DEFEATED SANITY, BLASPHEMER, NAILED & EMBRYONIC DEPRAVITY
SATANS HOLLOW, MANCHESTER 27/08/09
My tardy arrival at this brutal death metal feast meant I only caught the ending bars of Lordaeron, but perfect timing for a pint though. Satan’s Hollow remains a favourite venue with its intricate hellish décor and if I’m not mistaken a few more Clive Barkerish style artworks have been added to the embellishments.
Embryonic Depravity was quickly set up in the middle of the dance floor as they proceeded to deluge the crowd with monotone vocal gurgles over a technical battering. The sound is immensely loud as “The Propagation Of Decrepitude” made my rib cage moaned inwardly due to the colossal bass sound. The technical guitar wizardry employed on tracks like “Insurgence Of Dogmatic Antiquity” and “Acephalous Transmutation” was not matched by a stunning drum performance unfortunately as they came across as one dimensional unadventurous for this style of music. Maybe the guy was having an off day but I still cannot see the attraction of a clanging biscuit tin snare sound. Added to this the clicking bass drum did not help one iota. Riffing wise there was plenty to dig your teeth into as the reasonable size crowd enjoyed their pummeling blasts and driving super fast solos. Added to that a decent stage presence and ED has certainly potential to bludgeon you another ear hole if required.
Each time I see Nailed they get better and better and at first they are met with indifference from the crowd who I thought would know these Tyke beasts by now. Nailed pulled off a set of varied death metal as singer and bassist was proud to admit there’ll be no gurgles and pig squeals from this band tonight. Opening with “Ritual Abuse” it was immediately apparent that the playing ability had increased as did the stage presence. Despite progression I feel the band has lacked the necessary momentum to keep them in extreme metals public eye which would explain the lack of recognition. With a faultless display of catchy yet very nasty death metal Nailed savaged the audience with hook after hook during “Rupture Saviour” as the now clean head shaven drummer Garth Vader showed us exactly how to play death metal drums, despite the jibes of the singer at his shaven head. As their set progressed more people started to pay attention and realise that these were indeed a notch above the preceding act.
Blasphemer was slow to set up and a little picky of the sound from their monitors. The Italians obvious language barrier certainly did them no favours as there was little banter and no song announcements that were coherent. The singer spent most of his time in a crouched gurgle making it difficult for him to be seen, to such an extent I thought the vocals were sampled until he bobbed up from nowhere. Musically Blasphemer was brutal and fairly technical preferring a muddy style sound akin to Incantation but lacking the songs to match. I’m sure these guys go down well in their home country but here they were jaded and distinctly tame by comparison.
Everyone was at this gig for Defeated Sanity with a reputation for hyper speed technical death metal of the highest quality expected and they did not disappoint, despite having their vocalist missing for some reason. The drummer, Lille Gruber, was doing them tonight which is no mean feat when you watch the guy play I can assure you. Playing as a three piece seemed to have little detrimental effect as I thought about Autopsy doing the same in the 90s. It was strange as many people opted to watch the drummer, a big bonus at Satans Hollow as you’re able to walk round the back and get very close to the blurry action. Watching an extreme death metal drummer is staggering as Lille created a percussion backdrop for the lightning speed guitar riffs and complex bass hooks. The speed was tempered with great drops in pace and some damn catchy music that set heads nodding as a few punters assembled a mini pit. My deciphering ability of growls detected that the band was playing the whole of their upcoming album, “Expectoration Of Fear” with a couple of songs from their last album “Psalms Of The Moribund” being added in the shape of “Fatal Self Inflicted Disfigurement” and “Arousal Through Punishment”. The short set bulldozed through the mortal minions who stood astounded at the sheer ferocious technical prowess. A crushing display of pulverizing death metal.
Martin Harris
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