Animals As Leaders / Allt - Garage, Glasgow 3rd November 2023

Animals As Leaders are somewhat new name, one which I hadn’t heard of until a about year ago but what an impact. Abasi is ranked in the same tier as players like John Petrucci, Steve Vai, and Guthrie Govan, and is part of a new wave of guitarists, bringing unheard of techniques, accompanied by complex meters and for the most part, lots, and lots of distortion.

Unfortunately, this long bus journey resulted in us missing almost all of the opening band, Allt. From the queue outside, itching to get in, I heard the really syncopated bassline of Allt banging out alongside some hardcore growler vocals and a bass drum that just about blew the walls out.

The electricity of the crowd when we got in was telling of a good show we had missed. Next time!

During the break, the Animals As Leaders kit was set up by a group of tech guys who sounded like they could have played their own set that night. After the drums were meticulously set up, it was given one last extra check – a very fast and controlled drum solo; not something you usually hear.

This was followed by the other couple of guys banging some of their own riffs on Javier and Tosin’s 8 strings. These guys were tight and much more fun to listen to than the usual “two, two, two” which goes through every set up. Then again, with no singer there was no need to do that type of count.

And after much waiting, Animals As Leaders appeared on stage, opening with ‘Tooth and Claw’. It didn’t take long before a mosh pit, spanning the size of the dance floor of the Garage, formed. A mosh pit which, throughout the span of the night, became somewhat smaller, due to the amount of crowd surfers being guided to the front by the rest of the crowd and chucked to the back by the awaiting bouncers.

The band played the majority of their most recent album Parrhesia. They mixed this with some favourites, like ‘The Brain Dance’, a beautiful cut played on a nylon strung guitar, mixed with a bit of djent, like most Animals As Leaders’ songs tend to be.

Tosin is a guitarists guitarist. I play a bit but watching him and the rest of the band play left me feeling like I learnt something about music and given me a new mountain to climb in pursuit of taking on some of Tosin’s strange techniques. He is a master of thumping and selective picking and its rare talent that can get a crowd clap together in a 13/18 polyrhythm! I feel like I experienced a masterclass in new meta, apart from the time Tosin dropping his incredibly expensive 8 string just before a starting a number.

After seeing a night of virtuosic musicians (specifically in the guitar department) it just makes me both want to quit guitar playing forever, and practice guitar all day at the same time. Looking forward to the next time I can see them already!