P.M.P RIP

I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but last night I saw the final ever London show by underground metal legends Postmortem Promises at the Purple Turtle Camden, and it would have seemed rude of me not to go...

Now a little bit of background: I find a lot of 'extreme' metal to be dull and repetitive- a lot of people with beards trying to sound like Ingested. Now to the uneducated (i.e. those who never tried to listen to more than thirty seconds of Deathcore willingly) ALL such bands sound the same. Trust me, they don't. The point I'm trying to make is that Postmortem were a little different, they had originality and a special little something that made me want to listen and didn't just have me pushing them into the 'forced br00tal metal' part of my mind...

This is why I like them, and why I wanted to at least attempt to send them off in style.

First support band up were Titans (formerly Brokenjaw?) who, playing to a near empty room did a good job of injecting some energy with a perfectly acceptable mix of riffs and beatdowns. I was slightly distracted by the singers resemblance to a turnip (skinny jeans don't suit some people), but aesthetics aside, they were much, much better than the next band up, Your City Is Forgotten...come to think of it, I would rather have watched turnips grow than endure the mindless, semi-thrash dullness that they represented. Quite frankly, a field of root vegetables has more soul and potential for enjoyment ;)

Right from the off, when the whole band screamed their name in the first song there was something distinctly unlikeable going on. Then the music turned out to be shit. I spend the whole set leaning on a railing with my hood up, wondering when it would be over.

I could have, at this point, been a bit pissed off at life, if Demoraliser hadn't been so god-inspiringly epic. Aside from Postmortem they were easily the best band on the bill by a country mile. I couldn't put my finger on it then (and still can't) but there was something that got be going about them that was utterly brilliant. First to last song =totally absorbed. Even cracked out the night's first real headbang.

Against The Floor, despite being full of all sorts of technical metal wizardry, were never going to live up to that. They gave it a good go though, to their credit, and I'd happily check them out again. Pretty standard, slightly more 'classic' metal, but with the technical craziness thrown in.

Of course, by this time you'd expect the place to be packed. Except in the time honoured traditions of underground metal gigs in darkened rooms, it wasn't. Not that this really mattered as Postmortem Promises trouped on stage for the penultimate date of their farewell tour. Nor did it stop them ripping through their set like complete beasts. Nor did it stop a small percentage of the 'crowd' (myself included I must admit) from 2-stepping like loons.

Of course, there was never going to be any question about the quality of the show. It was always going to be insane. The reason I'm so sad Postmortem are going is that they were complete legends of 'the scene' who have solidly gigged their way through life since 2006,playing venues in every shape and size no matter the turn out. Even last night, faced with a thinned crowd and half a dozen people ready to go for it up front, they didn't relent one bit. In my eyes, that’s the standard all bands should aim for, whatever genre and however big they are.

Postmortem Promises then, goodbye.