had managed to arrive just as Loathe were kicking out one of their latest single releases, ahead of their album release in February next year. Loathe manage to deliver nothing but excellence every time, and continue to grow with every show they play. Loathe are arguably one of the biggest heavy bands within the uk scene right now, and are pathing the way for metal bands across the country. Britain definitely has it’s own unique sound within the heavy scene which has come to light in the past year or so, and Loathe are one of the defining bands of that. 

As Gideon came out, the room was already pretty much filled out, with more people still arriving. Whilst the band have been going for over ten years now, they are still filled with so much fire and played a hugely energetic set. People were circle pitting and moshing side to side, whilst others surrounded them looking on towards the band and bopping their heads and raising their fists. Part way through their set, Knocked Loose’s vocalist; Bryan Garris came out for his guest feature in Cursed. Released in 2017, Cursed is the band’s most played track on Spotify, beating the rest by over one million streams, in which Garris features on the track itself. This seemed to be a big track for the band and was well received by the crowd, with many of them throwing themselves across the barrier. Similarly, No Love/No One was received just as well, which was released earlier this year.

The Devil Wears Prada felt almost unexpected to see on this line-up; more so due to their placement on this. For such a huge band, it felt they were placed very low on the bill, however in terms of the sounds of the night, they were definitely the most different so perhaps this may have been part of the reasoning. For many, TDWP are a nostalgia band. Many may not have listened to them in years, but whether they have or not, everyone still gave them everything they had and shouted the lyrics back to the stage. 

When Stray From The Path found themselves on the stage, they had embraced the room with so much passion for what they do, that they managed to grab everyones attention. Looking around the room, it appeared everyone was totally encapsulated by the music and almost everyone knew the words. The pit was insane, however everyone appeared to remain respectful and look out for one another. One stand out point of Stray’s set was the moment they started speaking about how hard life can be on this earth. They spoke out for marginalised communities, and used their platform to be able to spread such an important message to their crowd. They took a moment to just ensure that everyone knew they are not alone and that things do get better. As we got a glimpse of the front row which featured such a wide mix of people, each person stood in silence with smiles on their faces at the words that they had just heard. Then, as the music began again, everyone went ten times harder.

Knocked Loose gave similar speeches in between songs, with the highlight for many appearing to be when Garris dedicated ‘Oblivions Peak’ to the LGBTQ+ community. Sometimes within the hardcore scene, it can feel very white-male dominated. Even on this night in Bristol, there wasn’t a single woman on the lineup. However, it’s a step in the right direction for bands to be able to recognise this and use their platform to speak out about minorities where possible. 

Knocked Loose’s crowd gave the same high energy as we saw during Stray From The Path, with crowd surfers constantly flying over the barrier, and everyone holding out for ‘Counting Worms’ as always. The new material was very well received and most fans had already familiarised themselves with every word. This year, Knocked Loose have really proved what they are capable of with the release of A Different Shade of Blue, and we can see them moving fast in the music scene to bigger and bigger venues and tours. Bands like Knocked Loose have started to bring hardcore to a larger audience, and to see the same level of talent heard on their album, replicated live on stage is truly outstanding. Many have even argued that their live performances are even better than their record, which we believe is down to the sheer passion for their art which they deliver on stage.

Words and Photography by Hayley Fearnley