Crossfaith / The One Hundred - Live Review / Galleries, Portsmouth March 2016

Crossfaith 

You can tell a great deal by the lull before the gig and with an early packed out venue this night of metal-core was set to go down a storm. Portsmouth's packed in crowd was raring to go by the time The One Hundred took to the stage. 

With an eclectic combination of crushing guitars and infectious electronica, London based The One Hundred incorporate elements of metal, hip hop, rock and dance. Highlights of the set included the songs Kingsmen and Downfall from their Subculture E.P. which both have just the right balance of singalong melody and crushing raw energy.

The official video for 'Kingsmen'

While The One Hundred showed more of a hip-hop influence musically they also had a big atmospheric sound to rival that of Crossfaith.

Crossfaith ramped the atmosphere up one more notch, 5 guys creating a truly full-on sound and upbeat performance.

True to genre, purist metal-corers would know what to expect from a show like this, with all the power and harshness of industrial metal Crossfaith are like EDM for the disenfranchised. Creatively blending dance / electronica elements with the raw energy and enthusiasm of hardcore / metal with an intricate flair.

Although listening to them recorded the breathy vocals in the breakdowns can sometimes come off a little cheesey these parts do add essential contrast helping to illustrate their highly narrative style.

Electro-industrial is perhaps a better way to categorise their sound and to our ears and along the translation from recorded to live performance the rousing calls of "pick up the pace Portsmouth" the live experience wins out every time.

If metalcore is your bag seeing Crossfaith live is an absolute must. Check out images and videos from the show below (you may well need to a show of this level of energy there was hardly a cell phone in the air ... hands aloft ... let's go!):

Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms 17th March 2016 - Omen

Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms 17th March 2016 - Omen / Monolith

Their album Xeno is a concept album about an A.I. entity who takes over the male mind of the protagonist including guest collaborations with Benji Webbe (Skindred) and Caleb Shomo (Beartooth). A story of hope, failure, love, betrayal and death.

Produced by Josh Wilbur (Avenged Sevenfold, Lamb Of God, Hatebreed), XENO builds on the groundwork laid by 2013's APOCALYZE and 2012's ZION EP as well as the band's vast touring history. It's an artistic endeavor with roots in manga, anime and the furthest reaches of its creators' minds.

At the end of last summer, after a grueling festival run, Kazuki confided in Ken that his hand felt slightly weird and he wasn't comfortable playing guitar. What started as a simple problem – maybe a trapped nerve, maybe he slept on it, maybe anything – sharply escalated when the guitarist followed the mystery problem down a rabbit hole. He had, it transpires, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and the issue with his hand was a minor manifestation of a deeply serious problem. “He was,” admits Ken grimly, “very lucky. We all were. We thought the band was finished, and this was the worst thing that had ever happened to us.”

But because Crossfaith's never-say-die attitude runs through his veins – in this case, a little too literally – Kazuki steamed through an intensive course of physical rehab that, helpfully, involved playing a lot of guitar. At this point, after working through “Vanguard” and the thrilling “Ghost In The Mirror” (on which Caleb Shomo from Ohio breakout rippers Beartooth guests), Teru told Kazuki that he had an idea about a character called Xeno. Or rather two characters.

There are two Xenos – one a non-corporeal female digital intelligence that seeks to understand the complexities of human behavior, and the other a human with a death wish. After the AI boots herself up (the sound of which is captured on the album's intro, “System X”) she inserts herself into the brain of the human Xeno. He is so distraught with the state of the world that he, on the brutal chaos of the title track, destroys the entire world and then returns to his mother's womb, desperate to create reality again so people have a second chance.

“Everyone has a dark side,” says Ken. “Everybody is so hypocritical. And everything – our world – is being completely fucked up by so many people, especially the government. It's easy to see what they do. So Xeno, the person, decides to do something big so he can hit reset and start again.”

And all this time she lives behind his eyes, watching and learning and trying to understand just why people do what we do. Throughout the album all shades of human life are rendered: “Paint It Black” deals with gleeful revenge, “Wildfire” (enlivened by the exhilarating Benji Webbe from Skindred)  is all parties and serotonin peaks and the colossal “Tears Fall” speaks of love and loss with the deftest of touches.

But at the album's close, she notices that the one feeling that binds humanity together is loneliness. Despite how busy they are, how many other people they surround themselves with and what the smiles on their faces say, there's an ache below the surface that she simply wasn't prepared for.

“And this feeling, this loneliness that Xeno discovers – it's the same way we feel after a show,” explains Ken quietly. “She didn't expect people to feel this way when they live the lives they do, and it's the same for us.”

Crossfaith have transcended everything they've done before to create a headspinningly complex and futuristic allegory. And, somehow, it cuts to a simple truth at the heart of life.