After a brief hiatus from live music over the summer, Black Sunrise’s wall of noise hit me like a sledgehammer as they kicked off a sterling lineup of stoner/doom at the Wheatsheaf. The band utilizes a mixture of screeching, dissonant lead guitar and a powerful partnership of bass and drums to create an instrumental sound with the potential for real brutality. Vocals, on the other hand, were a little quiet tonight, and, dare I say, even sounded weak in places! Although this may have been partly the fault of the venue sound on the night, I thought Black Sunrise’s bassist/vocalist looked a great deal more comfortable and confident in the moments when he was able to step away from the mic. I also noticed a degree of sloppiness in the performance of the band as a whole, but given the style of their music, this poses less of a problem for them as it would for a more technical, ‘modern’ metal band. Even so, I felt their performance would have been enhanced by a performance as tight the next band on the lineup, Caravan of Whores, whose opening improvisation blossomed to monstrous life as this trio of doom-merchants locked into perfect synchronisation. This is doom metal at its finest – bluesy, trippy, well defined, and yet possessive of a crushing air of pure heaviness which is hard to pin down on any one element of the music. A factor in this is the confidence with which frontman Pete Smith and his bandmates nonchalantly rip through their lengthy songs. The intimate, sweaty nature of a venue like The Wheatsheaf only adds to the impact of a truly outstanding set.

The size of the crowd seemed to peak towards the end of Caravan of Whores’ set, which was unfortunate given that the high quality of the night’s entertainment continued with Alunah, a female-fronted doom band from Birmingham, arguably the birthplace of heavy metal. Alunah have to be one of the loudest live bands I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and this only enhanced their fuzzed out ‘wall of noise’ sound. Unfortunately, frontwoman Soph Day seemed to be having as many problems hearing her vocals as I was, but nonetheless Alunah exuded power and confidence in a performance which was nothing if not impressive!

I’ve somehow avoided seeing local legends Mother Corona live up until this point, which is something that I was sorely regretting by around a minute into their set. Despite severe technical problems, the band blasted through their (sadly shortened) set with a casual sense of energy, whipping the crowd into an absolute frenzy with their cover of ‘I Wanna be Your Dog’ by The Stooges. Mother Corona didn’t perform the tightest set I’ve ever seen, but they remained one of the most enjoyable bands on the night by the sheer sense of brotherhood and enjoyment that was evident as their songs ripped through the crowd. I’d definitely recommend anyone with a love for all things stoner going to one of their gigs in the future!