There isn’t a better way to kick off the New Year than with a Taint gig and the streets and arcades of Cardiff have been buzzing all week in anticipation. Are Taint a Swansea band? Are they a Cardiff band? No one really knows… one thing is for sure however … they’re a fucking great band and with the Barfly comfortably packed it’s clear I’m not alone in that opinion.
Relatively new band Portraits have got the opening slot and fair play they do a good job warming up the Barfly cellar, not as easy as it sounds! Their sound is an eclectic one, there’s a real mix of hardcore, rock and dare I say it a fairly equal measure of stomp and pop punk! The boys are currently working on an E.P. due out in February and I expect once that starts doing the rounds Portraits will almost certainly gain a big following in the UK and further afield! I’m finding it difficult to pin this band down in terms of what they sound like, which is definitely a good thing, if I had to throw some names out there… think Hot Water Music, the Bronx, Propaghandi, Refused and you’d be half way there. The boys have a myspace but no streaming songs as of yet! One to watch for shizzle! www.myspace.com/portraits
Next up are Cardiff’s Wraith, a band whose reputation as a tour de force of jarring, chunky riffs and brutally executed hardcore / metal is beginning to spread far and wide. I’d seen them once before supporting Raven’s Creed in Clwb and was really impressed then, tonight’s performance only built on that impression and I’m definitely gonna make a point of checking these guys out whenever I can. There’s a Converge like element to their sound and they’ve got an awesome knack for drawing you in with monumental rhythms and crusty Scum era Napalm Death time changes. Imagine US band Drop Dead on a mixture of Smack and cheap speed!!! That might sound absurd but I recommend you draw your own conclusions… www.myspace.com/wraiththebanduk
It’s not long before Jimbob, Al and Chris take to the stage, setting up their back line and meticulously preparing the stage for the preceding onslaught. Everyone shuffles forward and beers in hand begin to cheer… It’s time for Taint!!
Kicking off with material from 2007’s ‘Secrets and Lies’ album, song ‘Born Again Nihilist’ instantly sets the mood, highlighting just why were all here. Intricate guitar work and intelligent, ever building drumming leads way to mammoth riffing, heavy chugging and strangely infectious hypnotic grooves. Taint have always had an awesome reputation for their performance both live and on record but preceding the release of ‘Secrets and Lies’ and the subsequent touring they’ve become such a fiercely tight unit it’s become impossible to deny them the world class status they deserve.
‘Corpse of Love’ follows, another head rocking epic and there’s not a still body to be found at the Barfly, it’s wicked watching the crowd convulsing in time to the band, anticipating time changes and altering their pushing, swaying and head banging almost as if led by an overseeing unseen force!
Taint mix it up a bit then with ‘Posion Pen Attack’ a cracker from 2005’s ‘Ruin of Nova Roma’ followed by brand spanking new tracks ‘All Bees to the Sea’ and ‘Despite Isolation’. I’d heard the new songs at shows leading up to the Christmas period and it’d taken me a few listens to fully appreciate just how good they are. Not only do they build upon Taint’s uncanny ability to deliver offbeat, original an ridiculously catchy melodies, heavy riffs and clever chord progressions but there’s a really old school doom undercurrent prevalent in the choruses, something which has always been present but never perhaps so masterfully executed. What I love about Taint is their ability to deliver some of the sludgiest doomiest riffs ever written without ever pigeonholing themselves as ‘just’ a stoner / doom band. There’s something for everyone in a Taint song and that’s precisely why they’re able to win over new fans every time they play. Still relatively unknown in the UK it’s only a matter of time before Taint are a something of a household name… some might wish to hold that against them but remember this, they got there by their own means and on their own terms.
In what seems like no time at all Taint announce their final song of the evening, old favorite ‘I’m going to Kill Henry Ford’… the Barfly once again erupts in a mass of flying bodies, thankfully however it’s one of those blessed scenarios where the set is purposefully kept short as one thing’s for sure we’re not going to let them leave without an encore and everyone is screaming for more. Good thing they’ve got a few more songs in their repertoire and the fans are kept at bay with Secret’s slow building ballad like behemoth ‘Goddamn This City’ and the cherry on the doom pie… just to ensure everyone gets their moneys worth and leave the Barfly with wide grins plastered on their beer weary faces ‘…Nova Roma’s’ ‘Drunken Marksman’… Time for one last mosh!!!
I stumble to the merchandise stand and hand over money reserved for bills and the forthcoming weeks food. So what if I’ve got Secrets and Lies in two formats already… I haven’t got it on vinyl… well I didn’t used to anyway!
Words: Ioan Thomas
Pictures: Diccy P
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