On last Thursday’s menu at Leeds stylus was a mighty fine blend of heavy metal and stoner rock ‘n’ roll, brought to you by two of the genre’s finest.

Torche are aptly named, even though they are extraordinarily loud their raucous blend of doom and stoner somehow came out sounding bright and illuminating. Moustachioed guitarist/vocalist Steve Brooks played the set with not only feverish intensity, but with an inexplicable floral bra he had acquired hanging from his microphone stand- which he proceeded to swing mid-song around his head before releasing it into the crowd. The vocals blazed like a desert sun, the riffs got heads nodding, and Rick’s Smith drumming was superb. As the set came to a crashing finish, it was refreshing to find that after all these years Torche can still bring great tunes and the heavy.

As good as Torche were, Red Fang came out and from the get go there was no mucking around, breaking straight into new track ‘Wires’ before ‘Blood Like Cream’ tipped things over into wild country. Moshing broke out, fists were pumped, and a significant amount of alcohol was spilt. Bassist Aaron Beam’s croon was the sound of truly beardy metal, whilst Brian Giles on guitar had a voice that sounded like Rob zombie after a hard night’s drinking. It was a perfect soundtrack to the sludgy careening, as the audience was assaulted by the bass-heavy riffs that were pure good times, wrapped in lead.

An encore of ‘Prehistoric Dog’ finally brought the joyous carnage to an end. I’ve seen many stoner metal but very few indeed manage to do it this well.

Leo Kindred

Image: [Coal]