London Deathfest IX - Cryptopsy,
Decrepit Birth, Unmerciful, Grind Inc., Emeth, Infestation,
Detrimentum, Brainchoke London Underworld - 7th of June 2008
Review by James Young
The headliners of this year’s Deathfest has had tongues wagging for
the past few months, and it would be interesting to see how
Cryptopsy would cope after releasing an album which has totally
polarised opinions amongst their fans. Even if people were keen to
see how the Canadians fared, there was a strong turnout for the many
bands that preceded them, and by the time the first act came on,
there were a fair few eyes on the stage.
Having seen Brainchoke a long
five years ago, but with their first album only coming out this
year, it was good to see that the energy was still as high and the
sound as explosive as the last time I saw these guys. Managing to
weave death metal and grind together and make every song sound
completely different, these guys did a great job of opening up the
all-dayer, and it’s almost surprising that they weren’t higher up
the bill. Mark’s guttural vocals and the excellent stage presence of
all the members were better than the average Underworld death metal
gig opener. Some songs were over in a flash - ‘Erectile Projectile’
was over as soon as it started, whereas other longer songs eluded
more of a Pungent Stench or Napalm Death vibe. The groovy riffs of
‘Mental S.O.S.’ from the Migraine Music EP certainly pleased the
crowd. These guys don’t seem to play enough in their home country,
and it would be nice to see them again. |
Detrimentum usually put on a
good show, and today was no different. The fairly new vocalist,
Luke, favoured grunts more than previous vocalist Eddie’s even
spread of growls and screams, but in my opinion they were even
better than on previous occasions. The guitars could have been
slightly louder, but this was nevertheless an enjoyable set. The
songs, including ‘Disillusion Ethos (Of Torment and My Bleeding
Shadow)’ and ‘Scales To Measure The Misfortune Of Man’ were fairly
long - this band have a clever way of playing death metal using
black metal song structures which works well. Ex-Gorerotted drummer
Jon was immense to say the least, and had many people gasping at the
tightness of the playing. ‘Spell of Miserable Incantation’ was said
to be the last track of the night, but we were still in for a fair
few songs, including a brand new track ‘Pestilence Shared With The
Worms’, which sounded as destructive as ever. I’m sure Detrimentum
won over a fair few fans tonight, and with an album released this
year, it hopefully won’t be long before we see them again.
It was time for something a bit different (well, a little bit at
least) in the form of Infestation.
Rather than being the fast-blasting brutal style of many of the
other bands, here we had a more precise and groovy form of death
metal. ‘Demons of Darkness’ had a strong |
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Cannibal
Corpse feel to it, with its well-structured heaviness. ‘Curse of
Creation’ unfortunately got off to a false start, but this was soon
forgotten as the guitars of Matt and Jamie kicked back into full
throttle again. There were more tempo changes and head banging
moments than there were piercings in frontman David Samuel’s face, and the
foot-tapping nature of some of the songs was a welcome change from
the brutality which had been witnessed and what was to come.
Belgium’s Emeth have never
crossed my stereo in the past, and unfortunately tonight’s
performance was so riddled with sound problems I still do not feel
this band has been done justice. Such technical issues included Tom
Ales’ bass drums refusing to become audible during ‘Telesis‘, which
was frustrating, albeit impressive when he was blasting whilst
twiddling with various pieces of equipment. Unfortunately before
‘Silence Goes Unheard’, the silence was blatantly obvious when the
band had to pause for a few minutes to sort out their guitars.
Tracks such as ‘Anochi Kofer’ and ‘Foly And Weakness’ were bold,
brutal and in your face, and they even managed to get the first
moshpits of the night going, but ultimately it wasn’t their day. The
inclusion of a Pantera cover didn’t seem to make matters any better,
killing off any movement that had formed. Better luck next time.
