Live Review: Frankies Heavy Metal Hoo-Ha

Does anyone really care about genres anyway? That seems to be the mantra at Frankie’s Pizza, who offered up another line-up of bands that might share a few influences, but all sit along different parts of the metal spectrum. As such, ranking the bands would be a pretty futile endeavour. Resonance opened with a chaotic blend of post-hardcore and fuzzy shoegaze, while Disintegrator took the crowd back to ‘80s crossover thrash, both in look and sound. They were the first band of the night to crack open the mosh pit.

Before Ciada may not be the most unique band, but their devastating metalcore assault was made all the more potent by their sheer tightness, working like clockwork (a really big, terrifyingly heavy clock…). Whisky Smile kept the momentum going with their own, high energy take on sludge, throwing in a bizarrely rad cover of Nutbush City Limits. Not to be outdone, Flaming Wrekage turned it up by plunging into a set of modern thrash-metal. The four-piece turned the crowd — out in absolute force for a Sunday — into less a bunch of punters and more a natural disaster, with flurries of bodies flying back and forth.

Slogging it out live, Thrashed have carved a nice niche: the band is as heavy and groovy as Pantera, with their dual-vocal stylings providing a singalong vibe between stage dives. With the entire crowd getting involved (a few snatching the mic to do so) and singer Tim Davis swinging from the ceiling, the band of outlaws closed out the night in true rock’n’roll fashion.

Any given night at Frankie’s is made up of two things: beer and pizza. Throw in a few killer metal bands and what’s not to love?