aaamusic | On 18, Mar 2012

London, 13th March

Sadist are Italian and have a bit of a legacy behind them but tonight’s performance doesn’t really show anything special.
The growling seems comical and the symphonic keyboards are just out of place not matching up with the up temp kick drums, they are a little technical but this doesn’t make up for lacking any kind of stage presence and stand out songs, to be honest they are ok and you do not really suffer too much standing through their set but I will not remember it tomorrow.

Blood Red Throne are a different cattle of fish, they are from Norway and cross a black metal sound with distinctive Pantera type riffs, but you are a little confuse cause they do not stick to the usual black metal stereotypes. No face paint here but we do have a ‘Dimmebag Darrell’ look alike on guitar, utter spitting image of the man himself. He does put on a good display that Dime would have been happy with himself. They have some good stand out songs and are really tight even when they are messing around with heads on sticks and making the stage into a swimming pool. I really enjoyed their set.

Blood red Throne – Setlist
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Smite
Deranged Assassin
Children shall Endure
Arterial Lust
Taste of God
Graveworld
Mephitication
Brutalitarian Regime
The Light, The Hate

What should I say about ‘Cattle Decapitation’ well the singer is totally nuts, he looks like he has been let out on day release as he surges his way into the crowd screaming in their faces as slugging rock riffs are given a hardcore death metal edge, this is a go crazy and not care band and as the crowd fling themselves into one another with not a care for life or limb, they injure us to a good but not memorable set of wiry delights.

Suffocation for a start are without singer ‘Frank Mullen’ who is taking time out to spend with his family. He is replaced by ‘Bill Robinson’ of ‘Decrepit Birth ‘ who reminds me of a dirty wizard who has turned himself into an evil tree. This evil tree that could have come out of lord of the rings really does justice to the songs tonight running through a back catalogue of songs including ‘Pierced from Within’ and ‘Breeding the Spawn’. There seems to be new life in these songs that are now taking on a different take. The band is together with no mistakes made.
This polished performance see’s guitarist ‘Terrance Hobbs’ flying his dreads back and forth as he rocks out to the songs.
You can see a faint smile on his face as ‘Bill Robinson’ says ‘I have played the underworld before and I know how crazy you can go!’, and the crowd is doing just that as they display old school breakdowns hit into thrash riffs and doomy vocals. The bands are on form and they show why they influenced a generation of bands. They are one of the heaviest bands I have heard this year but it’s not a wall of sound like ‘Decapitated’ but it’s a timed brutal heavy-ness that doesn’t leave your ears ringing at the end of the set. It is the kind of sound that makes you want to smash things up and the crowd is smashing one another up tonight. They show why they are so respected and they did it without ‘Frank Mullen’ people seem to respect that he is doing his thing and are enjoying the incarnation that they have now.

Suffocation Setlist
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Thrones of Blood
Effigy of the Forgotten
Catatonia
Pierced From Within
Liege of Inveracity
Abomination Reborn
Funeral Inception
Breeding the Spawn
Jesus Wept
Torn Into Enthrallment
Suspended in Tribulation

 

Daniel Cairns