Our third event as part of our 21st Year Anniversary Series! Thanks so much to Protoss神族 who wanted to come and play at The Underground and helped us to curate such a great metal line-up! It was fantastic to be back at Wave Music. Thanks to Addy for his support of Underground; he made all three bands sound fantastic. Thanks to Steven for assisting Addy with the sound. Big shout out to Cadence who worked the lights like a pro! With assistance from Claire. Thank you to the three bands who performed and shared their songs with an engaged and mostly-moshing audience. Thank you to everyone who turned up. Special thanks to Aaron Michelson for the photos and El Jay for the reviews. A big thanks to Raven, our wonderful doorperson. Lastly, again thank you to Cadence, who spent hours creating the incredible show poster.
我哋21週年系列嘅第三場表演圓滿結束喇！多謝晒 Protoss神族 想嚟 The Underground 演出，仲幫我哋搞掂咗咁勁嘅重金屬陣容。可以再次喺浪潮音樂表演真係超開心！
首先要多謝Addy對Underground嘅支持，佢令三隊樂隊嘅音響效果都好掂。仲要多謝Steven協助Addy搞音響。特別要讚一讚Cadence，佢整嘅燈光效果簡直係專業級，Claire都有幫手添。
多謝三隊表演樂隊，佢哋同觀眾分享咗自己嘅歌。現場氣氛勁興奮，大部分觀眾都跳到癲。多謝所有到場支持嘅朋友。特別感謝Aaron Michelson影咗靚相，同埋ElJay寫咗精彩嘅評論。
仲有要多謝我哋嘅門神Raven。最後，再次感謝Cadence，佢花咗好多時間設計咗個超級正嘅海報。
❤️ Chris B xx

Our website photo albums are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues-we’re working to fix this as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can view all our event photos on our Facebook page.
我哋網站嘅相簿暫時受技術問題影響睇唔到過往活動嘅相片。
我哋會盡快搞掂，期間，可以去我哋Facebook頁面睇返所有活動相片。

CMDZ

1. Warriors
2. ⁠Equilibrium
3. My Fallen Eden
4. Yesterday Blossom
5. In the Name of Slander
6. ⁠Never Regret

Intense mosh pits right from the off defined CMDZ’s (“Command-Z”) opening set at Metal Valentine. They played Shazza a year ago and impressed Chris B enough to land the opening slot at one of her cult heavy shows. “You’re 30 years old and still playing metal,” taunted frontman Qler, as if his mother was telling him off. Their sound harks back to the ’00s metalcore of bands like Enter Shikari and Bring Me The Horizon while blending in a more American hardcore/emo sound that evoked Taking Back Sunday. In testament to the buzz around this outfit, the venue was rammed from the start and there was a wall of death enacted within the first five minutes. While not hugely original sounding, CMDZ are a welcome addition to Hong Kong’s heavy scene, bringing energy and a sense of rebellion, and a willingness to work to ascend to bigger and better shows.

“I wanna see the biggest pit tonight!” yelled Qler ambitiously at the start of Yesterday Blossom. The band’s key strength is its relentless rhythm section – drummer Yiu and bassist Rex – laying down a solid foundation for their comrades. Suddenly, a female singer from the pit (apparently Qler’s music student) took to the mic for a verse – a cool move that kept the crowd guessing. Suddenly, Qler was back with some reptilian screaming over horror film synths, creating a dark, deranged atmosphere.

Closer Never Regret launched with militaristic drumming from Yiu. Hair whipped and fur flew, then the tempo dropped for some shrieking fretwork from Ken. A spoken word section rung out over rolling drums and the dual guitars raged in heroically. Rex was exciting to watch throughout the set with his extremely animated antics. Guitarist Eric’s rhythms brought the group to the finish line while Yiu’s splattering toms saw them out, a superb first act in the evening’s high-calibre triptych.
-El Jay

Protoss神族

Intro
纏繞 (Entanglement)
Amongst the Lost
Figment
Eternal inferno
Beginning
To the Heaven
臨界 (The Critical)
活化工廈 (Revitalise Chemical Factory)

All hail the mighty Protoss. Few heavy bands have had the longevity of this revered unit, which has been active (on and off) since the mid-00s. The crowd knew the score: one guy started stretching while another put on safety goggles – a smart move, presumably to guard from any projectiles or contagious flying fluids. The five-piece finally cracked from their foul chrysalis and set the scene with a buffeting onslaught to blow any dust out of the PA system. Then, an indecipherable gale of gurgles and screeches, signalling that a prehistoric evil had awakened and the room was strapped into a ride they wouldn’t be getting off until the final evil note was delivered.

