Page 115 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)
P. 115
LIVE REVIEWS
Ash Costello is a Cruella mistress,
but the fans adore her
NEW YEARS DAY
LOWLIVES
O2 ISLINGTON ACADEMY, LONDON
The stars align for California’s goth-styled rockers
NEW YEARS DAY have visited krxvhv1#Wkh|#Ľuvw#hphujhg#
our shores frequently over the years in the MySpace age with Lowlives try to grab their
in support of myriad bands, from ľrss|#iulqjhv#dqg#wkhlu# own piece of the limelight
Motionless In White to Halestorm, each 2007, pop-punk debut, My
time in front of increasingly expanding Dear, but have since morphed into short at disappointed groans from the
furzgv1#Wkh#vorj#kdv#sdlg#rļ1#Wkh#Fdol# a much darker, bloodthirsty band. crowd. “Oh, you wanted that?” NYD’s
goths are clearly a band on the rise and Throughout it all, their silver bullet take on Pantera’s Fucking Hostile follows
this time they’re here under their own has been lynchpin and High Vampiress in a barrage of industrial-tinged churn
steam for their biggest tour yet. Ash Costello, who has become and curdling screams from Ash,
Xs#Ľuvw/#wkrxjk/#zhġuh#jhwwlqj# a commanding frontwoman. In a whirl lqwhqvlĽhg#e|#d#olvvrph#vror#iurp#ohdg#
serious Kurt Cobain vibes from of windmilling half-white, half-black guitarist Austin Ingerman. By now, the
LOWLIVES frontman Lee Villian, hair, she stalks the stage, belting out band have gathered quite the fervent
suhylrxvo|#nqrzq#dv#Wkh#GhĽohgġv# the choruses for Come For Me and Shut fanbase. During Scream, it’s “half-
Stitch D. Also featuring members of Up and relishing the empowering heads” to the front - there’s more than
The Ataris and No Devotion, the lyrical material and heavier direction a few fans here rocking Ash’s infamous
quartet play straight-down-the-line, that the band tackled on last year’s half-red, half-black hair-dye job –
Albini-loving scuzz that pays homage Unbreakable. Grinning at the crowd, and before closer Angel Eyes, Ash and
to Seattle grunge. It’s a well-trodden she invites us to raise horns and guitarist Nikki Misery gaze out at the
partake in some metal God worship.
room, considering how this “odd band
template but Hey You is an anthem
DANI WILGRESS in waiting. ģLwġv#wkh#hdvlhvw#phwdo#vdfulĽfh#|rxġoo# out” could have made it this far. Surely
even greater heights await them.
NEW YEARS DAY’s journey to get
ever be part of,” she promises. “No
here has taken them around the
goats, no blood, no virgins…” She stops
DANNII LEIVERS
