Atreyu

This should be the gig that launches Alaskan quartet *36 Crazyfists *into the stratosphere, but instead their hugely heavy hardcore tunes are lost in the fug. You might try your hardest to move around the venue in search of that tiny pocket of good sound that will make this all worth it, but it’s all in vain. It will always be an absolute travesty when a band with such musical muscle as this is hampered by a sound as poor as this.

Brixton Academy has often been an abomination in terms of sound quality, but when you know you’re watching one of the finest heavy bands around and it doesn’t even sound as good as when you saw them in the middle of the day_ in the middle of a racetrack_, you know that something is very wrong.

Their giant, ginger polar bear of a frontman, Brock Lindow, blusters his way across the stage, successfully claiming the throne of the heftiest livewire this side of the BMI index, but his distinctive melodies are caught up in the sludgy speaker soup inflicted upon us. Guitarist Steve Holt is up there onstage, quite definitely throwing out plenty of luscious metal riffs from fan favourites like ‘The End Of August’ _and _‘Felt Through A Phoneline’, but the guitar sounds of Holt and his bassist comrade Mick Whitney are barely audible beyond the front few rows.

It's like listening to a whole set through the walls of the toilets of a small venue and knowing that this is as good as it gets. Annoying.