It’s End Of Days For Defects At O2 Academy Islington

Music can so often support us through our most vulnerable times. It’s there to comfort us when we’re alone and it can help us make sense of the world’s within us and the world around us. It can also offer a release through creating and writing music. Defects, through their blend of high octane riffs, intense rhythms and thoughtful lyrics give the listener tools to understand our feelings and process life events through catharsis. And for vocalist Tony Maue, he used songwriting to organise his thoughts on the trauma of being taken into care at a young age. It’s a way for him to vent and process these feelings and having to deal with that as you grow and the band’s debut album Modern Error has garnered attention for its honesty and pure unabashed vulnerability.

The Defects @ O2 Academy Islington

The Defects @ O2 Academy Islington (Chris Griffiths)

The band are due on stage at 9:30pm however the night begins nearly 2 hours earlier when KNIFE BRIDE kicked off the Sunday night entertainment. Described as “Nu-Gothika” and with influences from Spiritbox Karnivool and Kate Bush, the five piece … “We’re a silly little band from Brighton, so let’s have a party” singer Mollie Buckley jests and party they do. It’s a sound combining heavy metal elements with a gothic twist and a pop sheen. Buckley’s vocals shine live throughout the 30 minute set. FANG DUMMY shows that they have a light hearted side whilst New single Territory, a self described love song showcases Mollie’s captivating voice.

Following the Brighton four piece are Bristol Nu-Metalers Profiler, who got the crowd moving and the pit bouncing. It’s a familiar sound but the 3 piece bring a freshness to the genre. Their debut album. A Digital Nowhere, released in February this year has garnered acclaim and are building a name for themselves on the live circuit. Frontman and founding member Mike Evans rocks bleached hair and commands the stage whilst administering a knockout display.

All five members of Defects dressed in matching black t shirts and black jeans take to the stage as they start dead on 9:30pm with End of Days. Bass guitarist David Silver comes to the front of the stage during the second track Scapegoat to survey the audience. “This song is about dreams and don’t any prick let you can’t achieve them” the singer says introducing Second to None. The energy the band are generating is palpable.

Singer Maue, wearing a baseball cap backwards, addresses returning fans and introduces the band to new ones. “Welcome, it’s my pleasure to play for you all.” Wearing a black baseball cap turned backwards, the frontman delivers powerful vocal performance after powerful vocal performance, this time on Lockdown, one of their heavier songs. Maue asks the audience to get the phone torches up and facing the crowd and swing them side to side causing guitarist Genders to cry out “I can’t see shit!” A light hearted moment between songs showing that the band have chemistry both musically and as a group.

Modern Error, the title track from their first record, is a defiant battlecry to the state of the planet and all of its troubles, it’s more pertinent than ever. Defects are able to give you the thrill of a raw and gritty heavy rock sound but also hook you with Tony Maue’s impassioned lyrics and dynamic vocal range, it really hits all the sweet spots of one of the most exciting young british metal bands coming up right now.

You can feel the emotion in the lyrics and through the singers’ performance. One wonders how much it takes out of you to go to the depths of your trauma every night. The fury, the anxiety, the pain laid bear for all to see. Yet like therapy, one hopes that this acts more as a release and a way to, little by little, cleanse the psyche. Broken Bloodlines follows which is about “cutting shit people out of your lives” before the emotionally vulnerable Echo Chamber when Maue delivers the heart wrenching “Inside my mind, I’m facing this torment, was I designed to finally go cold, Barely alive when I was discarded.” The polished guitar work from Luke Genders and James Threadwell magnifies the message through their vociferous riffs.

They then got the whole place jumping by playing a 30 second snippet of an even heavier version of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff before cutting it off after the first chorus. Injecting even more energy and power into the crowd. They finish with Recurring which has them at their formidable best. Harry Jennings on drums powers the song forward as Maue cries “save me from myself.” It’s one of my favourites from their 2024 record and sums up the best of all elements of the band across four and a half minutes of unbridled intensity.

When life throws you curve balls and leaves you on hard times, music can be there to help you support you and see the light. It can also offer a way to express yourself and Defects are a fine example of that and continue to grow as one of Britain’s most electrifying metal groups on the scene in this moment.