{"id":870271,"date":"2026-04-03T22:39:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/870271\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:39:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:39:20","slug":"live-review-nails-heriot-and-pupil-slicer-electric-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/870271\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Review: Nails, Heriot and Pupil Slicer | Electric, Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 3, 2026| Dan Hillier<\/a> |LIVE REVIEW<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nails, Heriot and Pupil Slicer all under one roof? It goes without saying that this was a violent one. <\/p>\n

Pupil Slicer <\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s promoter must have been feeling a touch lucky when they booked Pupil Slicer<\/strong> to open. Whilst the band are filled with nothing but the loveliest of humans and their discography is (mostly) fantastic, Slicer\u2019s live performances can be bit, well, hit and miss, to say the very least. In fact, catching one of their sets can feel like rolling a dice; both punters and the band alike can only hope they land a nat 20. Do they manage it tonight? More or less.<\/p>\n

Displaying a level of assertiveness as they storm from material from last year\u2019s Fleshwork, the London mathcore yob are genuinely great tonight, especially with Kate Davies sounding on top form and legitimately passionate. But what makes this set just so strong, especially in contrast to some of their more dare say dicey shows in the past, is the level of confidence they radiate tonight. They may be opening for Nails<\/strong> in a 1000+ cap room filled with folk who may not be familiar with their approach to frantic punishment, but clearly such a feat hasn\u2019t knocked their psyche in the slightest. Instead, they\u2019re bold and assured, something that ensures the celestial punishment of \u2018Momentary Actuality\u2019 and the lacerating \u2018Wounds Upon My Skin\u2019 to cut more deeply tonight. There\u2019s no denying Pupil Slicer<\/strong> are rolling high this evening.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto Credit: Rowan Bruce <\/p>\n

Heirot <\/p>\n

As for Heriot<\/strong>, they\u2019ve essentially become a band renowned for being nothing but brilliant live. Tonight doesn\u2019t challenge that. Playing more or less a home town show and sounding legitimately malicious, as the heavyweights plow through \u2018Siege Lord\u2019 with the kind of intent typically only reserved for old norse berserkers, the population of Electric mirror such intensity by happily waging war on each other in the pit. In true Heriot<\/strong> fashion, this is 30 minutes of bludgeoning violence in the most ignorant form possible, a display of musical aggression void of the cheap gimmicks that litter the heavy music landscape.<\/p>\n

Even with a large portion of tonight\u2019s attendance clearly having seen this band previously, there\u2019s a level of awe in the room that\u2019s reminiscent of a large crowd being utterly shocked by a new experience that\u2019s just so devastating. That\u2019s the impact that Heriot has a live entity, and as the band close their set, it\u2019s hard to decide what\u2019s more visceral; the sheer damage being caused during \u2018At The Fortress Gate\u2019 or the parable sexual tension between the two steppers and battlejacket-donned push-pitters going at it in the pit.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto Credit: Rowan Bruce <\/p>\n

Nails <\/p>\n

Nails<\/strong> have long been dubbed by some as one of the most violent bands on Earth. Whilst it\u2019s agreeable that such a statement is hyperbolic in nature, it\u2019s hard to disagree with such a sentiment when watching them live. Ultimately and as a result, the most apt way to review tonight\u2019s headliners via the written word would be to take whatever device you\u2019re writing on, ball it in your first, lamp the person next to you and then publish whatever gibberish is in your word processor after that. This is the kind of performance you can\u2019t help but laugh during due to just how daftly intense it all is, and tonight Nails add an extra level of meaning to the classic idiom of such things being absurdly hard.<\/p>\n

Opening this one-off headliner by blasting through an opening gambit of \u2018Suffering Soul\u2019 \u2018Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy\u2019 and \u2018Conform\u2019 with so much haste it feels like a song a second, every aspect about this performance feels like it\u2019s being pushed to it\u2019s utter limit. The bellows of frontman Todd Jones are delivered with so much force you can almost see his thorax trying to burst from his throat. The tube amps flanking the stage seem to vibrate to the point where they threaten to disintegrate. Front of house look like they\u2019re ready to conduct their jobs with fire extinguishers should the mixing desk combust. The push-pitters and slam dancers forgo their differences in favour of just wailing on each other, lost in the haste, intensity and ever escalating cycle of extremity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s breathless in every sense of the word; there\u2019s no respite to even catch a lung-full of air, and genuinely, it\u2019s the kind of set where you can symphaise with the actions of crowd-killers. But despite this musical and very real melee occupying the majority of space within the Electric, there\u2019s an air of catharsis \u2013 even joy \u2013 present. Be it the crooked smirks of dancers enjoying the thrall of consensual violence, the grinning albeit clenched jaws of attendees enduring the intensity or even Jones clearly enjoying this set despite his intimating stature, this set feels like an outpouring of collective joy expressed in the most malicious way possible.<\/p>\n

Come the end of \u2018Unsilent Death\u2019, where there\u2019s nothing but laughs and long overdue breaths are taken, it\u2019s impossible not to physically see such a sentiment made true. Nails<\/strong> may not be the most constantly present act, which isn\u2019t surprising given there\u2019s no way any act can maintain a level of intensity this extreme. But should there be any take away from tonight, it\u2019s that this act remain both one of the world\u2019s most intense and strangely cathartic acts in the greater world of extreme music.<\/p>\n

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