Suffocation / Cattle Decapitation / Blood Red Throne / Sadist / Cerebral Bore

A night of varied high-octane death metal hits London and all the extreme metallers are at the Underworld with high hopes. Scotland's Cerebral Bore provide a menacing delicacy of slam death metal with female growler Simone Pluijmers proving that girls can be brutal too. However, the music of Cerebral Bore is not particularly memorable yet there are many appreciators in the audience, no doubt because of their frequent appearances in London.

Next up are Italian progressive death metallers Sadist who replaced Polish black/death metallers Hate. With the inclusion of a keyboard, which is played simultaneously with guitar by Tommy Talamanca, Sadist are no ordinary technical death metal band. Taking leads from the likes of Cynic, Necrophagist and Dream Theater, the intricacy of the music is sublime and each of the band members appear to be excessively talented. The keyboard is foreboding, the guitars and bass frequently venture into jazz moments and the vocals are typical of death metal. There are not as many spectators as those who saw Cerebral Bore but those absentees are severely missing out. A breath of fresh air in the death metal scene.

With a decapitated head on stage, Norway's Blood Red Throne continue the gory death metal sequence of events, offering the straight forward variety of meat-and-potato death metal ala Cannibal Corpse or Deicide. Despite the songs being deficient in much diversity, the live show is sonically vigorous with heads banging and mosh pits forming in the heart of the crowd. Supporting the release of last year's 'Brutalitarian Regime', this five-piece provide an austere stage presence, dwarfing the already small stage of the Underworld. At the end of the set, the audience feels firmly violated yet clamour for the band to play longer but the show must go on.

With the strict curfew in place and the show running late, Cattle Decapitation have a severely truncated set. From the get go, the San Diego grind fiends blow through track after track, rarely giving the audience time to breathe. The technical aspects of the band's latest efforts are brain-melting, such as 'A Body Farm', with fingers dancing all over the fret board and the drumming alternating between a breakneck tempo and off beat oddities. The older material is an aural assault of fast death/grind, as evidenced by 'Testicular Manslaughter'. Just as the set reaches its pinnacle of intensity, vocalist Travis Ryan halts the show and apologises for the extremely abridged performance. Needless to say, the audience are understandably upset but not for long. Fingers crossed for Cattle Decapitation to return soon after the release of their new album this year.

There is a little anxiety about seeing Suffocation tonight given the recent departure of original drummer Mike Smith, now replaced with old Suffocation drummer Dave Culross. Vocalist Frank Mullen is temporarily replaced with fellow technical death metallers Decrepit Birth's growler Bill Robinson on this tour, Robinson being personally selected by Mullen himself. But these fears are assuaged when it is evident that Robinson fills the role seamlessly with boundless energy and solid conviction (as those who have seen Decrepit Birth before are aware). With a slew of stage invaders, circle pits and mosh pit outbreaks, this is nothing short of a standard Suffocation show. A great selection of classic numbers is pumped into the sweaty multitude, including 'Catatonia', 'Breeding the Spawn' and 'Pierced from Within'.

The technical aspect of Suffocation cannot be overlooked and their musicianship is impressive. With slam death metal passages married with a thick groove perfect for headbanging, the New Yorkers' music truly shines in a live environment and puts the countless Suffocation clones to shame. As the band vacates the stage, floods of people begin to leave, assuming the Americans will have to erase their encore for the curfew, which has already been passed. However, Suffocation do return for the classic 'Infecting the Crypts' from the 'Human Waste' EP. This visceral number storms through the venue and there is a maelstrom of moshing, flying hair and brazen stage invaders. The atmosphere of the music is reflected perfectly in the audience's behaviour. Robinson thanks all the concert goers and Suffocation and receives a seal of approval from the crowd. All in all a fantastic show but perhaps with too many acts playing, which leads to frustrating issues if the smallest incident occurs like Cattle Decapitation's pitifully short set. Nonetheless, this was one of most prominent shows in the death metal calendar this year and it lived up to its expectation.

FUTURE GIGS