By DJ Astrocreep
From the downbeat yet uptempo stylings of Fontaines D.C. to the growling and blastbeats of Immolation within a couple of days, Manchester is sure throwing me some curveballs with gigs at the moment. A mere five-minute walk from Tuesday night’s venue lies a bumper four band heavy as fuck bill to attempt to vibrate some sense into my head.
Not long after doors open, Italian death metallers Embryo are opening proceedings for us to a sparse audience. It’s pretty good, as can be seen by the nodding heads and intense staring of those that have gotten down so early to take in their growls and utterances, leaving a good impression on us all. My own head is subconsciously nodding as I make my way to the bar and take up position a bit further back in the venue to watch it all unfurl, and the Eugenio and Simone on guitar and keys respectively work well in tandem to lay out the more obvious sides of the music, with the drummer and bassist ensuring they all keep it tight. A good opening set.
Monument Of Misanthropy sport a number of impressive names, comprising of sometime members of Raising The Veil, De Profundis and Putridity, among others and set straight to work, intent on showing us quite what they’re capable of. While the members may be split across different countries and time zones, the band sound quite tight, certainly in a manner that makes a mockery of their third on the bill status tonight. Misanthrope’s vocals are well performed, as are the blastbeats that drive the whole band on at a relentless pace, adding even further brutality to their already malevolent death metal sound. The crowd has busied up fourfold by the start of their set and is now looking pretty good and they, as much as I, seem to be hypnotised by what’s being pummeled into us. A band going from strength to strength, showing no signs of slowing down.
On to our main support then and we get some Norwegian Black metal in the shape of Ragnarok. While I do often enjoy some diversity in gig line ups in terms of sound and such, I’m not so fussed on Ragnarok and their sound. It’s not that they’re not tight or anything of the like, if they had been lower down the bill I could probably have enjoyed them a touch more, but after the ability and brutalness of our earlier acts, it feels like a decent sized step backwards and certainly a bit of a buzz kill. Whether it’s to do with the curation of the bill or if they’ve been pushed so high for a reason, they just evoke nothing from me personally and the cheers definitely seem quieter than they had for the previous bands, even with less people in then. A pity.
So, on to our headliners and the crowd pick up immediately, the noise level even just to welcome them to the stage being considerably louder than anything we have had so far tonight. The crowd in front of the stage side area of the venue is looking a lot busier now, everyone almost has piled forward from the bar area at the back to be much more a part of it than earlier. They are bang on form and the excitement in the air is almost tangible in that invisible electrical current you get when so much excitement and energy in this type of gig.
While I sadly have to leave a touch earlier than I’d like due to transport, with the venue allowing the gig to run later than they usually would, I get in a good portion of the set of the set and more than enough that I seriously consider the expense of an intercity taxi if required. ‘Into Everlasting Fire’, taking it back old school, is a particular personal highlight, while there is plenty more, mixed well between the newer and older tracks, to both keep people interested and involved and to keep the heads banging, as the middle third of the crowd often resembles a quick fire haie dressers, as the hair flies off in every direction with the levels of headbanging. The Immolation set fixes what Ragnarok may well have destabilised for me. A superb headline set that once again establishes how Immolation have garnered such a reputation for their live shows.
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