Post by markwj on Apr 28, 2008 16:32:27 GMT
Suffocation, Annotations of an Autopsy, Trigger the Bloodshed, Ingested, Nailed
Music Box, Manchester
24/4/08
A massive dose of sickness readily accepted as entertainment for the evening. New York’s Suffocation are held in high regard for their BRUTAL death metal (and you thought ordinary death metal was brutal enough eh? It is not, there are accepted degrees of suffering). I hadn’t seen them before, maybe because they came slightly to prominence after the peak bloody wave of early 90’s death that I was lucky enough to be knee deep in. They’ve still earned status for their longevity and consistent output though, but this is their first time over for a while.
After sampling more of the takeaways down the road (all pretty consistent junk) we arrived with perfect timing for the first of the four homegrown bands providing support tonight. Yorks/Lancs Nailed have worked hard in building their fanbase, lots of good support slots previously, the reward being signed up by AntiCulture (like Reth this week also) to have their new album released. Technical death, the bassist/vocalist is impressive on keeping track on his fretless instrument but some of their potential impact is reduced through not having the guitars loud enough in the mix
The comparison is accentuated with locals Ingested next, who may well have the advantage of having the engineer more familiar with getting the best sound for them through frequent appearance around here. Sweet jebus, they are heavy, the death not overly characterised by speed but by the battering breakdown riffs. As my friend pointed out there was elements of a hardcore crossover to that delivery. Maybe not breaking the mould in turns of horrific subject matter but genre is as genre does. Perhaps naturally supplemented by their friends in the area they get an excellent response.
The crowd is the busiest I’ve seen it here for some time, must be pushing a couple of hundred, but what at first seems people taking a between bands breather may in fact be a deliberate disrespect to Trigger the Bloodshed. Word had been around that some people may have taken offence to their rapid rise to prominence and associated marketing and hype investment but the one track of ultra-heavy death I’d heard of theirs was excellent judged on its own merit. Still, they were eager to crack on and skipped sound-check to try and whip up some response from the diminished crowd but unfortunately their sound did suffer. They put the effort into their performance, the drumming with more variety than out and out speed was an interesting twist, perhaps not having a bassist also contributed to their struggle to compare to the previous bands levels of impact.
Also from dahn Sarf, Annotations of an Autopsy displayed some paranoid element of scene disharmony, the vocalist offering anyone to come up and have their face smashed in if they believed the band hadn’t earned the right to have this support slot. Me, I take things as they come but that attitude is hardly likely to produce a positive response. Their death also came from an angle that emphasised heaviness over speed, the similar sludginess to the likes of Eye Hate God but again with a punchier hardcore delivery. Sometimes I felt their songs went on to long at this level with not enough variety to maintain interest but the response to them was generally much improved.
So to the headliners, who launched into their set with expected fury and gusto. They do exactly as described, death metal delivered with a merciless brutality, in instrument tone, sharp structure and rabidly vicious vocals. The frontman is great, confident, charismatic, and connected to the crowd. He’s also crazy, and introduces us to a hilarious new move, the wobbly hand coinciding with fast guitar parts, resembling some epileptic sharks fin. And there’s plenty of those, though the band do demonstrate much more diversity in structure than some of the more grinding supports, with some heavy drawn out intros and breakdowns in there too. The main thing that bowls there set along is it is delivered with such huge exuberance, they’re enjoying it and so is everyone else. “Friendly violent fun” was coined a long time ago and though you occasionally get hardman spastics out to prove something to themselves the vast majority are serious about not taking it seriously. Witness the robotic dancing in the pit which was again new to me and cracked me up. The vocalist also makes a couple of key points in his banter that strike incredibly true. Firstly about the release of this music, how he’d have killed people a long time ago if he couldn’t get this emotion out via music. (Never mind “Why can’t you find a girl that’ll let you bathe in her entrails any more?” There was a volunteer from the crowd though). Then also there’s a shout of respect to the glory days of the early 90’s which everyone can empathise with, even the fair proportion of youngsters here tonight. Dedicated to this there is a huge circle pit maelstrom requested and delivered. It summed up that whatever rise and fall and rise again, it is ultimately incredibly enjoyable sonic mayhem that hits in you in the guts. And may well bathe in them too, given half a chance.
