MASTERS OF DEATH REVIEW 5 o’clock saw the invasion of a shopping centre in Islington by 100’s of black clad metal heads, quite a surreal scene for those popping out to their favourite high street stores.
We had no idea which order the bands were playing in as it was a rotating line-up for this tour and confusion reigned supreme on entering as it seemed that it was none of the 4 expected bands on stage.
In fact the Swedish old school legends had grabbed a Belgian band called Exterminator and brought them along for the ride and they were giving it a pretty impressive melodic thrash workout on stage. Road Crash Rebellion was announced and as it was energetically fired out on all cylinders. This lot seemed like a perfect opening band for the tour, even if nobody had ever heard of them before. In fact it emerged that Exterminator had been around for quite some time as singer Jacky told us we were getting World Within from their first EP released way back in 1995. Vocally I suddenly realised that his guttural barks reminded me of Cadaver singer Appollyon which was no bad thing at all.
Faster bastard please. After a kit change it was time for the sounds of war as heavy artillery announced the arrival of Dismember. People were head-banging from the off as the 1st Swedish force blasted into action and the ever reliable Colombian posse were quick to cause carnage in the pit. “How metal is that” was the more than accurate comment from the people next to me as 3 band members stood side by side for a show of synchronised hair twirling, whilst never missing a note. Time Heals Nothing from new album The God That Never Was, battered us senseless. The drums beat a tattoo and the guitars set about peeling what little flesh was left from our brutalised bodies. Skinfather did as I said and literally separated the skin from the bones. Old school punk vibes put the Dis firmly in the bands name and crusty chaos ensued with a guitar failure before Tragedy Of The Faithful got underway. A nice long set and it looked as if all 4 bands were going to get a good 45 minutes tonight. Dismember for their part should come with a government health warning, “danger likely to cut you a new arsehole!”
Follow that. It would have been a hard task for any poor band and it was Grave who had the unenviable task. I have to admit they certainly had their work cut out as I have tried but never managed to get into them on CD or live. Revered as one of the founding forces of the Swedish DM scene and having released their first offering way back in 1988 it was evident they were accomplished musicians. They were fast, furious and guttural in all the right places but I quickly found myself under-whelmed by what I can only describe as a sterile and utterly generic formula. Singer Ola told us we would Never See Heaven and this at least had me tapping my feet. As for the pit, it seemed like it just had a couple of pissed idiots annoying everyone else rather than any real action but all of a sudden the last couple of numbers saw things burst into life. Perhaps everyone was waiting for Soulless and Into The Grave as suddenly we had an audience going somewhat crazy to them. Have to admit these two numbers had a life that the rest of the set lacked but I guess it is simple, I will never dig Grave.
Unleashed came on as conquering warriors and welcomed us as heroes. It was one of instant full throttle charges where a band has one wish, to rape, pillage and aurally eviscerate their audience. “Faster” questioned Mr Hedlund after the first song flew by in a blur? Not sure if that was at all possible but I have been hearing rumours that new album Midvinterblot kicks serious butt. Mind you old ones like Never Ending Hate which came next are not exactly slow either and like a death metal Ramones cries of 1-2-3-4 from the singer did a great job at having this audience in raptures. Blood Of Lies was a new offering speeding by into the craggy soundtrack of many of our lives which is Don’t Want To Be Born. The Immortals had an epic stomp about it and was as gnarly as your 100 year old grannies festering vaginal warts. “Fight, Fight Fight,” shouted pretty much everyone to In Victory Or Defeat and there was little of the latter on display here as Into Glory Ride and the obvious finale of Death Metal wrapped it all up.
It has been too long since I last saw Entombed and over the years I have caught them on plenty of memorable occasions. The first noticeable element was the streamlined line up as the revolving door policy for the band has been none too kind of late. This did give Petrov plenty of scope to tear around the stage like a man possessed for the next 45 minutes as the band unleashed a greatest hits package from through the ages. Actually the first one had me scratching my head until I heard the words When In Sodom and realised that this was the new single. It was a strong one and a blast that put everyone in a drunken party mood. Beer was flying all over the place as we were told we were going to Crawl back to the Clandestine era. I could be really cheesy and say things Got Out Of Hand but they really did as the classic song burst into blasphemous action.
Finally getting a photo pass from a friend it was time to get deafened next to the speaker and it was only when Sinners Bleed started perforating my eardrums that I realised just how loud the guitars actually were. Stranger Aeons was another classic before the Phantasm theme of Left Hand Path made it all seem like Halloween again. The last few numbers were a blur, sometimes it’s hard to review when all you want to do is headbang and spill beer everywhere but Demon certainly rocked, rolled and rattled us rotten before we collapsed into the shopping centre like reject zombies from Dawn Of The Dead. Great stuff and a suitable climax from a weekend of death metal in London.
Pete Woods
Exterminator, Dismember, Grave, Unleashed, Entombed
Islington Academy, 04/11/06