(((O))) Live: Guiltless • WREN • Hammer – The Flying Duck, Glasgow

Is there any better place to spend a chilly Monday night than a dimly lit basement with a couple of dozen like-minded metalheads and a trio of distinctively loud, hacked-off bands? More than likely (a cuppa, a cat and a couch spring to mind) but to the people who’ve made it out to The Flying Duck for an evening that starts slightly earlier than advertised, this is a cathartic and deafening testament to the power of big-ass amps, hefty riffs and sonic misanthropy.

Turning up at time for the doors opening, it’s a little disheartening to hear that Hammer have already started, but given the fact that they are obliterating any-and-all extraneous noise with their own, things seem to be going well for them already. The Edinburgh crew could be summed up under the “extreme metal” umbrella as they intersperse their assault with elements of so many other styles that anything more precise would feel disingenuous. This is pure, unfiltered metal, with murky sludge riffs rubbing shoulders with blackened percussion and death-metal growls, and even the occasional pig squeal thrown in to add a little bit of spice. They keep these disparate threads tightly focused – the extended swathes of brutality tempered with chunky, memorable grooves and the occasional splash of showmanship courtesy of a choice solo or two. Despite an occasionally murky sound they almost manage to recapture the precise violence of their recent full-length Trapped, even if they are hitting the crowd with what feels like a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel.

Hammer. Photo: Demelza Kingston

Initially lit only by two retina-scorching white lights that remain trained on drummer Seb Tull, Wren come across as both minimalist and hostile, which as anyone familiar with their sound will be able to attest, feels appropriate. Pulling entirely from this year’s Black Rain Falls, there’s a sense of cohesion from watching this unit that feels like watching a natural disaster unfold; a cascade of sound that rolls in waves across the senses. Tull’s drumming is remarkably tight given just how loose and sprawling these songs are, while Chris Pickering and Owen Jones complement each other impeccably – an assault of utter despair rendered in surround sound. Still, there’s more to them than crushing heaviness, and when the band rein in their sound, leaving chords and the deafening hum of Robert Letts’ bass to ring and resonate throughout the room, it’s almost soothing. This is music to completely lose oneself in, just as absorbing in their moments of tense introspection as they are when all four simply lock in on a groove, pushing and hammering until the world seems to fold in on itself.

WREN. Photo: Demelza Kingston

While they never made the same impact as post-metal progenitors like Neurosis and ISIS, there was still a real sense of loss when A Storm of Light called it a day (maybe?) back in 2018, but anyone who has kept an eye on Josh Graham always knew that he’d return in one way or another. The fact that he came back with ASOL’s Billy Graves and Dan Hawkins, as well as Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable, to form Guiltless left some expecting an upgraded take on what had gone before, but Teeth To Sky ended up being so much more than that; a raw, cacophonic blend of noise rock with industrial and primal, utterly pummelling sludge, as well as one of early 2025’s truly great metal albums.

Live, Guiltless lose none of that impact, delivering a set that captures the tone of the source material while injecting it with frantic energy –  largely due to Graves’ relentless approach to drumming, never leaving a note unpunctuated by his warlike pounding. Dunable’s bass is laced with menace, a harsh metallic rumble that fits their end-of-days vibe like a particularly ragged glove, while Hawkins and Graham continue to be one of the most underrated duos in heavy music, each able to accentuate the other in a way that adds just the right amount of heft.

Guiltless. Photo: Demelza Kingston

Opening with ‘Devour Collide’, the switch from haunting atmospherics to punishing heaviness is jarring – Graham’s familiar bark a million miles from his typically soft-spoken self; and as they shift into ‘One Is Two’ there’s already a sense of momentum building, each riff steamrolling over the last and leaving a sea of nodding heads in its wake. ‘Teeth To Sky’ sounds like Killing Joke stripped of any veneer of modern respectability, and by the time they are winding the night down with ‘All We Destroy’ there’s a feeling of hunger and immediacy, a sense that they could keep doing this all night and sound just as massive as when they started. They sound like four musicians who have been gifted a new lease of life, and with any luck Guiltless will continue to strain speakers and neck muscles alike for years to come.

Guiltless. Photo: Demelza Kingston