Festival of Ugly Music at Strange Brew
Headfirst Editor's Pick

"Extreme music’s got an ugly new champion. Monochrome promises a gruelling all-dayer of cyber-grind, primordial death metal, apocalyptic noise punk and unclassifiable sounds strictly for the misfits. Selected highlights: the return of Guttersnipe’s unparalleled shred-dementia, French occult psychers Aluk Todolo + the one-man sonic terror-verse of Gnaw Their Tongues."

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See event details

A gig held at Strange Brew on Saturday 6th April. The event starts at 14:00.


FRIDAY (CUBE):
20:00 DOORS
20:30 JOHN DORAN & SAPPHIRE GOSS
22:00 DAN JOHNSON & GUEST

SATURDAY (STRANGE BREW)
14:00 Mister Lizard (Stage 2)
14:20 Human Leather (Stage 2)
14:45 Ona Snop (Stage 1)
15:15 Distraxi (Stage 2)
15:45 Cavalerie (Stage 1)
16:15 Iffernet (Stage 2)
16:45 Cuntroaches (Stage 1)
17:15 Psudoku (Stage 2)
17:45 Guttersnipe (Stage 1)
18:30 Gnaw Their Tongues (Stage 2)
19:15 Vacuous (Stage 1)
20:00 OvO (Stage 2)
21:00 Aluk Todolo (Stage 1)

Monochrome is a new DIY city festival, celebrating ugliness and excess. Set in the heart of Bristol, you'll find a diverse lineup of weirdo metal, gnarled punk and ear splitting noise, in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

Main Event - Strange Brew, 6th April

ALUK TODOLO (FR)
Part occult black metal fiend and part snide kraut menace, the band conjures rabid obsessive rhythms and abyssal disharmonic guitars, subliminal spiritualist vibrations and bizarre, magick summonings.
https://aluktodolo.bandcamp.com/

CAVALERIE (FR)
This Parisian trio don't mess about. Cavalerie deliver a raw and abrasive take on hardcore crust, infused with old-school black metal sensibilities.
https://cavalerie75.bandcamp.com/

CUNTROACHES (DE)
Cuntroaches influences range widely from metal to punk to hardcore to experimental noise, and these are channeled into a dense wall of sound and performative mischief.
https://cuntroaches.bandcamp.com

DISTRAXI (UK)
With portentous drumbeats, powerdrill feedback, big-rig bass throb and throttled vocals, Bath's Distraxi manifests queer sonic desperation through her self-styled "pain electronics".
https://distraxi.bandcamp.com

GNAW THEIR TONGUES (NL)
We couldn't very well lay claim to a festival of ugliness, without dropping Maurice a line. Combining black metal, industrial music, noise and experimental music, GNAW THEIR TONGUES deals with the darkest sides on human behaviour and humanities darkest excesses.
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/

GUTTERSNIPE (UK)
Guttersnipe wield guitar, drums, electronics and voice to unleash brutal rainbow abstraction, smothering the Rock idiom in hyper-accelerated bio-luminescent hysteria!
https://guttersnipe.bandcamp.com

HUMAN LEATHER (UK)
Furious two-piece of bass & drums destruction. Sitting somewhere between noise rock and sludge punk, this DIY outfit have been gracing stages and peeling skin from listeners’ faces, since 2016.
https://humanleather.bandcamp.com

IFFERNET (FR)
Iffernet plays a raw kind of atmospheric black metal and crafts songs of obstinate riffing and relentless drumming. From impassive midtempos to crushing and abrasive blastbeats, Iffernet rises simply, strikes raw.
https://iffernet.bandcamp.com

MISTER LIZARD (UK)
Mister Lizard claim to be "not grind / not powerviolence / not metal / not punk / not good". At least some of these are lies.
https://misterlizard.bandcamp.com/

ONA SNOP (UK)
Sprouted from a composted mulch of melted-down powerviolence 7”s, flaming garbage and bioluminescent wildlife, Leeds’s loveable idiots ONA SNOP peddle a unique brand of chaotic blastbeat punk which keeps the brain boggling and the head firmly banging.
https://onasnipsnop.bandcamp.com

OVO (IT)
OvO is an Italian experimental music duo renowned for their boundary-pushing blend of noise rock, industrial, and avant-garde elements.
https://ovomusic.bandcamp.com/album/ignoto

PSUDOKU (NO)
Psudoku are a futuristic progressive 1970s grindcore band from Norway. Their music is channeled to them across space and time, from a parallel universe where grind was developed from prog rock instead of hardcore punk and thrash metal.
https://psudoku.bandcamp.com/

VACUOUS (UK)
Vacuous draw from the eerie dirge like pace of death/doom, the ferocity of punk and dbeat to the blasting intensity of grindcore and powerviolence… all with the malicious intent of dragging the listener down with them into the depths of despair.
https://vacuousdeath.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-of-dysphoria

Please note that Gravpel are no longer able to make it - if you would like a refund please drop me a line.

Warmup event - The Cube, 5th April
A night of A/V Collaborations featuring:
JOHN DORAN with SAPPHIRE GOSS presenting: What is this that stands before me
An audio visual event of live manipulated film and drone music with spoken word. Writer John Doran states his case that heavy metal is the last true iteration of mass modernism and traces some of the revolutionary flash points in half a century of revolution and reinvention

DAN JOHNSON with GUEST presenting: The Bellflower
Percussionist Dan Johnson (EP/64, Run Logan Run) and filmmaker Guest, will collaborate on a special AV presentation of Dan's thunderous and unrelenting solo drum piece The Bellflower.

Lots more info at
http://www.monochromebristol.co.uk

Ugly Music?
For Monochrome's purposes we're talking about a melting pot of abrasive and extreme music, leaning into speed, discordance and excess.

We want Monochrome to be a broad church, welcoming folks that might not necessarily feel at home at a conventional "metalfest". Ugly music for all: no battle-jacket required.

Entry requirements: 14+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)

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