Music > Live Reviews

Cannibal Corpse

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

14/03/18

I pride myself in always making the effort to watch all the support bands from whichever gig I go to, it seems only fair that I show up early and give a full account of the evening. So I was particularly disappointed when I arrived at the Waterfront at 7.45 to discover French Blackcore merchants In Arkadia were already halfway through their set. By the time I’d got myself into a position to give them my full attention I only got to properly see one and a half songs, not enough to judge them on. They were very heavy and very loud and appeared to have gone down a storm with the already packed venue. Sorry Monsieurs, next time…

Black Dahlia Murder were up next. The Detroit band have been around for 17 years, and are a pretty big deal in their own right, with lots of fans in the crowd sporting their t-shirts. Frontman Trevor Strnad did an excellent job of injecting energy into the crowd, imploring us all to get our fists and horns in the air, which we duly did. Like so many bands in this genre, the standard of musicianship was exceptional, with Brandon Ellis especially impressing with his high quality lead playing. They have a touch more melody in their sound than lots of their contemporaries and varied the pace to good effect. Lots of material was played off their successful new album and the title track Nightbringers was probably my pick of their impressive set.

Cannibal Corpse it could be argued, are the most (in)famous of all death metal bands. Since forming back in the late 80s they have come to define what death metal is about – monstrously heavy music, guttural death growl vocals, provocative song titles and gross out album cover art, the Corpse have it all. New song Code Of The Slashers was the perfect set opener - crushing sludgy riffs, those vocals from frontman Corpsegrinder, sudden bursts of lightning fast speed showing the technical skill of the band and the incredible drumming of founder member Paul Mazurkiewicz. At various times throughout the set the band urged more response from the crowd but in all honesty this was Norwich on a good night, there was a lively pit right through Black Dahlia & Cannibal Corpse’s sets, lots of audience members seemed lost in the music and the punishing, pummelling assault never abated allowing us to be transported away by the noise.

My criticism of the night, and perhaps the genre as a whole, is it can lack diversity and definition. The sound mix prevented me from hearing most of the guitar solos during the Corpse’s set, a shame as they would have offered a slight tonal shift. Still, all the classics were played – I Cum Blood, A Skull Full Of Maggots, Stripped, Raped & Strangled (Dahlia’s Strnad joining the band for that one) before ending with their signature track Hammer Smashed Face. Lyrically it’s horror films set to music.

I can’t profess to be a big fan of death metal, and whilst the night as a whole proved to be a bit too one paced for me, I count myself fortunate to have been able to see some of the leading lights of this uncompromising genre of music.