Gig Review: Gurt / Sigiriya / Haeze / Bloodgrass – The Black Heart, London (15th March 2025)

I had heard good things about Gurt for many years, but never managed to catch them live until tonight.

Disclaimer: I am a photographer primarily, so please forgive the shortness of this review – the summary is that I had a wonderful time and enjoyed all of the bands very much, but below are a few more words about the evening!

Starting off proceedings were Bloodgrass who are fairly new as a band and subsequently don’t seem to have any social media presence yet (please feel free to correct me if I have just been useless at locating them). Bloodgrass are a three-piece featuring the drummer from Gurt, and for tonight only, the guitarist of Gurt filling in on bass duties. They did a great job of gently warming up the slowly-growing crowd during their set, which was short but very enjoyable.

Here’s hoping that they find a bit of traction so that more of you get the chance to listen to their tunes. Whether they’ll end up being more than a side project is now entirely in your hands!

Next up were Haeze from Southampton who were playing their first ever London show. They had some excellent riffs and a great stoner / grunge sound, and went down well with the crowd.

Fitting well into the four-band bill, they had many heads nodding in the crowd but not at a rate fast enough to risk a spilled pint. A great band in their own right, it’s well worth checking out their social media and keeping an eye out for live dates. They’re all listed down at the bottom of this review.

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By the time Sigiriya took to the stage the room was looking pretty packed. Some of the crowd were clearly no strangers to the band and were having a lovely time down the front.

The Swansea band describe their sound as “monolithic heavy groove” which was certainly accurate, and I particularly enjoyed their final track “Mountain Goat”. It was also a rare treat to hear a Welsh accent in-between songs! Here’s hoping that the valleys have more doomy metal secrets to reveal. If you know of other bands we should be checking out, then ping us a message or pop something in the comments!

This was a special night for headliners Gurt as they were performing their most recent album Satan etc (released in June 2024) in full…and they cracked straight into it, opening with “The most dying way to die”, to a delighted and gently-heaving crowd. That is probably my favourite track from the album, so seeing it performed live and very close to my face was excellent.

Apart from some brief song introductions, they smashed through all 9 album tracks, before treating the crowd to a further 4 songs from their back-catalogue, ending with my personal favourite “Rolling Stoned”.

The crowd were loving it, and the band looked like they were also thoroughly enjoying themselves. What a lovely time indeed. I will definitely go and see Gurt live again, and if you enjoy a swampy / sludgy / doomy / groovy time then I recommend that you do too.

Gurt Setlist:

1. The most dying way to die 
2. Knife fever 
3. In for a penny in for a pounding
4. Appetite for construction
5. Doi of the doid 
6. Ennui go! 
7. Exit as you enter 
8. Sandworm fleshlight 
9. Electric brown
10. Shell
11. Soap Feast
12. Battlepants
13. Rolling Stoned

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All photos by Katie Frost Photography

Gurt: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube | spotify

Sigiriya: facebook | instagram | spotify

Haeze: instagram | spotify