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Tuesday 4 June 2024

A View From The Back Of The Room: Brujeria (Live Review By Mark Young)

Brujería /Borstal, Esto Es Tour, Rebellion Manchester 26.05.24

It’s the Sunday before a bank holiday and obviously, it is chucking it down in the fair city of Manchester. The area around Rebellion is busy as there is a parade planned for the blue half of the city, a parade I have zero interest in other than navigating around them later as I make my way home. Rebellion has a reputation for being one of the best places to catch live music and certainly the bands that I’ve seen there have been pretty good. The only downside has been audience engagement and I’m not sure if its timings or general malaise.

Total transparency is that I’ve heard very little of the headliner's recorded output. I was introduced to them, probably like most with lurid tales of drug cartels that later transpired it was almost an extreme metal collective, with each of the members recording under aliases with their faces hidden.

With 7pm doors and the first of two acts, Borstal (7) on at 8pm this should allow for the punters to get themselves suitably warmed up. Borstal are a relatively new band on the UKHC scene but with familiar face on drums and they take no time in getting themselves going as they follow audio clips from Scum (Where’s Yer Tool) and then straight into it with no respite or let up. 

Frontman, Pelbu perhaps recognising that the audience might be shy decides to go to them, stalking his way round the floor but in a way that is welcoming as opposed to threatening. The music is rapid with a solid chunk behind it as the two guitarists just batter the crowd. Its energetic and they deliver it like they mean it. What I loved about them is that they kept going forward and had a massive sound, one of the best I've heard in a while.

For me I thought the crowd was poor and I expected them to give a little more back. If this registered with them, it didn’t show. There was enthusiastic applause but not a lot of movement on the floor which this music demands. They are one to look out for moving forward and proved by the end of the evening the perfect foil for what was to come.

Brujería (9) are on at 9.15 as Mexico's finest troop on stage as the intro tape strikes up. Spaces are filling up as latecomers make their way in to catch an absolute blast of prime death / grind metal. It’s a thunderous start, a wall of sound that detonates squarely in the chest. Did I mention vocalists? Why have one when you can three as they trade positions as the night progresses. 

Now we have movement as shirts are thrown off, bandanas are on, and we are treated to an hour of some storming metal that keeps everyone on their feet and moving. Every song has the same impact, and the audience reciprocates in kind, enthusiastically cheering and just getting involved. Inter song chat is kept to themselves in Spanish, which is just spot on.

Despite it being one guitar, their sound is just monstrous, and they were super-tight as they charged through their set until around the hour mark when there was a change in personnel. At this point, I believe it was Nick Barker who joined them on the drums, and Jeff Walker on bass. I am almost 100% sure of this, despite the cap and bandana the eyebrows and the ‘I Reek Of Putrefaction’ tee shirt giving the game away for the final song, Matando Güeros. At this point, the machetes are out and being swung in a not too safe manner and I’m thinking ‘how did they get them through customs?’ as they finish up their set.

Until they say adios with their version of the Macarena, with keywords changed to Marijuana as they invite half the crowd to join them onstage. Watching some of the biggest chaps, sweaty and shirtless doing the moves is one of the funniest things I think I’ll ever see. Not one fuck was given, and it capped a great set from them.

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