Mushroomhead / Dymytry / Silenzer – Birmingham O2 Institute2

Silenzer

First up, we have Austrian 5-piece Silenzer. It’s clear from the off that they have high energy, enjoy playing, and have decided to make the most of their support slot on the Mushroomhead tour. Most of the tracks come from their 2022 album ‘X’, with the standout song being their latest single ‘Out of the Dark’.

It’s a mix of styles, ranging from decent hard rock, to metal, to rap rock (summed up by their excellent cover of Papa Roach’s ‘Last Resort’). The frontman announces that they have a new album recorded that will be released soon that, in his words, has ‘A completely different style’, further muddling the genres. However this was a solid start to the evening, and the lads were entertaining to watch.

Dymytry

Hailing from the Czech Republic, Dymytry bring us their self-described ‘Psy-Core’ flavour of metal. Previously, the band had been active only in CZ, and recording in Czech, but post 2022 they decided to put out English releases in an effort to break out internationally. So what do they look like? The answer is a mixture of Slipknot and Mushroomhead – they’ve taken more than a spot of influence from the OGs of masked metal, and it shows, with their appearance and vocal styles that alternate between clean/harsh.

Highlight tracks would be ‘5 Angry Men’ and the set closer ‘Chernobyl 2.0’, but also worthy of mention is the drum solo – he’s actually created one with the rare combination of entertainment, technical skill, and groove. Amateur drummers such as myself will have been impressed with the technical side (sticking rudiments aplenty), and halfway through a backing track came in that gave a great groove and feel to the solo. A really memorable part of the set!

Mushroomhead

Wikipedia describes the Cleveland 9-piece as ‘Avant-Garde Metal’. I googled that to find out exactly what it means and it reads as follows… ‘A subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, non-standard and unconventional sounds, instruments, song structures, playing styles, and vocal techniques’. I’d agree with that, however I’m out of touch with Mushroomhead – having mainly listened to them over 20 years ago, around the time of the XX album. I’m keen to see what they’ve been up to in the meantime.

To be clear, this is Skinny’s band. Drummer and founding member Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton is the only original on display here; in such a large band with a revolving door of masked members, it’s hard to know who you’re looking at on stage, and as such there is an air of ‘Trigger’s Broom’ about the band. (For the uninitiated, I reference a caretaker character in sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’ who describes how he’s replaced his broom head 4 times, and the handle 9 times, then claiming it was still the same broom!). Having said that, Skinny has brought his brother and old school member Dave ‘Gravy’ Felton back to the fold on guitars, and clean vocalist Jackie LaPonza has now been in the band for the best part of a decade, bringing a different creative dimension.

Mushroomhead come out swinging with opening track ‘12 Hundred’. The hard hitting percussionists at either side pound away, with the water on the surface of the drum heads instantly soaking us photographers in the pit – it’s a great aural and visual spectacle with so many masked threatening looking characters on stage. Skinny’s drumming is on point; he’s an inspiration to watch, and the guitarists look menacing stood on the percussion kits.

Setlist wise, it’s a fair mix of old and new, but it’s the older mid 2000s songs that draw the biggest cheers.

We get 2 tracks from the newly released 9th studio album ‘Call the Devil’, which are received well, and Jackie’s voice really shines on ‘The Heresy’, providing great contrast to the other singers’ rap-rock styles, however I must note that the omission of ‘Before I Die’ was disappointing! That said, crowd engagement was rife, with the vocalists and percussionists frequently crowd surfing, and the fans are loving it.

All in all it was a great gig, and next time Skinny & Co come to Birmingham, they should be looking to book a bigger venue.

Set list:

12 Hundred

A Requiem For Tomorrow

Fall In Line

Our Apologies

Qwerty

Sun Doesn’t Rise

Solitaire/Unravelling

The Heresy

Madness Within

Seen It All