By Jase Walker
Rounding off a weekend of ear destroying metal across two countries, I’m finishing up with Manchester lovelies, Ingested! Over in the nearby city of Haarlem, Patronaat tonight is going to see another night of insanely heavy metal and I can’t wait to see them tear the venue a new one.
Mélancolia opt, weirdly, for ‘Project Blade’ as their announcement music, I can’t think of something further from tech death to get us started but it goes! Their drooling singer immediately opens with pig squeals and absolutely disgusting gutturals, this is how you open a tech death show in proper style. I’ve just noticed the singer has an actual chain over his mic lead as well, that’s cool as fuck.
I’m totally drawn to the singer and his gruesome vocal delivery, the music is great in its own right but something about the outrageously filthy vocals is a magnet for my attention. They’ve done pretty well engaging the crowd and getting them to move as well, it’s time to guard my pint a bit as I’m barely one person away from some very large Dutch men throwing themselves about. Overall I’m happy with the fact that they don’t lean too heavily on just going for straight caveman sort of riffs, there’s a decent amount of melody between the brutal parts that it remains dynamic and interesting. Great start to tonight’s show, safe trip home to Australia lads.
Vulvydonia start out with their signature gore video introduction which is pretty gruesome honestly. Leasing straight into their signature caveman riffs and pig squeals, it’s not taken long for people to start losing their minds in the central pit. Being clear, I am not really a fan of these from the few times I’ve seen them before but I will give them credit on their shows being pretty outrageous and the crowds being properly nutty and tonight is no different! It’s important to me that bands know their raison d’etre to exist and Vulvydonia knows exactly that, pure aggression, there’s no room for finesse here.
No sooner do I type that I get crashed into by several people and spill a chunk of my pint all over my jeans and ‘phone! It’s also a class act to see a crowd surfer getting lifted onto the stage by the singer only to dive straight back onto the crowd. And toward the end it’s great to see a guest spot for Fallujah’s bass player as well, it’s rare to see that sort of thing! These guys have done a fantastic job of carrying the show on their slot, insanely heavy and the audience absolutely bloody loved it, top marks.
Fallujah starts without much introduction and they sound absolutely massive, already far better than any previous shows I’d seen! Fallujah brings a massively melodic edge to this sort of lineup, every bit as brutal as the others but with much more emphasis on melodic hooks and wailing guitar work.
The crowd down the front is wasting no time in going berserk, slamming into each other and it’s a real joy to see people going so utterly insane to Fallujah as I find they’re hugely underrated. Seeing how well the crowd have responded to Fallujah truly warms my heart as being more generally melodic can sometimes be an issue when you’re on the heavier side.
It’s incredible as well seeing how well Fallujah are performing on the end of such a long tour, every part of the band from the guitars to the vocals are performing at 110 per cent . Even during the wailing guitar solo parts, the crowd is baying for blood and I think it speaks volumes that a band can go so hard even on the last date of a tour like this. This is easily the best I’ve ever seen Fallujah and experiencing how they’ve absolutely killed it, especially on the end of a tour, has been incredible to witness. Insane show!
Ingested kick off their show and there’s no delay in people kicking the ever living fuck out of each other in the pit. No time for breathing, appreciating subtleties, observing the finer parts, only mania and going mental. These mancunians are here to lay waste to Patronaat, there is no other acceptable option. Even Jason (vocals) tells the crowd their circle pit was crap in comparison to Nijmegen, which only serves to incense them to go even harder!
This crowd is amazing to observe from the upper level, we’ve got 300 people on the floor all wanting to show Ingested what they’re made of and they’re giving every single bit of energy that Ingested are putting into the last show of the tour. To say Ingested are absolutely terrifying is probably an understatement, seeing how they conduct their shows as a headline band is a real lesson in how to make people lose their minds in the show. People are throwing down at the front, it’s relentless, there’s no stopping people flinging themselves into each other and shoving everyone around. The entire floor area of the venue is almost single-mindedly intent on trying to injure each other in this pit and it is absolutely glorious!
We’ve already sailed past what was probably expected to be the usual end time but I’m beyond really caring all that much. I just wanted Ingested to keep playing more and more face melting death metal, there’s nothing better than this. I’m loving every single minute of this, it’s unbelievably disgusting in the best way, vocals, drums, guitars, bass, it’s all fucking filthy. Pig squeals, pinched harmonics, dirty grooves, Ingested has it in heaps.
Tonight’s show of metal in Haarlem is truly one of those “you had to be there” times. Ingested have closed off one of their best tours and you won’t see a show like this in a long time.
Ingested proves once again that Slamchester is a word to be feared; it is the city (alongside Belfast, the boss would probably argue) that produces some of the best metal in the ÜK and Ingested should be proud to be part of that. What an incredible show of force, Haarlem will rarely see this sort of show and Ingested have absolutely fucking destroyed it. Slamchester once again shows that it produces some of the finest extreme metal known to the world: long may it reign.
God, I need to actually sleep!
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