Carbon Heart is a three-piece alternative rock band from Hereford. On March 27th, the trio played its first live show in Birmingham, at Centrala, a renowned art gallery that occasionally doubles as a music venue.
The band’s anguished, but uplifting, metamorphosis of 2000s-style emo turns the intimacy of a small, unorthodox venue into an even friendlier environment than it already is. It’s only appropriate for a band whose lyrics couple defeatism with togetherness to have such an effect. “I wanna run from myself but my laces are undone” is a key lyric from The Beholder – from the band’s self-released album Human Holiday (link below) – and if there ever is such a feeling shared so mutually by Carbon Heart’s audience, the band’s loud anthemics, onstage humour and dedications to those who need a helping hand, rapport-driven interplay, and pride in its own role in the LGBT+ community, are all here to alleviate that feeling.
On the night, the trio was able to overcome any obstacles presented by a quaint venue perhaps not accustomed to accommodating the noisier side of alternative music. Singer Ryan Nelder has a sort of Andrew Wood arena mentality of treating any show like you’re playing at Madison Square Garden, complete with success in affectionately getting the crowd to clap along with the two-note hook that resolves Moonstone 6’s riff. Bassist Mars Kelly’s style modifies the core sound with a powerful Gothicism somewhere between Peter Hook and Simon Gallup – I can’t speak for the band itself, but the blown-out tone, on the night, made for a slick uniqueness in which bass was never secondary. Jed Webb’s drumming is tireless; stunningly maturing some of the band’s metalcore elements – e.g. bits that insinuate breakdowns – with the same tenacity and application as most technical metalcore drummers.
As mentioned, this was Carbon Heart’s first Birmingham gig, but you should check them out wherever you can. I imagine Hereford is just as big a party town.
While I was at Centrala, I also had the chance to check out two other bands. Firstly Idolatrine; a metal band from Hereford that pretty much just formed. They’re a bit of a mix different styles of metal, epitomised by the final song they performed which combined elements of doom metal with Arch Enemy style metalcore complete with big rhythm changes and screaming. Then, Monetopia; a tight-as-hell band from Birmingham that inventively combines a few old school styles of metal, mainly thrash and Pantera-esque groove metal.
I don’t think Idolatrine has much of an online presence, being such a new band, but if anybody reads this (you never know, someone might) and wants to correct me, that’s cool. As for Monetopia, you can listen to their self-titled album here.
You can listen to Carbon Heart’s Human Holiday over on their YouTube. The album is also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
