Yes, ManchesterCerebral, eclectic and occasionally wordy, the gnarly rock of Black Country, New Road is a richly Generation Z experience
![Black Country, New Road review – truly a sound less travelled](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/380e89aa5830c6ad9582fa009a3918738785794b/0_56_6720_4032/master/6720.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTQucG5n&enable=upscale&s=ea3c8a83c6c4030d1c0668f9ac9ce814)
There are, apparently, seven people on stage, making what sounds like eastern Mediterranean rave music. The lighting (of which there is little) and the dry ice (more copious) help to wrap Black Country, New Road in a haze of unreality.
Through the fog, the outline of a violin and the shape of a saxophone are visible; some silhouetted figures stand, some crouch. Eventually, one of the guitarists in BCNR begins intoning something. He builds to a holler and the band plunge into a lacerating workout, drawn mostly from early 90s post-hardcore punk. Beer flies past. Out of the anguish and feedback there eventually emerges the sweetest of melodies, on which violin and sax double up and keyboards provide icy atmospherics.