“Umm, yeah, this song is called RAGUGGGELLWUGH!!!” Says the tubby funster fronting opening act Fleshrot. Ah, yes, the calling card of bloody boring brutal death metal – a lack of any personality. Yeah, the songs have some cool blasts, and I’m sure the solos are all fine, but a muddy sound and no real tightness produce something that rarely can distract from the fact that the Purple Turtle smells like cthulhus arsehole. A big meh to them.
Second up are old school grinders Hovadah. A power trio in the strictest sense, they blast out some quality slabs of grinding fun and occasionally throw in some truly groovy riffs – but it’s mostly about the blastbeat. As I have a pretty low attention span (oooh look…porn) constant blasting bores me a bit and I’m soon back to wondering how a pub can really smell this bad. But if you want tight no frills quality grind – Hovahah are your boys.
Dyscarnate plug in and destroy. Tight and polished catchy death with dual vocals, the band blow the cobwebs (and yes, the smell) clean out of the venue. These guys could be the great British hope of death metal. They certainly have the songs. If they could grow some personality and get a bit more interaction with the crowd going, they could be playing venues double the size of this place, and killing the shit out of everything around.
Welsh DM institution Desecration are a strange beast, trading on their ‘pervert’ notoriety is an odd way to rise through the musical ranks. And being an institution and ‘old school’ is no excuse for playing a pretty damn sloppy set. Desecration most definitely have the tunes and the experience to be much better than this. Yeah, it may be a small venue without a huge crowd, but it could be far better. And with that – the shit smell is back.
