Kerrang! | Issue 860 (07th July 2001)

Live... Hell Is For Heroes @ Camdem Barfly, London | Thursday 21st June 2001

When rubber-faced show-tune peddler Andrew Lloyd Webber declared Symposium to be his favourite pop group, the band's imminent demise was inevitable (though the two events have never officially been linked, the laws of cause and effect seem undeniable). Happily, drummer Joe Birch and guitarist Will McGonagle have shaken off that slur to form this lot. A band whoes raucous live power is way beyond the foot-tapping indulgence of Sir Andrew. After an indecently long wait, the fresh faced five-piece amble onstage. Pauing only to unfurl their tasteful Jagermeister flag, they dig in with impressive ferocity and Metallica-like, heads-down, men-at-work riffage. Having only released one single, the superb 'Sick/Happy', HIFH don't have familiarity to fall back on tonight. What they do have is the awesome firepower of Will McGonagle's Explorer guitar, playing counter point to shiny-haired second guitarist, Tom O'Donoghue. A pocket-sized guitar hero, Will twitches and jerks like an apprentice Ian Mackaye through the belting 'Night Vision', and even pulls Pete Townshead patented windmills for the melodic 'I Can Climb Mountains'. There's a lot of Fugazi reverence going on tonight. Big crunchy chords, stop-start guitar interplay and the anguish of singer Justin Schlossberg's emo over-reach. The latter is occaisionally annoying and most evident during 'Iceland' (N/B I think they mean 'Ice Walking'), a slower building angsty epic that's introduced as "a song about driving". Trouble getting his licence perhaps? Who can say? What is clear though is that this crowd is already sold. Which isn't to say the shoulder shoving and shin cracking doesn't move up a notch with 'Cut Down''s foot-on-the-monitor anthemic bounce. The metallic drum programming of the single signals the last song, with Justin teetering on the edge of Joe's bass drum, and our affections. Then almost as soon as they appeared, Hell Is For Heroes are gone - just eight short songs and half an hour later. They may be doing their best to shake off Symposium comparisions, but they still know how to love 'em and leave 'em.

KKK

by Jenny Bulley