FUSE at The Victoria Inn: Derby’s Heaviest Night Lives Up to the Billing

FUSE arrived at The Victoria Inn with a bold promise. Alpha Pro Creative and Fuzz Music Services had billed it as the heaviest night The Vic had ever seen, bringing Dissociates, Setrakain and Neurosys together for three different interpretations of just how much noise could be squeezed into one Derby pub.

Dissociates Open with Dirty Derby Grunge

Opening the night were Derby’s Dissociates, one of the youngest bands currently working their way through the city’s grassroots scene and a group we have now seen several times in a relatively short period.

Every performance has shown another stage in their development. The first thing that stood out about Dissociates was their rawness, with dirty grunge guitars and the sense that a song might fall apart at any moment. What has become increasingly apparent is that they can preserve that scruffiness while becoming a much tighter and more confident live band.

At FUSE, they fitted comfortably alongside two considerably more metal-focused acts. Their roots remain in grunge, garage rock and alternative music, with the influence of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Silverchair never too far away, but their heavier side has continued to become more prominent.

There is a sleazy quality to some of their riffs, while other moments bring in punk energy and hints of nu metal. The guitars sound deliberately rough around the edges, supported by brooding basslines and a rhythm section that gives the songs enough structure to stop the chaos from becoming accidental.

Dissociates did not attempt to out-deathcore Neurosys or out-metal Setrakain. Instead, they demonstrated how heavy grunge can feel when it is played loudly, confidently and at extremely close range.

Having watched the band grow across shows at Dubrek Studios, FIREBUG and The Victoria Inn, this felt like another step forward. Their identity is becoming clearer, their songwriting feels increasingly focused and they are learning how to control the roughness that makes them interesting without polishing it away entirely.

They may have been the least traditionally metal band on the bill, but they were not remotely out of place on Derby’s supposed heaviest night. They provided a suitably dirty opening before the evening moved into increasingly extreme territory.

Setrakain Invite the Defective In

Setrakain followed with a different kind of heaviness. The Buxton five-piece describe their sound as “Maniacal Metal”, which becomes considerably easier to understand once you see them perform.

Where Dissociates drew their weight from grunge and garage rock, Setrakain pulled from a wider range of heavy metal influences. Crushing riffs and huge breakdowns sat alongside melodic singing, growled vocals and spoken-word sections, giving their performance a more theatrical and unpredictable quality.

We previously caught Setrakain at BANG, where their combination of gnarly harsh vocals, commanding clean singing and enormous snare-bomb breakdowns made them one of the night’s highlights. Those same characteristics were present at FUSE, but inside the tight surroundings of The Victoria Inn, everything felt even more immediate.

There is a hypnotic quality to some of Setrakain’s instrumentation. Riffs lock into a groove before suddenly shifting direction, while the vocal changes add another layer of instability. One moment feels built for synchronised headbanging, the next for a full-scale collision in front of the stage.

Behind the aggression, there is also a strong sense of community running through the band. Setrakain’s message is directed towards outsiders, weirdos and anybody who has ever felt slightly defective. Their invitation of “We’re all defective, come with us” gives the band an identity beyond simply being heavy.

That attitude suited FUSE perfectly. This was an intimate grassroots show rather than an arena spectacle, and the lack of distance between band and audience made Setrakain’s performance feel communal. Loud, strange and occasionally unhinged, but communal all the same.

By the time their set finished, the room had been thoroughly prepared for Neurosys to close the night.

Neurosys Close with a Modern Metalcore Assault

Closing FUSE were Ashfield five-piece Neurosys, returning to the city where they made their live debut and looking considerably more developed than a band still relatively early in its journey.

When we previously saw Neurosys at BANG, we described them as sitting somewhere between progressive metalcore and a full-blown sonic assault. At FUSE, the deathcore influence felt even more pronounced. Down-tuned guitars, sudden transitions, breakdowns and guttural vocals gave the set a crushing modern-metal sound, while sharper shrieks and more technical instrumental sections kept everything from becoming one continuous wall of noise.

The influence of Bring Me The Horizon was clear, particularly the heavier end of the band’s early material. There was that same collision of metalcore, deathcore aggression and fashion-conscious alternative culture. Kitted out in Drop Dead clothing, Neurosys looked like they had stepped straight out of the late-2000s Sheffield scene, although their performance never felt like simple imitation.

Instead, they used those influences as the foundation for something they are gradually beginning to make their own. There were also traces of bands such as Lamb of God and Gojira in the weight of the guitars and the more technical passages, but the overall performance was built for immediate impact.

Their set was thrilling from the beginning. Neurosys performed with the urgency of a band determined to make the most of the headline position, throwing themselves into the heavier sections and ensuring the evening finished at its most intense.

Following the dirty grunge of Dissociates and the maniacal metal of Setrakain, Neurosys felt like the logical conclusion to the night. They took everything that had been building across the previous two performances and pushed it into a final metalcore and deathcore assault.

There was no gentle comedown and no attempt to ease anybody towards the end of the evening. Neurosys closed FUSE by flattening whatever remained.

Three Different Ways to Be Heavy

The strength of FUSE was its understanding that heavy music is not a single genre. Dissociates found it in the dirtier corners of grunge and alternative rock, Setrakain approached it through theatrical and groove-driven metal, while Neurosys finished with modern metalcore and deathcore.

That variety gave the evening a natural progression. Each band changed the atmosphere while increasing the intensity, allowing FUSE to remain relentlessly heavy without becoming repetitive.

The Victoria Inn was also the right environment for it. The Vic has become one of Derby’s most important grassroots venues because it can accommodate almost every part of the city’s music scene, from acoustic performers and indie bands to nights like this, where subtlety is placed to one side and the amplifiers are allowed to do some structural testing.

There was another important element behind the show too. All three bands played on a door split, ensuring that money from ticket sales made its way back to the artists. Neither the promoters nor The Vic took commission from merchandise, meaning anybody buying a shirt or something from a band’s table was directly supporting the musicians.

That should be standard practice within grassroots music, but it is still worth highlighting when promoters get it right.

Next Up: BANG at The Hairy Dog

The next Alpha Pro Creative and Fuzz Music Services event takes place at The Hairy Dog on Sunday 4 October, with BANG bringing together Leah Wilcox, JJ Lovegrove and Derventio.

The line-up moves away from the all-out heaviness of FUSE while retaining its focus on original and emerging music. Derby’s Leah Wilcox brings her mixture of alt-Americana and hazy indie pop-rock, while Nottingham’s JJ Lovegrove adds cinematic dark art-pop, spectral textures and haunting vocals. Completing the bill are Chesterfield alternative four-piece Derventio, a young band combining poetic songwriting with dynamic vocals and tightly constructed instrumentation.

BANG runs from 6pm until 9pm, with performances beginning at 6.30pm. The event is open to anyone aged 16 or over, although under-18s must attend with an adult. As with FUSE, the artists receive a fair share of ticket income and no commission is taken from merchandise sales.

Tickets for BANG featuring Leah Wilcox, JJ Lovegrove and Derventio are available through Skiddle.

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