Suddenly, the crowd began parting from the back and a deathly chill blew into the room. A figure dressed as Pyramid Head made his way slowly into the fray. Instead of getting into the percolating moshpit, he stood to one side, surveying the scene sinisterly. “Shout out to Silent Hill!”, came the call of approval from hirsute frontman Randy. The mere presence of this diabolical video game character seemed to invigorate the band somewhat.

Smoke rose spookily as it was time for Protoss to prove why they’re deathcore masters: capped guitarist Sing laid on some fearsome distortion for Amongst the Lost, but all eyes were on bassist Carson, a true showman whose energy and motion didn’t let up for the full set. A deep gurgling, like a drain clogged with rancid, decomposing body parts, emanated from Randy on Figment. Then, a screech. A squawk. There are few vocalists in Hong Kong who have the dexterity and demonic inclination for extreme metal as he does. Eternal Inferno was the musical equivalent of a crocodile’s death roll. Randy leaned back, smiling with his arms outstretched, as he surveyed the mayhem unfolding all around him, forged by the abattoir squeals generated by San’s guitar. A Middle Eastern-sounding melody rang out before being quickly swallowed by a rumble. The music dropped out just to cymbals for a second as the pit was allowed a moment’s breather. It was temporary, and chaos soon resumed – photographer Aaron was almost barged over in the foaming melee.

Snap, snap, snap went drummer Tung’s snare on Beginning before his rolling thunder rhythms were joined in an unholy alliance by Randy’s screams, and tunnelling, spiralling guitar melodies. Pyramid Head was seen nodding approvingly from the sidelines but wasn’t tempted to enter the big pit beside him. “BROOOOO” then “REEEEEE” went the singer’s ungodly, inhuman noises on To The Heaven, linking up with complex, knotty guitar work, including chiming, ominous noises from Sing, who then laid down some tremolo as his copilot San cycled through chords.

Tung powered through the entire set without a hint of emotion on his face – bookish and clean-cut, unlike his bandmates, he looked like he should be in a different group, but defied all impressions by laying down the kind of drum mastery a band of this dead-star density requires. 臨界 (The Critical) delivered crushy, mushy breakdowns that gave way to a buzzsaw bridge. 活化工廈 (Revitalise Chemical Factory) opened to a blizzard of strobes, villainous growls and deathly bass runs, leaving a sour, acidic taste in the mouth. It was the last chance to whack one more bruising blow or two on a fellow punter. Notes slowed in a simmering heat death before drawing in, a spider winding up its prey, to a spine-chilling singularity.
-El Jay

SNAILS

Intro
Explosion
FKOFF
30s
Mystery
Break yourself
Shout
Sum off the bitch
Happy fun song
What we defend
Slayer

It’s hard to do any more justice to this band than Ti Zae Yi did in their Death Metal Dungeon review, so navigate to that page if you want a true encapsulation of the fresh whirlwind that is this tight gastropod unit. They came out bouncing with a thrash stomping intro, before Wai gave the instruction “Dance! Dance! Dance!” and the band got their two-step on for Explosion, which saw her beg “Give me the chance to play” over revving guitars. Then punters were whipped into a lather and swarmed like angry bees to FKOFF’s buzzing guitars and retched hardcore bars.

Something of a who’s-who in the Hong Kong hardcore scene, with member overlap with the likes of King Lychee, Dagger and Kyanos, Snails slimed out fully formed and ready to start a riot. Wai is a charismatic and menacing force, barking vocals with attitude and flipping between metal growls, clean verses and ironic baby-sweet asides without any bum notes – her tone is The Runaways meets Butcher Babies with a dose of Marmozets’ Becca Macintyre. Brian and PAC’s dual guitars ranged from caterwauling and chaotic to tightly wound solos, heavy riffing and chugging breakdowns, all propelled by bassist To and drummer Terrence’s serious, driving rhythmic engine.

The atmosphere remained electric throughout the set, inciting everything from fervent moshing to crowdsurfing. Even Pyramid Head finally got into the pit, boozed up and fighty on the Ballentine’s. A show draw in their own right, Snails have quickly become an unmissable feature on Hong Kong’s heavy scene – check the storm radar and batten down the hatches for whenever they make landfall next.
-El Jay

Photos by 攝影：Aaron Michelson
Poster by 海報: Cadence.