Lost Society, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It seems that every day we inch closer to an abyss in which a society, a species that was born for greatness, is to be lost, vanquished off the face of the Earth by its own ineptitude and disorienting values, thankfully till that moment in which the next great extinction comes along there is always pleasure to be had in Finland’s Kings of the Thrash Metal genre Lost Society. Civilisation may be teetering, the position of leader of the Western world may about to put into the hands of a man who wants to build walls and a leader in Russia that fancies the idea of a Nuclear Middle East party but Lost Society know how to fill a room with music driven scorch marks and ear bashing, heart thumping Metal groove.

Sandwiched between new local heroes and stately experts in the genre, Lost Society may have been seen by some in the filler in the Academy sandwich, however, the night would not have been the resounding success that it turned out to be without the band from Finland. Their sense of achievement crowning a sensational evening, the smiles broadly visible, the flow of effervescence bubbling away like a Moet Chandon bottle filled with extreme lemonade and the grace, the refinement of a great set in which blew the socks and bandanas off and the dust from the ceiling.

As a society, as a complex set of disparate people we may have lost our way, we certainly seem to have lost our sense of compassion and empathy, yet as Lost Society plundered the depths of the crowd’s soul inside the second room of the Academy, a forge was seen to be built, the fire bellowing within and the sound of an anvil being hammered with dexterity and finesse. This was a night when the Metal family in Liverpool came together and struck out against detractors and those with only consideration to knock a genre that gives more than it ever asks for in return.

Lost Society tore through their set with exuberance and flashing steel, the cut deep, precise and swift. Songs such as Kill (Those Who Oppose Me), Terror Hungry, I Am The Antidote, Riot and Only My Death Is Certain were met with equal appreciation and by the end of their time on stage, Lost Society had created new links with a crowd starving for the genre, who had been neglected by so many for such a long time.

A group who know exactly how to bring the audience to the boil and leave them steaming with excitement throughout, Lost Society are a cut above the usual; scintillating and controlled, they play with truth in their hearts.

Ian D. Hall