Mafafi, Impaled Existence @ Speakers, Colwyn Bay

(review by MWJ)

A Sunday to fit in with Scotland’s Mafafi’s touring suited me in making a double header of the weekend. Well it could have been a triple but I bailed out of the Mephs on Saturday in Bangor in favour of hospitalisation on my sofa due to my “exertions” on Friday, listening to the soothing sounds of Full Metal Racket on preston.fm. But hair of the dog called so it was back on the iron horse to the Bay

Another good turn out though, as again we have this crossover crowd between metal and punk. I’d been to metal night here a couple of weeks back and been pleasantly surprised to see so many coming out of the woodwork whilst simultaneously wondering why they missed out on some of the quality extreme punk that’s been knocking about locally. Maybe I’m just lucky in being able to appreciate both with out feeling “trapped in a scene”. No Global Parasite as promised due to apprently them getting a taste to being stuck in the back of a van and becoing removals men instead…

Anyway Impaled Existence had been on that previous metal night and as then they were a ferocious prospect, massively moved on from their early days when I saw them at Bar Blu a couple or more years back. Their technicality and speed in delivering cutting edge melodic death is quite jawdropping, especially for me Sam on bass. However, I felt this was sometimes a familiar sacrifice, at the expense of having hooks within the tunes. (Maybe easier to pick up on their excellently produced EP, and perhaps restricted by the PA here). There was undoubtedly lots to appreciate but often these bits seemed to be whisked away with the next barrage of mayhem. The vocals were brutally delivered, though he proved he could actually sing as well, which kind of added a variety of interest but with the contrast being so great I don’t know if many would appreciate both ends of the spectrum. Still, I for one was chuffed to have such extremity in my back yard, more please!

Again, it was return for Mafafi having previously witnessed their borderline insanity at the Dudley at a semi-all-dayer also a couple of years back. Their hardcore punk remained blistering while in the confines of Speakers there was no avoiding the in-yer-face vocal delivery from their wandering vocalist, except maybe when he was foetal on the floor roaring into the mike, or off behind one of the cabs changing his trews for something more comfortable! All with plenty of good humour though, their songs are machine gunned through in a couple of minute blasts meaning it all seems to end quite abruptly at about 10.30, but I guess that’s fair enough for a Sunday in a town centre. And fortunately further drinking is permitted til the last train back west before midnight.