Knocked Loose and Terror Deliver Knockout Performances at Leeds Beckett University [Photos]

Arriving at Leeds Beckett University on this Saturday evening in February, there is a queue of fans stretching down the street all wanting their fix of hardcore from this four-band line-up headlined by Kentucky hardcore punks Knocked Loose.

Opening up the night were UKHC crew Last Wishes who are about to drop their Organized Hate debut album on April 29th. The ideal opener to warm things up, the band epitomized everything you could want from a UKHC band and, despite only grabbing about twenty-odd minutes on stage, the quartet dished out enough of a brutal beatdown to set the fuse on this explosive night.

Local band Static Dress was next up and certainly pulled in plenty of fans and friends from the bar. Hailing from Leeds, the hardcore punk outfit is picking up fans at a pace now having been nominated for a number of high-profile rock awards last year. It’s easy to see why as well as their sound, compared to everyone from Glassjaw to Every Time I Die, may sit uncomfortably between the brute force of Last Wishes and Terror but is no less aggressive. Spitting out abrasive blasts of punkish hardcore, here is a band who are going to make serious noises in heavy music in 2022.

About 30 seconds into their set and hardcore veterans Terror are joined on stage by Corin, vocalist with opening act Last Wishes, as the Los Angeles bruisers steam through opener “Spit My Rage.” In no mood to mess about, Terror frontman Scott Vogel incites the packed moshpit to make security work while criticizing the need for a barrier. Of course, bodies spit out over the crowd as the band continues to pummel through “Stick Tight” and “Mental Demolition” overseeing a scene of good friendly, violent fun.

However, midway through “Always The Hard Way” things take a turn for the worse as a stage diver sends one fan crashing unconscious to the floor forcing the show to stop for ten minutes. Thankfully, the fan is carried from the pit still in one piece and business resumes with the band battering through the rest of their set showing no less restrain. Bringing their bruising set to an end with a crushing “Keepers of the Faith,” Vogel and his band may split opinion in the hardcore scene but here in Leeds, they simply ruled tonight.

Tearing into town in support of their A Tear In The Life Of Fabric EP, hardcore punks Knocked Loose are on fire tonight and this packed-out venue responds by absolutely losing their shit. Opening up with “Where Light Divides the Holler,” the Kentucky outfit show why they’re one of the hottest names in heavy music in 2022. Whipping the crowd into a frenzy with a chaotic rip-through of “Billy No-Mates,” there isn’t a single person in the pit not pinballing around to the jarring metallic hardcore and neck-wrecking breakdowns. Seeing a band like Knocked Loose in such devastating form makes you realize how much you’ve missed live music over the last two years.

Snarling through track after track, “Deadbringer” and “God Knows” set the pit alight as time and time again, as frontman Bryan Garris and guitarist Isaac Hale encourage more energy from the crowd and, thankfully, after the previous three hours’ worth of brutality, this Leeds crowd have just enough in them to spinkick their way over the finish line as “Counting Worms” brings this night of rage to a sweat-drenched end.