If you were to ask the average person to name a death metal band, they’d likely say Slipknot because they don’t know what death metal is. The rest would say Cannibal Corpse, the benchmark from bloodthirsty brutality and vicious skull-crushing intensity. Their latest trip to Manchester sees them at their biggest and most violent show yet: Victoria Slaughterhouse with support from Municipal Waste, Immolation and Schizophrenia.
Belgian death/thrash outfit Schizophrenia were first with an incredibly early set of early Sepultura-inspired primitive but effective death metal. It’s instantly clear that Schizophrenia takes influence from that wave of death/thrash from the late 80s with bands like Sarcofago and Possessed but unlike those bands, there’s a more progressive edge with whiplash turns and tempo changes. They even threw in a cover of ‘Necrophiliac’ by Slayer for good measure.
Despite taking influence from early Sepultura, they are already much better musicians than the original lineup of Sepultura was back then. There are brilliant sweeping guitar solos, breakneck riffing and intense blast beats throughout the set that all feel like they could have been lost songs from the 80s that were discovered today. ‘Cranial Disintegration’ is easily the best representation of what the band can do and if the mood for 80s death/thrash strikes but you can’t stomach the dated production, check out Schizophrenia.
Up next was original New York death metal legends, Immolation. Immolation have been on a hot streak of incredibly brutal albums including the modern death metal classics, Acts of God and Atonement. Their sound still has that trademark early 90s death metal intensity but Immolation shine when they slow down and bring in the doom elements.
A personal highlight of the set was ‘A Glorious Epoch,’ this track has an uncanny ability to make even the most packed and humid rooms feel freezing cold. The growling drop-tuned guitar work is sonically reminiscent of acts like Celtic Frost and brilliantly channels that icy tone before descending deep into the fiery inferno of which they have earned their name. Classic tracks like the bombastic yet ominous ‘This Distorting Light’ is an astounding right hook that makes a brilliant early impression alongside older tracks like the doomy syrupy riffing of ‘Father, You’re not a Father’.
The thunderous intensity of drummer Steve Shalaty dominates the mix along with the roaring vocals of Ross Dolan, perhaps to the point of drowning out the guitar work but there were still moments where the Morbid Angel-style steamroller riffing came together to create a glorious yet hellish cacophony of demonic noise.
Immolation have toured with Cannibal Corpse 7 times in the past 35 years and it’s heartwarming to see bands like this support and sing the praises of each other for so long. Despite all of the grisly subject matter and controversy death metal has gained over the years, it’s still a genre infested with people helping each other succeed in a genre that has an admittedly niche fanbase in the grand scheme of things. The set ended with one of the oldest tracks in the Immolation back catalogue, ‘Into the Everlasting Fire from Dawn of Possession’ released in 1991. This a masterful track from a tragically overlooked death metal classic that will hopefully gain some new fans once this tour is over.
Up next was the odd band out, Municipal Waste, arguably the biggest thrash metal band to come out of the 21st century. Municipal Waste are a prime example of KISS at work (Keep it Simple, Stupid), their songs are faster than lightning in both tempo and duration. By the time I started taking notes, they were on their third song.
The band are helping keep thrash alive by delivering a performance that would rival titans of the genre during their prime. The whole show was full of non-stop crowd surfing, circle pits and moshing as the band just blasted through crossover thrash anthems like ‘Breathing Grease,’ ‘You’re Cut Off’ and ‘Wave of Death,’ the latter of which had the most concentrated amount of crowd surfers of the entire night.
The whole vibe of the set is good friendly violent fun, there was even bananas crowd surfing in the audience. Frontman Tony Foresta even remarked “We got ourselves a motherf*ckin sandwich” as the two bananas spread themselves across the audience like some kind of messed up, aggressive bowl of cornflakes.
The majority of the show is at 90 miles per hour and if thrash isn’t your thing then you likely won’t get much out of listening to Municipal Waste on the album but the live experience is an unhinged sight to behold. Before starting ‘The Art of Partying,’ Tony Foresta said “There’s death metal heads out there partying, we appreciate you all” and that speaks to the audience being more dedicated to having fun with their headbanger friends than sticking to one genre and getting upset that a largely death metal bill appeals to thrashers.
Metal is about having fun and creating a safe community designed for us social outcasts and if you’re not welcome at a show like this, what’s the point of being into metal? Either way, Municipal Waste is gonna f*ck you up!
Finally, was the colossus juggernaut of blinding violence and unstoppable carnage, Cannibal Corpse. Opening with arguably the best track they’ve released in years, ‘Blood Blind,’ the band started an onslaught of high-velocity death metal designed to turn Victoria Warehouse into a Slaughterhouse. The whole set was full of classics throughout Cannibal Corpse’s discography, an eras tour of voracious insanity if you will.
Each era of the band’s history is represented really well. The grinding devastation of ‘Scourge of Iron’ is an obvious fan favourite and hearing tracks from my first experience with and personal favourite Cannibal Corpse album, Torture, played live so long after its release is amazing. Lesser heard tracks like ‘Pounded into Dust’ and ‘Disposal of the Body’ blended seamlessly with classics like ‘The Wretched Spawn’ and the feminist classic; ‘Fucked with a Knife‘. From the shambling zombie grooves of ‘Death Walking Terror’ to the blasting swarming zombie assault of ‘Pit of Zombies’ to the scream along zombie choruses of ‘Kill or Become’. The purpose of this paragraph was to illustrate that Cannibal Corpse like zombies.
It goes without saying that ‘Corpsegrinder’ still sounds as imposing as ever all while being a giant lovable teddy bear. The man is living proof that you can be a genuinely loving and caring person and make inhuman noises and screaming about some of the most depraved acts ever created by the human mind.
The instrumentalists are in their own league, Alex Webster continuously proves why he’s one of the best death metal bass players of all time and the guitar work from Rob Barrett and iconic producer Erik Rutan has this sloppy yet satisfying tone. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz could likely be heard down the street as he delivered pounding blast beats with the same intensity as Leatherface bashing in the skulls of intruding hippies.
The set ended with three certified death metal classics; ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled,’ ‘Staring through the Eyes of the Dead’ and the first death metal song most people have ever heard, ‘Hammer Smashed Face’. These tracks are all early death metal masterpieces for a reason, despite being unhinged blasts of intensity, they’re all brilliantly catchy and show that Cannibal Corpse can write songs with coherent songwriting and flowing parts instead of just several minutes of violence and screaming.
On the way home, I overheard a conversation between a woman, presumably coming home from work, asking about the band with genuine interest. It felt like there was still hope for a band as niche as Cannibal Corpse to garner some morbid curiosity from a mainstream audience. Cannibal Corpse are a particularly grisly band but it seems like the bloodthirst is spreading and before long… we will be overrun.