Music Box, Manchester
24/4/08
A massive dose of sickness readily accepted as entertainment for the evening. New York’s Suffocation are held in high regard for their BRUTAL death metal (and you thought ordinary death metal was brutal enough eh? It is not, there are accepted degrees of suffering). I hadn’t seen them before, maybe because they came slightly to prominence after the peak bloody wave of early 90’s death that I was lucky enough to be knee deep in. They’ve still earned status for their longevity and consistent output though, but this is their first time over for a while.
After sampling more of the takeaways down the road (all pretty consistent junk) we arrived with perfect timing for the first of the four homegrown bands providing support tonight. Yorks/Lancs Nailed have worked hard in building their fanbase, lots of good support slots previously, the reward being signed up by AntiCulture (like Reth this week also) to have their new album released. Technical death, the bassist/vocalist is impressive on keeping track on his fretless instrument but some of their potential impact is reduced through not having the guitars loud enough in the mix
The comparison is accentuated with locals Ingested next, who may well have the advantage of having the engineer more familiar with getting the best sound for them through frequent appearance around here. Sweet jebus, they are heavy, the death not overly characterised by speed but by the battering breakdown riffs. As my friend pointed out there was elements of a hardcore crossover to that delivery. Maybe not breaking the mould in turns of horrific subject matter but genre is as genre does. Perhaps naturally supplemented by their friends in the area they get an excellent response.
The crowd is the busiest I’ve seen it here for some time, must be pushing a couple of hundred, but what at first seems people taking a between bands breather may in fact be a deliberate disrespect to Trigger the Bloodshed. Word had been around that some people may have taken offence to their rapid rise to prominence and associated marketing and hype investment but the one track of ultra-heavy death I’d heard of theirs was excellent judged on its own merit. Still, they were eager to crack on and skipped sound-check to try and whip up some response from the diminished crowd but unfortunately their sound did suffer. They put the effort into their performance, the drumming with more variety than out and out speed was an interesting twist, perhaps not having a bassist also contributed to their struggle to compare to the previous bands levels of impact.
Also from dahn Sarf, Annotations of an Autopsy displayed some paranoid element of scene disharmony, the vocalist offering anyone to come up and have their face smashed in if they believed the band hadn’t earned the right to have this support slot. Me, I take things as they come but that attitude is hardly likely to produce a positive response. Their death also came from an angle that emphasised heaviness over speed, the similar sludginess to the likes of Eye Hate God but again with a punchier hardcore delivery. Sometimes I felt their songs went on to long at this level with not enough variety to maintain interest but the response to them was generally much improved.
So to the headliners, who launched into their set with expected fury and gusto. They do exactly as described, death metal delivered with a merciless brutality, in instrument tone, sharp structure and rabidly vicious vocals. The frontman is great, confident, charismatic, and connected to the crowd. He’s also crazy, and introduces us to a hilarious new move, the wobbly hand coinciding with fast guitar parts, resembling some epileptic sharks fin. And there’s plenty of those, though the band do demonstrate much more diversity in structure than some of the more grinding supports, with some heavy drawn out intros and breakdowns in there too. The main thing that bowls there set along is it is delivered with such huge exuberance, they’re enjoying it and so is everyone else. “Friendly violent fun” was coined a long time ago and though you occasionally get hardman spastics out to prove something to themselves the vast majority are serious about not taking it seriously. Witness the robotic dancing in the pit which was again new to me and cracked me up. The vocalist also makes a couple of key points in his banter that strike incredibly true. Firstly about the release of this music, how he’d have killed people a long time ago if he couldn’t get this emotion out via music. (Never mind “Why can’t you find a girl that’ll let you bathe in her entrails any more?” There was a volunteer from the crowd though). Then also there’s a shout of respect to the glory days of the early 90’s which everyone can empathise with, even the fair proportion of youngsters here tonight. Dedicated to this there is a huge circle pit maelstrom requested and delivered. It summed up that whatever rise and fall and rise again, it is ultimately incredibly enjoyable sonic mayhem that hits in you in the guts. And may well bathe in them too, given half a chance.