Ho99o9

Stereo, Glasgow

Four Stars

Ho99o9 (Horror) like messing with your head and probably will not welcome being described as hip-hop for a punk crowd; although that is what they are.

Their warped, abrasive, challenging and oblique outlook has drawn comparisons to another experimental hip-hop crew Death Grips. 

But the confines of this grey Glasgow venue, this claustrophobic amalgam of almighty riffing, sonic loops, sinister groaning samples, and seething vocal delivery places The OGM and Eaddy far closer to hardcore than their Californian counterparts.   

The Herald:

Not that you dare call them a punk band, of course.  With bodies crammed into every available space, one punter screamed out, "play a punk song" and was given short shrift from The OGM.

In terms of sheer on-stage power and raw energy, they make The Prodigy look like Ed Sheeran.  If there is a wilder hip-hop combo around, I haven't seen them.

Some might wince at the crying baby crucified on a dagger cross which graces the cover of their monster of a debut album United States Of Horror.

Religion, race, necrophilia, class and drug abuse are all topics to be explored.

The Herald:

While revolution and anarchy is of course no new card to play for any band post-1977, if it's shock for shock's sake this predominantly white crowd were oblivious.

They make their way through the crowd to the stage to the sound of distorted electronics with The OGM in a wedding dress looking like a nightmarish transvestite bride.

As they send bodies hurtling across the room by detonating the incendiary Street Power, the only safe place to be is by the speakers where only your ears will be pummelled.

The Herald:

Much of this hour is a discordant, disorientating but breathaking mess of snarling visceral rhythms that without the pair's mesmerising on-stage violence might just be pure pain.

There are times when their digital hardcore punk noise is reminiscent of Atari Teenage Riot at their most dissonant.

I have rarely seen a more intense moshpit than that seen in this hour of mayhem where at one point Eaddy decides to crowd surf with the Glasgow faithful ensuring there were no unfortunate accidents.

Then Eaddy decides to do his version of parting of the Red Sea using the crowd, before running maniacly from the valley of bodies that created the wall of death he had created back onto the stage.

They are a call-to-arms riot-inducing experience married to stick-it-to-the man grandstanding.

The Herald:

The title track from United States Of Horror rails: "If you stand against police brutality, racism, government oppression, motherf****** abusing their power, false prophets trying to feed you their f****** bullsh**... put your fists up."

As powerful as they are, there are no guitars, no synths nor indeed any instrument outside a small sample pad and drums.

At one point they did come over like Americans on holiday, as The OGM declares they were from New Jersey, and wondered whether anyone knew where New Jersey was.  

If they have an anthem, it's Knuckle Up, and their "we don't take no sh*t from no motherf*****" hook which is undoubtedly the ultimate rallying cry for this pair of delightfully deranged heretics. This is where the hybrid of death rap and anarchic noise rock is perfected.

Before the end, The OGM talks about the importance of artistic freedom, when they are constrained by a venue curfew of 10pm, revelling in having the licence to be able to have a band name with numbers instead of letters.

The Herald:

Then to contradict all that went before, they slip in a rampaging cover of Attitude by the most definitive of American hardcore punk bands,  Bad Brains.

As the final song reaches its conclusion, the crowd invade the stage, albeit with a little (no lots of) encouragement from Eaddy, and we have a suitably chaotic end to this provocative pandemonium.

The freezing Glasgow streets beckoned for a sweat soaked but jubliant crowd.