By: Andrew Rawlinson
Dying Fetus | facebook | twitter |
Support: Goatwhore | Fallujah | Malevolence |
The Garage, London | November 23, 2014
American death metal legends Dying Fetus have rolled into town and despite events appearing to be conspiring against your intrepid reporter’s mission of death metal worship on the Sabbath with rain, engineering works and various other niggles getting in the way of a simple operation, however much peserBEERing, I eventually find myself at the not so legendary Garage venue.
Some further queue shenanigans result in me only catching the last two songs of opening act Fallujah and initially their standard death metal riffing isn’t than noteworthy so I head to the bar… but then they erupt into a sort of post-metal crescendo that grabs my attention! Next and final song continues in this vein mixing up death metal and atmospherics to superb affect and my newly acquired pint is stoutly raised high, will have to research these guys further!
I’ve come to the conclusion that the venue is run by a home sick Australian because in the summer the air con is switched off resulting in an uncomfortable sweat box and today in the middle of November it’s running full blast!
Anyway the venue is already pretty busy (approximately half full at this point reaching four fifths full for the headliner as a guestimation) with the full spectrum of death metal attire in abundance from the seasoned veterans in battle jackets to the flesh tunneled death core worshippers, but everyone happily is getting along in jovial spirits intent on having a good time.
The aptly titled Malevolence spit in the face of this frivolity with their aggressive hardcore approach that whips up the beat down lovers into two stepping to their heart’s content, for the casual onlookers it takes a few songs for the band’s approach to sink in but the southern fried riffage that occasionally rears up certainly provides a useful hook.
Anticipation noticeably jolts up several notches as Goatwhore prepare to take the stage and quite rightly too as boy do they deliver the goods! Blasting through a 50 minute set of blistering, brutal no nonsense heavy fucking metal! The band is all spikes, leather and hair while the man mountain that is frontman Ben Falgoust commands the crowd superbly, always on the move he encourages fist pumping and head banging aplenty culminating in a thrilling rendition of ‘Apocalyptic Havok’.
Which sets things up nicely for Dying Fetus to bulldoze the crowd with a thrilling death metal display. They arrive onstage to a heroes reception and promptly waste no time getting down to business with their winning formula of technical precision and brutal heaviness. The hour long set rips through at breakneck pace and has the crowd alternating between going mental in the mosh pit or simply being mesmerised by the insane fretboard wizardry on display.
In a word: Smashing!
—Set List—
In the Trenches
One Shot, One Kill
Intentional Manslaughter
Second Skin
From Womb to Waste
Shepherd’s Commandment
Raped on the Altar
Subjected to a Beating
Grotesque Impalement
Praise the Lord (Opium of the Masses)
Pissing in the Mainstream
Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog
Your Treachery Will Die With You
