CANNIBAL CORPSE + DYING FETUS + ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY + TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED
KOKO – CAMDEN, LONDON 29/10/09
Watching the hordes of people queuing before this sold out venue had me worried; I don’t like rammed crowds, but there was no getting away from it tonight. Death metal was well and truly represented and with the headliners being the biggest selling death metal band of all time (thus far!), you knew it was going to be a treat.
Arriving just as Trigger the Bloodshed start their final song (‘The Great Depression’), I watch as the crowd are already up for it and saw a pretty damn tight band playing with more enthusiasm than their often one dimensional song structures were worth. However, a good opportunity for this young band and a promising following was gathering.
Annotations of an Autopsy are up next; these UK boys sound very American when talking to the crowd and Sewer mouth Steve Regan gets quite guttural, brutal and has a big stage presence. I don’t like the genre, so it’s not really fair for me to comment, but I am left thinking that this deathcore business is just a little tedious. Later in the set they got Jamie Graham from UK band Sylosis up on stage to sing a track from the forthcoming album (‘The Reign of Darkness’ with a new readable logo too). Big things are coming for this band including a comprehensive US tour with the likes of Suffocation, and good luck to them, but just not my cup of tea at all. The crowd were happy and that is all that really counts.
Now back to a three-piece, Dying Fetus are the first band for me that display actual proper death metal music for once in the evening. Both John Gallagher and Sean Beasley share the vocals to good effect. Older tracks come in the form of ‘Intentional Manslaughter’ from their ‘Killing on Adrenaline’ album and it is really interesting to hear so much noise and energy coming from a mere three-piece band. Man this was intense, and then it’s topped off with ‘Justifiable Homicide’ and the crowd go into overdrive. Welcome back to London, and the crowd got what they wanted tonight, a display of proficiency with an underlying torrent of brutality.
Speaking of proficiency, the masters of US death metal Cannibal Corpse come on stage to a well received, roof raising cheer from this sold out crowd. Mr Corpsegrinder looks in fighting form and sometimes it’s hard to make out Pat and Rob on guitars with all the head banging going one whilst playing their technical wizardry on stage. George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher asks the crowd if they will join him for a headbanging workout for ‘Vomit the Soul’, then jokingly says that “you will lose to me” (meaning the crowd); pretty much a fair statement. One for the ladies… ‘Fucked with a Knife’ starts with the usual intro and the woman respond with a cheer; hmm, depraving women and you agree! How weird some people are, but its all harmless fun at the end of the day. A personal favourite ‘Pit of Zombies’ blasts out of the PA, and the sound at the front of the stage is near perfect (The KOKO always suffers bad acoustics, especially for Death Metal bands). Longstanding original members of the rhythm section, Alex on bass and Paul on drums show why they have been around for so long, and keep things tight and powerful, probably the best in the business when you can produce their complex arrangements note for note perfect in a live show. Not the best outing I have seen by this band but I still left the venue buzzing from the excitement of the death metal elite. Long may they be around to pleasure us all on their brutal terms and a good sign of the times when a brilliant album is released and is backed up with sell out shows around the country. Things can only get better…a perfect Thursday evening.
Paul Maddison
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