LIVE REVIEW: THE HIRSCH EFFEKT @ THE BLACK HEART 09/07/2018
Background:
Last week we interviewed Ilja Lappin from German tech-metal band ‘The Hirsch Effekt’. After playing main support to ‘Employed To Serve’ on the Waghorn Guitars Stage on Sunday at Nottingham’s TechFest; they drove straight down to London to play a headline set at The Black Heart.
The Black Heart 09/07/2018:
The Black Heart is a brilliant venue that has hosted some incredible bands; you are almost guaranteed a good night at any show that the legendary venue hosts. That being said, it isn’t very big. In fact the stage is tiny which can be a bit of a problem when you have five members in your band including a keyboardist. Whilst this may be a source of frustration for some, Brighton mathcore quintet ‘The Guts’ have a simple solution; just make your stage bigger. Placing their microphones in the middle of the room, ‘The Guts’ instantly turn the entire venue into there own territory to go wherever the fuck they like from running around the stage, to shredding from the top of the merch stand. It is truly a sight to behold and we can honestly say that we don’t think we have ever seen someone utilise a room quite to this extent since ‘Gallows’ back in 2010! We are never sure where to look as members seem to appear and then disappear from every angle. The only member to stay stationary is the drummer and we imagine this is purely because her kit does not have wheels. What makes 'The Guts’ set truly impressive though is the technical precision that they are able to maintain throughout the ferociously energised performance. Performing with a ‘Sikth’ style three-way vocal attack which expands to four members for final song ‘Jesse James’ each member is on point throughout, never missing a beat whilst powering through complex riffs and rhythms at a ferocious speed. If we were to sum up ‘The Guts’ in two words it would be “Fucking Mental!” and we mean that as the highest compliment.
The transition from playing the second stage at TechFest to the Black Heart in 24 hours must have been quite a shock for the German trio, but the intimate setting makes tonights show even more special, especially as ‘The Hirsch Effekt’ have brought their entire festival show with them. There isn’t a single aspect of tonights show that has not been prepared to the most minute detail from the artwork stitched into the amps and the neon lit kick-drums all the way to their entrance to ‘Bridge Under Troubled Water’ with a bass so loud that the floor was literally shaking. None of this compares to the light show that ‘The Hirsch Effekt’ bring with them. We may be in The Black heart but it feels like The Electric Ballroom in terms of scale. In terms of sonics, ‘The Hirsch Effekt’ are on another planet. Just how a three piece are able to perform such technical and expansive music in a live environment is a mystery, and they do it to such a bewilderingly high standard. Nils Wittrock and Ilja Lappin take it in terms to take charge of the vocals in a set that covers their entire ten year career as a performing band. Moritz Schmidt is right where he wants to be as he site proudly in the centre pounding the drums with a huge smile on his face as his bandmates climb, jump and career all around him. The ‘Dillinger’ comparisons are inescapable, but ‘The Hirsch Effekt’ convey their own identity and originality throughout. After they finish performing, bassist Ilja Lappin and Morritz Schmidt return to the stage to inform us that singer and guitarist Nils Wittrock has collapsed backstage from exhaustion and they thank us all for our support. From what we heard afterwards, Nils Wittrock seems to be feeling much better but nevertheless we wish him a speedy recovery and we desperately hope to see the three-piece return to the UK again very soon. 9/10