A break had been scheduled before Grind
Inc., which was changed, possibly due to the cancellation
of Prejudice, and without knowing this, I managed to miss a fair
chunk of their set. From what I did hear, and especially the |
ovation they received, it
seemed that these Germans were lapped up. What was striking was the
dual vocals of Christoph Mieves and Tom Strater, which are not so
obvious on record, but go down a storm live. The setlist, which
included ‘Glorification Of Violence’ and songs from the new album
‘Sudden State Of Hate’, were excellent examples of how brutal death
metal should be played; there were elements of grindcore in some
heavier sections, but one should not be fooled by the band name.
Anyone who had missed these guys (which nearly included myself)
missed a strong set. Good stuff.
After a break, the Underworld audience prepared to see their
recently consumed dinners once again due to the nauseating speed of
Unmerciful. These Americans
manage to write extremely brutal music with ridiculous slabs of
guitar technicality, very similar to Origin, a band which contains
guitarist Clint and drummer James. The material was based around
their only album Unmercifully Beaten, which was how I felt after
witnessing such slabs of brutality as ‘Mass Execution’ and ‘Shotgun
Sodomy’. The guitars of Chris and Justice were astounding, and as
stunning as they were to watch up close, the violence which ensued
had me finding my way to the nearest balcony. A Suffocation cover of
‘Habitual Infamy’ was the icing on the cake, and it certainly did |
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| not look out
of place in a band as technically accomplished as this. Fast as
lightning and twice as dangerous, this was brutal death metal at its
most razor-sharp. |
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Decrepit Birth were my main motivation for coming tonight
- whilst their older material is excellent, their new album
Diminishing Between Words is a technical masterpiece. Therefore when
they played older songs like ‘Prelude To The Apocalypse’, it was
still better than most brutal death metal bands at their best, but
there was still a degree of anticipation for newer songs. The
excellence presented itself in the form of the new tracks such as
’Diminishing Between Worlds’. Bill Robinson’s stage presence was
amazing, contorting like a man possessed throughout. I never thought
I’d see a Dream Theater t-shirt at a Deathfest, but the fact he wore
one showed the clear progressive sound that Decrepit Birth has
taken. The unbelievable guitar-work of Matt Sotelo and Dan Eggers
can only be compared to the likes of Necrophagist, and whilst you
wanted to bang your head, you couldn’t help but watch their fingers
cover every inch of the fretboards. The drumming was also out of
this world, with KC Howard reaching new levels of speed and
technicality. A Suffocation cover frustratingly took the place
another song could have had, but it was still a good listen, albeit
a waste of a track. It would have been nicer to have heard more of
the new material, but Decrepit Birth for me were the best band of
the night. |
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| There was only one band
tonight who could compete with the twiddliness of the last band, and
that was Cryptopsy. The new
album, The Unspoken King, has been panned by many fans as a sell-out
album, with the clean vocals and breakdowns more akin to the
deathcore atrocities out there. How did they fare? Admittedly the
presence of the new album was scant, with only ‘Worship Your Demons’
making an appearance (and even this sounded good). The remainder of
the tracks proved that Cryptopsy are not only still on form, but
perhaps even better than they were before. I was never a big fan of
Lord Worm (let the hate-mail begin…), and Matt McGachy’s vocals and
stage presence in a live environment was far superior to those of
the previous frontman. Opening up with ‘Crown Of Thorns’ and
twiddling their way through classics such as ‘Slit Your Guts’,
‘Abigor’ and ‘Worship Your Demons’ as only Cryptopsy can, the sound
was excellent and the fans lapped it up. Flo Mounier showed why he
is one of the best extreme drummers of all time with a fine array of
blasts and frenetic technicality. The set cannot have been longer
than an hour, but closing with ‘Back To The Worms’ and ‘Phobophile’
as an encore, it can safely be said that |
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nobody was
grumbling with the performance.
All the wits who parodied the headliners with the names Craptopsy
and Shitopsy should check Cryptopsy out live before they judge them.
They are as good, or even better, than they were on their last
venture to the UK, and their set was a great end to a killer
Deathfest. Arcane Promotions will be hard-pressed to outdo itself
next year.
www.arcanepromotions.co.uk |
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