Live review from The Underground Winter Festival (冬季音樂祭) Day 2 @ The Fringe Club:
1. Intro
2. Explosion
3. Foff
4. 300
5. Break yourself
6. Shout
7. Happy fun song
8. What we defend
9. SxxxR
Vox: Wai
Drum: Terrence
Bass: To
Guitars: Pac, Brian
Snails are supposed to be slow and smooth, protected, perhaps, by a large circular shell covering them. When a snail is threatened or shocked, they retreat into said shell because they are otherwise incredibly soft and fragile.
Not these snails.
Snails, the band, are demonic, dangerous and deceptive – for who could have ever thought that lead singer (Wai) could pack so much destructive energy in such a small body? As soon as the guitars (Pac, Brian) started blazing, bass (To) began booming and drums (Terrence) dared to crash, the Underground Stage filled up so quickly that within seconds I had no line of sight from my little corner on the side of the doorway, to Wai’s mesmerising evil eye.
“Dance! Dance! Dance!”, she commanded her crowd of mosh pitting minions. She was screaming, and so was the music; the audience was hyped and moving; something in the air was breaking. Maybe it was schizophrenia because Wai’s performance style was definitely something out of a mental asylum – one second she’d be screaming and thrashing like a thing possessed, and the next she’d suddenly swap her voice into a cutesy, pouty kong-girl, (flowers, rainbows and hello kitties). This crazy, schizophrenic, split-personality was definitely the highlight of the show; you never quite knew what was going to happen in the next minute, maybe a little smirk, or a thousand yard stare, or satan’s own scream manifesting in the mosh pit, but whatever happened, you knew it’d be wild.
Many musical elements that other bands might consider important seem to be more suggestions to Snails. Things such as: separating songs from one another; letting audiences know when a piece starts or ends; generally health and safety; song names that made sense (Explosion seemed more like a description than a title, and Foff, well … I’m not sure what a Foff is even now). They didn’t so much have songs per say but a continuous calamity of noise and energy that kept audiences moving, and moving, and moving. As for lyrics? Usually I’d write about word painting but there’s no point because words are optional. Meaning is optional Clarity is optional. Feeling is paramount. And the feelings never stopped.
Some songs did stand out. Break Yourself had some of the most audible lyrics all night, which succinctly went “find your fucking self”. Perhaps not the most astute or poetic but powerful, direct and maybe much needed on a cold winter night.
I came into the hall exhausted and depressed; now I’m feeling like I have the energy to punch straight through the Fringe’s brick walls.
– Cyril Ma
Live performance review from Metal Valentine:
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
Live review from Death Metal Dungeon:
1. Intro
2. Explosion
3. Fuck Off
4. SxxxR
5. Break Yourselves
6. Shout
7. 30s
8. Sum of the Beach
9. Happy Fun Song
10. What We Defend
Holy shit. A crowd that at times had looked like it had been close to flat-lining was suddenly jerked violently to life, as Snails vocalist Wai delivered a near-deadly defibrillator dose of screaming vocals over pounding guitars from the opening beats of Intro, whipping the audience up into a writhing mosh pit in double-quick time.
Explosion saw the blonde-streaked nuclear bomb flip to clean(er) singing over matching riffing – for about a minute, anyway – before ordering the crowd into a circle pit as the band launched into the fervent Fuck Off, which stepped up the tempo to near breaking point. SxxxR kept up the manic pace before switching to chugging power chords with a density off the periodic table, causing a mosh pit of such power to erupt it threatened to knock down the guitars lining the venue’s walls.
There was a brief break to catch the shortest of breaths before the hardcore punk quintet launched into Break Yourselves. Wai again switched up her tone, alternating between fast singing and head-splitting screams, the energy building from solo bass and drums mid-track to an all-out riotous climax. As Shout played I realised I could feel the guitars in the back of my throat, with the bellowed lyric “I’ve got to save my life” making me wonder who was going to save mine if the chaos continued much longer.
The super-fast, super-frenetic 30s was a half-minute headrush that crashed immediately into Sum of the Beach with its freaky, screechy guitars and turbulent tempo changes, before the almost radio-friendly Happy Fun Song laid out lighter, more cheerful passages… until it didn’t. What We Defend wrapped things up with hard-hitting riffs, rabid screams and even a smidgen of a guitar solo, finishing off a tight 25-minute set.
Comprising ex-members of bands that include Yau Dong, Dagger, Kyanos and King Lychee, it was clear Snails knew how to put on a show, with an excellent mix of sounds and showmanship that no doubt had everyone who witnessed it eagerly anticipating their next performance.
– Ti Zae Yi
