Ommaddon/Bismuth/Containment at Brixton Windmill, London - live review

CONTAINMENT’s [7] blackened grind is at odds with tonight’s headliners, but they are a fiery start to what would otherwise be a claustrophobic evening. BISMUTH’s [9] two-person drum and bass doom is a haunting tour de force that crushes the venue in a completely different way. Tanya Byrne’s vocals are ethereal in all the right places and bloodcurdling where it counts, giving the duo a vibrant and touching soul – even more so when Tanya falls to the floor and screams in the dramatic closing moments. It’s breathtaking and somehow gives OMMADDON [8], while excellent, an anticlimactic feel as their initially subdued aura takes a slowburning approach to sound. The droning, cyclic guitar twists layers around the monolithic drums and the two Scotsmen on stage reach for hypnotic rhythms rather than all-out power. The surge, when it hits, is fantastically dynamic and leaves many with bowed heads and ringing ears.