Obituary
An evening of clean, wholesome, melodic pop this most certainly wasn’t. It was however good deathly fun.
Look, I’m old enough to both know better and to have left death metal behind me a loooong time ago. Tonight is the kinda gig I’d have done when I was in my teens - when dinosaurs still walked the earth. So what the hell am I doing here? Well, I got talked into it by a mate who has managed to have a diary clash and won’t arrive until the supports have been and gone.
CELESTIAL SANCTUARY don’t beat about the bush. Before a note is played, we’re asked if we’re ready for some death metal. Well, of course most of the audience are. All the usual tools are in place: down-tuned guitars, furious yet precise riffing, squealing solos, thunderous double bass drums, biscuit tin snares, guttural and unintelligible vocals and spooky pre-recorded noises between songs. For all that, there is a self-awareness and humour at work here. Celestial Sanctuary is not a novelty act by any means - the playing is deadly serious - but they don’t take themselves too seriously. The attitude reminds me of Carcass at the Waterfront a few weeks ago and that wins me over.
Hailing from Leeds, PEST CONTROL bring a fine noise to the fine city. Describing themselves as crossover, their sound is more hardcore than thrash. The barked vocals, chugging but frantic riffing and short, sharp songs reminded me of 80s UKHC just before it morphed into grindcore - think Electro Hippies or Chaos UK - with a touch of Sabbat’s debut LP thrown in for good measure. Like Celestial Sanctuary, Pest Control look like they are enjoying playing and they are the only band here that I would go out of my way to listen to at home.
And so to OBITUARY. At the commencement of the set, the backdrop states that there “is no other band that has remained as influential in death metal” and, after 11 studio albums in 35 years, who am I to argue? John Tardy, Donald Tardy and Trevor Peres (vox, drums and rhythm guitar respectively) have been with the band since the beginning whilst bassist Terry Butler joined in 2010 and lead guitarist Ken Andrews entered the fold over a decade ago.
The band are greeted with a sea of devil horns from an audience that ranges from teenagers looking like they’re attending their first extreme metal gig to hoary old rockers that may have passed retirement age. Unlike the bad old days of the 80s when 95% or more of the audience would have been male, there is very healthy gender mix.
The lighting is up to Epic’s usual high standards - septic greens mix with malevolent reds, diseased blues and eyeball searing strobes. The precision riffing, strangled vocals and phenomenal drumming invoke the occasional pit but the moshing is neither as widespread nor as enthusiastic as I expect. I can only think that the surprisingly long gaps between songs derail the momentum and, after 45 minutes – the highlights of which include The Wrong Time and a fierce Buried Alive - Obituary leave the stage. Of course, they come back for a four-song encore includes fearsome takes on War and Slowly We Rot.
So, whilst I am unlikely to listen to Celestial Sanctuary or Obituary at home, they and Pest Control delivered formidable sets and all three bands are well worth catching live.
Full photo gallery HERE
