Integrity at Birthdays, London - live review

Tonight, two of modern metalcore’s big hitters, Bury Tomorrow and While She Sleeps, are playing London to far larger crowds than the modest one here tonight. Arguably though, were it not for INTEGRITY, the music they make may not even exist. However, just being hugely revered, massively influential and only a year shy of your 30th birthday as a band isn’t enough to cut it when you’re faced with a couple of hundred diehard fans. And although their riffs are still heavier than concrete drowning in quicksand and frontman Dwid Hellion is as gruff as he’s ever been, the years have slowed Integrity slightly. As pace and energy are such key components of hardcore, this does blunt the band’s attack from time to time. Another key to great blackened hardcore is heart, and the passion with which they deliver both classics like System Overload and new tracks from their forthcoming album, Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume, shows why they’ve maintained such longevity. The current crop of bands could do a lot worse than continuing to follow the path that Integrity resolutely tread.