At the end of the weekend, I can honestly say that the best thing at Coachella was probably these ‘Unlocking the Truth’ kids, and by far! At the beginning of Saturday afternoon, they shredded like Black Sabbath, had the attitude of metal/punk veterans, and were commanding the crowd like total pros. I don’t know who is behind them, but nothing in their set seemed forced or unnatural, they were the champions of metal for at least 30 minutes of doomed turning speed riffs and heavily distorted guitars.
It is hard to believe such darkness can come from 12 year-old kids (I read that they are in 7th grade!), but frontboy Malcolm Brickhouse was playing a mean guitar while being scarier than Ozzy even in his younger days, and the crowd was obeying at each of his finger pointing, starting a giant moshpit as soon as he said so. The incredible kid had a monster voice and the presence of a metal god, while his two bandmates, Jarad Dawkins (on drums) and Alec Atkins (on bass) were not bad either! At the end of their set, people were asking for more songs, but Coachella has a very tight schedule, so the little guys decided to jump in the audience and do some crowd surfing without any music. It was a great moment, and if you managed to catch this on one of Coachella YouTube channels (I am glad I did), it probably made you wish you were there.
According to their Facebook page, they are from Brooklyn NY, they write their own lyrics and music, and got their big break after winning the first round of the AfroPunk battle of the Bands. They have already performed at the 2013 Fun, Fun, Fun Festival in Austin, at the NYC film premiere after party of Death Metal Angola… and so Coachella 2014. People have certainly taken notes.