We are seeing some incredible value-for-money tour packaged at the moment and this hard-hitting foursome was definitely one of them. Here’s hoping that nobody missed neck day at the gym last week as they were going to need all that strength and flexibility!
Due to a delay on the doors, I stumbled down the stairs shortly after Belgium’s Carnation started their set, but the venue was already very busy and they were giving it their all. A band I’d not encountered before, they definitely impressed and the audience were very much engaged in their straight out, no mess death metal. With song titles like “Cycle of Suffering” and “Plaguebreeder” you know what you’re in for.
They have a good image to go with the music, too. A bit of face paint, some chains and all backed with noise and attitude. No frills, enough to make an impact without going too far. Suffice to say that I enjoyed them enough that I bought a t-shirt, and got talking to a guy who’d come all the way up from Newcastle having seen them the night before and wanted to catch them again!
A shame they had such a short set and a few people will have missed a song or two as they were a great start to the evening. Here’s hoping they’re back over this way again soon.
There was no hiding the fact that the US’s Warbringer had fans in the house. The cries of “F’kin WAAARBRINGGEEER!” were ringing out the moment the PA went quiet before they came on stage, and a pit opened during the first song as the crowd let loose to the fastest-paced band of the evening. Arguably the outlier on the bill, being thrash rather than death, this didn’t make any difference to the band or the audience all of whom had smiles on their violent faces.
As with any good thrash act there was an element of cheese, none more so than when singer John Kevill produced an actual metal word to wave and stab around during “The Sword and the Cross”. How the hell he got that through customs I’ll never know. I’m also glad they weren’t playing Box or Sleazy’s otherwise I have a feeling he’d have stabbed the ceiling. How nobody got sliced given the cramped stage space I’ll never know, though a few gouts of blood wouldn’t have been out of place at tonight’s event.
Bruised, battered, sweaty and thrashed out, both band and fans headed for the bar after the quickfire set. I know Sean was impressed with a few bands of a similar ilk at the recent Onslaught show, and I think he’d have enjoyed Warbringer every bit as much. For me they had edges of Exodus to their sound that really sold them to me. Definitely going on a playlist!
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Cryptopsy are a long-standing band in the death metal scene, proving that not everyone from Canada (Montreal specifically) is lovely and nice and kid. OK, so they probably are but for forty minutes they set out to pretend they weren’t by being nicely blasphemous and evil. Using the entire of Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” as intro music was welcome in that it was a good song, but they could have squeezed in another track of their own alongside “Slit Your Guts”, “Open Face Surgery” and “Flayed The Swine”. It would certainly have been welcome.
Their vomit-inducing (in the best way) set was hard-hitting and brutal. Again, pits were opened and the one or two brave crowd-surfers who’d made their appearance at the end of Warbringer’s set were ed by more during Cryptopsy’s.
As someone who’s not that familiar with the band’s output, I stood and watched what turned out to be a great set. With their limited time they piled in as much as they could musically while still spending time to talk to the audience, and this played out really well. The songs are great and there were obviously many die hard fans in the audience already. I’m going to pick out two who were stood in front of me for a special mention. It was two younger ladies (I’m 51 so… younger than that!) who very much looked the alternative part – tattoos, coloured hair and so forth. It was the way they reacted to each song like it was the one they had been waiting for to the point where they were clapping excitedly and literally bouncing. Honestly, it made me smile seeing someone so damn excited! A far cry from the orchestrated mutual violence occurring several steps away, but every but every bit an indication of how well Cryptopsy’s set went down.
On any other night Cryptopsy could have been headlining Slay. However, the heavy hitters with the big time slice at the top of the bill this evening were Polish tech death wizards Decapitated. I’m only recently familiar with Decapitated after and because of Vogg’s brief stint with Machine Head (I’m a huge fan) and I rather enjoyed the set-closer “Iconoclast” as the studio version features MH’s Robb Flynn.
Their set may have been the longest of the evening but it really didn’t feel like it, flying past as fast as the drumbeats. “Earth Scar”, “Cancer Culture” and “404” all rattled forth and rattled skulls, ed by the likes of “Sensual Sickness” and “Spheres of Madness”. In all, seven albums were touched on though recent (well, most recent) release Cancer Culture had the lion’s share.
Regular followers of the band will have been judging Eemeli Bodde on vocals, this being his first outing with the band since ing last year. Interestingly this means that many fans were seeing that Cancer Culture material live for the first time, being performed by someone who wasn’t on the album! I’d say frontman duties are in good hands, as he really threw out every grunt, growl and scream like a pro while getting the audience going in all the good ways. I’ve never seen a pit as big at Slay as tonight’s and by the end of their set extra Mad Crew staff were being drafted in to handle the surfers (safely and soundly, btw).
While tech-death isn’t quite my forté, there’s no denying how much the packed Slay crowd were enjoying it and Decapitated definitely sold themselves to me as a top end live band and deserved bill-topper. With it being three years since the last album, here’s hoping their next step after this tour is into the studio with perhaps some follow-up dates in the not too distant future. Or, you know, go and see them again when they Killswitch Engage later this year. I know I’ll be there.
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Photos by Gavin Lowrey
