Gallows / Feed the Rhino @ King Tut's, 9 October

Feed the Rhino evidently have some fans gathered here at King Tut's tonight; as the stage lights dim, the band are greeted with a fair amount of fervency which only intensifies as they pile through their first few songs. Security have a hard time keeping them behind the barrier as crazed frontman Lee Tobin launches himself into the crowd, fully endorsing the growth of the accumulating circle-pit as the rhythm section pound out killer riffs, pulsating grooves and ear-shattering cymbal crashes. Despite hailing from Kent, there's a real dirty southern bite to their sound.

 

Opening with Grey Britain's Misery – their caustic, troublesome anthem – Gallows categorically crush any lingering doubts about their ability to pull off the old material post-Frank Carter. By this stage, vocalist Wade MacNeil looks comfortably engrossed in his role as the band's frontman, and he's rabidly received.

 

Their recent self-titled album already has a place in this crowd's collective heart, too – the lyrics to new songs like Last June and Outsider Art can be heard being belted from all angles in amongst the violence, and the shovefest hasn't simmered down by the time they encore with Victim Culture/Orchestra of Wolves with a little help from their touring partners. We learn that bassist Stuart Gili-Ross is absent due to visa appointments at the U.S. embassy in London, forcing them to employ an Edinburgh-based stand-in, but – as the Watford boys have proven before – it's going to take more than a member change to slow them down.