Gutalax
There’s now one week to go before Gutalax storm into Valencia, and frankly, Peter Rock should probably start checking the drains.
On Monday 12 October, the Czech Republic’s finest purveyors of goregrind, toilet humour and utterly deranged blastbeats return to Peter Rock Club for an evening that promises to contain considerably more toilet paper than any respectable venue should legally have to deal with. Doors open at 20:00, with the sonic assault getting underway at 20:30.
Gutalax have spent the last 17 years perfecting their particular brand of “Gore ’n’ Roll”, combining brutally fast grindcore, subterranean vocals, ridiculously heavy riffs and a lyrical fixation with bodily functions that would probably have Freud reaching for a larger notebook. Formed in Křemže in 2009, the band have built a reputation across Europe for turning extreme metal into one gigantic, filthy party.
And this is where Gutalax become something rather special. Underneath all the toilet jokes, costumes, masks, toilet brushes and enough rolls of Andrex to make a supermarket manager nervous, these guys are seriously fucking tight musicians. The riffs hit like industrial machinery falling down a staircase, the drums operate somewhere beyond the accepted limits of human wrists and the whole thing moves at a speed that makes conventional timekeeping seem largely pointless.
Then the crowd gets involved. Anyone who witnessed their previous appearance at Peter Rock already knows what happens when Gutalax meet Valencia. The place filled with fans dressed as sewage workers, armed with toilet brushes and rolls of toilet paper, before the whole room descended into a glorious combination of mosh pits, walls of death, flying bog roll and the kind of collective lunacy that makes you wonder whether somebody accidentally left the gates of the asylum open.
This isn't a show where you stand at the back with your arms folded while quietly analysing the musicianship. Gutalax is participatory extreme metal, with the audience becoming part of the spectacle and the entire room eventually behaving like one enormous, sweaty organism that has consumed far too much caffeine and developed an unhealthy obsession with plumbing.
And Peter Rock is almost absurdly well suited to the job. The Valencia venue's compact live room puts the audience right on top of the action, which means there is nowhere for the madness to hide and absolutely no chance of watching this from a safe distance. When Gutalax hit the stage, the distinction between band and crowd tends to disappear somewhere around the first blastbeat.
The timing is perfect too. While the rest of Valencia is worrying about Monday morning, Gutalax will be preparing to turn Ciutat Vella into the unofficial European headquarters of extreme-metal toilet humour.
So, with seven days remaining, now might be the time to locate your finest toilet brush, stock up on bog roll and accept that whatever clothes you wear to Peter Rock may not return home in the same condition.
Because Gutalax aren't coming to Valencia to play a polite little metal gig. They're coming to flush the fucking place!
For last minute tickets: Peter Rock
Comments