PIGSTY + MINCING FURY AND GUTTURAL GLAMOUR OF QUEER DECAY + MUCOPUS + EMBRYONIC DEPRAVITY
Satan’s Hollow in Manchester is a special venue as a not only is brilliantly and ornately decorated in the theme you’ve probably already guessed by now, but also the bands play in the middle of the dance floor area so that you’re able to walk around to the back and give the drummers in extreme metal some well earned appreciation at their skills. It is a quite disconcerting for the uninitiated when they enter this venue, such is the layout, but once you’re over this then this is a unique way to see bands, and first up of the nights death and grind mauling was Embryonic Depravity (Anally Regurgitated didn’t play) who failed to impress me at Deathfest VIII. Had they made any improvements since that performance was on my mind from the start? Kicking off with “Inferior Malediction” and quickly followed by “Perverse Psychology” it was clear that the night was going to be an extremely brutal affair. Unfortunately I still found that their stage presence and menace factor was lacking. There was no doubt that songs like “Acephalous Transmutation” or “Insurgence Of Dogmatic Antiquity” were vicious battering slabs of metal but it was difficult to identify any standout tracks amongst their set, except when they covered “Hammer Smashed Face”.
The same could not be said of Mucopus whose face ripping assault of grind and death metal carnage was relentless. The song variation was huge and even though their style was firmly entrenched in Dying Fetus the songs had that extra slam factor to make them far more enjoyable. “Load Rag” was a technical jamboree but packed clout with its catchy riffs and superb slamming sections. Jason’s beast like hollering and screaming fit perfectly as he stalked the stage and pit area looking for victims and intimidating anyone and everyone. With no actual set list to take a photo if interpreting guttural roaring song title announcements is no easy task, but it seemed the band culled most tracks from their newest album “Undimensional”. An album I intend to invest in at some point. As their short set was ending the band caught us out with an almost jazz style drum start followed by some quirky bass picking before blasting us with an all out grind assault. Each band member’s ability was excellent and added to that their vastly superior stage presence Mucopus were a force to behold on the night.
Mincing Fury, or should I say their full name of Mincing Fury and Guttural Glamour Of Queer Decay, hail from Czech Republic, along with the headliners, arrived on stage in sunglasses and started their set with what sounded like a bastardised version of some Beach Boys tune. However that was extremely short lived as the drum blast propelled the music into grind territory. Identifying song titles was impossible even when two vocalists are announcing them. The hyperactive vocalists rarely kept still for second until they both lay on the floor screaming and roaring away. Despite this approach the bands music was packed with a plethora of styles ranging from pure death metal to sludge filth to grind and even drifted towards power violence, such was the ferocity of the material. The vocalists were definitely the focus of attention here as the remaining guys played the shit out their instruments whilst the rest of us watched the antics of the singers. The band’s use of humour when using ska or piss takes of metalcore guitar whining were humourous and blended with the short sharp blast and groove style. The song lengths seemed to vary from lightning speed grind bouts to longer more sludgy bulldozing death metal affairs. As the last song of their set closed all the guys (except the drummer) laid flat on the floor, one assumes to pretend to be dead. All in all a very entertaining set of grind metal mayhem.
The headliners let me down from the start, despite having a great band name, Pigsty came across as flat and devoid of any aggression. The number of people in the venue seemed to be depleted by the time they came on; to such an extent the band spoke in Czech for their entire set which was cut to about 25 minutes. Musically they were the most melodic of the night as they utilised thrash riffing and blended it with death metal and the occasional grind section. Vocally I was reminded of very early Napalm Death when Dorrian was with them as he tried very hard to engage the audience fully. Despite having a decent catalogue of material to slay the remaining punters with, a track like “Living Dead Stars” was catchy and well played but like the rest of the songs it failed to ignite my interest and they compounded the matter by leaving long pauses between songs. I did my best to enjoy “End Of All Lies” which had punchy riffing and was a decent tune, but in the end I gave up and became slightly bored overall, and wished that Mucopus had headlined instead such was their impressively devastating performance.
Martin Harris
MANCHESTER, SATANS HOLLOW 16/07/07