To The Bones @ The Barfly, London

Is it just me or has there been a kind of Real Rock Revival going on recently? Proper rock’s suddenly cool again – first we’ve had Pulled Apart By Horses picking up plaudits for their stomping metal / hardcore hybrid and now we’ve got Bolton’s To The Bones playing the Barfly to promo their first new material since their well received debut LP.
And while their music is drizzled with distinctively Northern English post punk, this lot are unashamed metal heads. And considering metal’s penchant for all things magical and fantastical, it should be no surprise they’re working some of that magic tonight.
After beginning rather slowly with an instrumental sub metal jam (which feels like Joy Division having been raised on slashercore horror flicks), they’re incrementally invading your cerebral cortex.
I must be standing in some golden section of sonic mayhem because my head’s beginning to vibrate, not least due to the voice of singer guitarist Rhys. When he yelps out a chorus of “you’ve got a broken spine”, it's fair to say that my spine's the last thing I'm worried about - the music's monstrous enough to shatter glass windows and explode jewellery like popcorn.
And then things get sexy. New songs ‘YHF’ (a perfect slice of evil pop metal) and ‘Monsters’ (imagine QOTSA haunting a primeaval swamp) fly past in a thick groove.
By which point your body's finally caught up with your head - and just in time for ‘Lips On Red’, which is funkier than any metal song has a right to be. Cometh the song ‘Sharkey’s Bone Symphony’, and singer Rhys has finally stopped hiding behind his locks and thrown off his guitar - transforming himself into a full on rock god, commanding the stage.