Will Marshall
So much so that two of the most exciting bands from different sides of the pond have teamed up for a run of shows that sold out ludicrously fast. Those bands are American filth peddlers Undeath and “New Wave of British Death Metal” flagbearers Celestial Sanctuary, and they’ve descended on the legendary Black Heart for a night of riffs and debauchery.
Before the main event though, the already packed room are treated to a short but brutal set from local boys Mutagenic Host. They might only have about twenty minutes’ worth of released material, but it’s precisely the kind of decrepit, filth-encrusted racket needed to warm the room up. Chugging, churning guitars are backed by sludgy, thunderous drumming and the vocals are visceral, switching from guttural bellows to vicious rasps. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they leave it covered in viscera and bile.
They might call themselves the new wave of British death metal but there’s something delightfully old school about Celestial Sanctuary’s strain of brutality. Drawing a little from hardcore and a lot from Bolt Thrower, their sound is old school, dragged kicking and screaming into modern times without much change but with the riffs to more than back it up. Mass Extinction hits like an interplanetary asteroid, the crowd gleefully throwing themselves round the front like swirling debris from an impact crater. Suffer Your Sentience is earth-shatteringly heavy with tectonic groove, while Relentless Savagery is every bit as gruesome as its name suggests. While it’s abundantly clear whose gory altar they worship at, Celestial Sanctuary never sound like a rip-off or an imitation. Their no-frills, no bullshit death metal has landed them a place squarely at the front of UK underground death metal and a showing like this only proves they’re the real deal, with crusty riffs and huge grins aplenty.
Finally it’s time for US death metal’s critical darling Undeath; that’s no slight as their latest second album, It’s Time… To Rise From the Grave! was lauded across the metal spectrum and earned more than a few coveted AOTY spots. The band walk onstage to huge cheers, vocalist Alex Jones (not that one) sporting a crown – though that’s swiftly lost in the first scouring blast of their gore-soaked death metal. Opening with an incendiary Rise From the Grave, they’re immediately repaid with circle pits and frantic moshing. It’s easy to see why their first time on these shores sold out; simply put, they’re fucking amazing. Pummelling grooves to snap your neck to? Check. Blastbeats fast enough to flay the skin from your face? Check. Fiendishly addictive songs that’ll lodge themselves in your cranium like an icepick? Check, check and check. And like all the best death metal, it’s delivered with a knowing wink at the absurdity of the genre and lyrics – after all, how can you not with songs like Fiend For Corpses. It might be their first time here but like the two records to their name so far, they’ve left an indelible mark on both the scene and the stage with one of the most fun shows and wildest crowds the venue’s seen in some time.
