Rocking up to the Odeon Theatre for a Death Metal show, I was expecting to see an evil-looking crowd full of corpse paint and gothic individuals. Surprisingly, though, the crowd was quite “normal” looking, and it appears that a lot of people had just come along to check out the darker side of Dark Mofo. Either that, or the death metal fans have all grown up a little now. Maybe it was just too cold, and everyone’s jumpers and jackets were hiding the death metal threads? Anyway, I should probably get onto the show.
The stage goes green, and a group of slimy-looking dudes enter the stage. As soon as the first note hits, it is brutal and sludgy. Slimelord call themselves Swamp Death, or maybe Dark Mofo called them that, but either way, I could not find a better explanation for it. The riffs are thick and fast, the double kicks could cause epilepsy, and the vocals are disturbingly guttural.
There is no way I am going to understand the names to any of these songs, even if the lead vocalist says them. I say lead vocalist because the guitarist right of stage steps in every once in a while to do some screams himself. He and the guitarist left of stage share solos and lead guitar duties, while the other keeps the death metal riffs coming in thick and furiously. The rhythm section of the band stays solid and tight as the bass player lingers right in front of the double kick drums. He never strays too far or gets in the way of either guitarist, who rightfully claim their own corners of the stage.
The band delivers track after track of swampy death goodness, and the crowd stares intently with appreciation and satisfaction. Applause rings out after every song, and everyone once in a while they get some appreciation back from a pommy voice from Leeds. Funny sounding fucker when he is not screaming his guts out and blowing a poofoo valve.
That was intense!
This time around, the stage goes into complete darkness and then bursts into Dark Mofo Red. If you are not already aware, the town is painted red this time of year, and inverted crosses line the harbour against the backdrop of historical buildings, churches and landmarks. Never mind that, though, the focus is on Spectral Wound, who enter the stage as an eerie intro plays, each one of them adorned with their own take on corpse paint.
This is what most people would expect a death metal band to look like. And they sound just like you would expect they do too. As per their chosen sub-genre, it is both aristocratic (a little bit fancy), and suicidal. Well, I do not know about that last bit, but it is fucking dark! The guitar riffs are intense and technical, however, somehow still melodic. The drums are thumping and quick, and the bass just sits buried in the mix as a rumbling low end. And the vocals? Well, they twist between guttural and demonic screeching.
It is pretty hard to tell one song apart from the next, but that is probably because this genre is not my forte. What I can say is that the band is relentless in their delivery of the intense, technical, fast, and brutal tunes. They really just never let up until the final strokes of death are made in a bludgeoning fashion. A sombre outro plays over the applause of the crowd as they exit the stage.
I sure hope death metal is good for the soul!
I had no idea who the first two bands were because neither of them had a banner onstage or said their name, so I had to “do my own research.” Luckily, the next band was nice enough to put their logos on the kick drums, so I am all over this. This is Hulder, majestic black metal from the good old US of A. Lucky for them, they seemed to have got out of there just in time while their country appears to be going through some rather serious issues.
I think it is time the death metal lads need to all lift their game because the frontwoman of HULDER has the most evil and brutal vocals that I have heard so far tonight. Not only that, but she is also doing it while strapped with a guitar and cutting sick on brutal riffs. This is without a doubt the scariest band so far, too, from a sound point of view. The singer’s corpse paint probably does not help either…
I should mention that prior to the brutality, she entered the stage without the guitar and kicked things off by singing some dark operatic melodies. It did not take too long before the guitar got strapped on, though, and the show got underway. So, let us get back to it, shall we? The riffs are heavy, dark, and frighteningly intense. There is just this constant feeling of impending doom within the music that is somehow unexplainable. This may possibly be due to some backing tracks hidden in the mix, or possibly just the use of some very unusual dissonant guitar chords.
They call themselves Majestic Black Metal, which is quite an effective way to define it. When those haunting clean vocals from the intro are added here and there amongst the death, it definitely softens the blow a little, you could even say majestically. It is still dark as fuck though.
I may not sleep very well tonight after that …
I did not know what to expect from a band called Imperial Triumphant who play a genre called Dissonant Avant-Death. It also did not help much when they came out wearing weird outfits and masks. I mean, the imperial part kind of made sense because they look like some kind of Egyptian overlords, or something of the like, but that still shed no light on what they were about to deliver.
And what did they deliver? I am still not even sure, but they got the dissonant part right as the guitar and bass sit on separate frequencies with zero overlap, so they both poke right out of the mix. The bass was maybe a little too much to begin with, as the individual notes were so proud they almost sounded wrong. They were not wrong, though they were ever so right for the sound they appeared to be trying to achieve.
And what is that sound? I still do not know, as it is quite varied. They are definitely not a band who are trying to slot straight into the death metal basket, although somehow, they still do. There is a lot more spatial sounds to them than the average death band, and one of my favourite effects that they use is the frontman pushing the vocals through his guitar somehow like a vocoder effect. It basically makes the singer sound like a space robot, but gives him the ability to define his voice with his whammy bar and give it rhythm with his strumming of chords.
Very unusual, and very entertaining. Even the weird atmospheric bass solo halfway through the set, which saw the bass player light up some fairy lights on his bass. Disappointingly, just after we got kicked out of the photo pit. For those who do not know, you get three songs or 15 minutes, whichever occurs first.
There is an element of jazz to this band, which sometimes makes them sound like a jam band. This is especially prevalent when they enter into a random tribal jam that develops into a heavy instrumental. This is followed by the frontman, not that I should assume genders under that costume or on any occasion these days, as a matter of fact, saying goodbye in his robot voice before standing very still for a while and then cracking into an encore with the band.
For a kind of scary band, they were a hell of lot of fun!
