PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
As I turned up at White Rabbit, Plymouth I noticed there was a quiet turn out for the gig this evening, with bands such as Origin and Psycroptic playing I expected a larger crowd, forgetting it was a Monday (school) night, however even with the turn out, I knew it would still be a brutal show.
The first band to take the stage were, Dictated, a death metal band from The Netherlands. I’ve never heard or seen Dictated before and from when they first stepped on to the stage I was surprised to see two female guitarists. Which I found unusual for a death metal band but it was good to see that difference within the genre. However, I found Dictated to be quite generic within the death metal genre, don’t get me wrong I loved the raw vocals, technical drumming and their set was tight and well played but they didn’t seem very comfortable on stage which probably wasn’t helped due to such a small audience and not a lot of action from the crowd no matter how much lead singer interacted and tried to involve them. At the end of their set they received a much deserved applaud.
Second band on the bill tonight were Leng Tch’e, a grindcore band from Belgium I hadn’t heard much of the band before the show and was eager to see what they could deliver. Needless to say they provided a fantastic, brutal set. well played but they didn’t seem very comfortable on stage which probably wasn’t helped due to such a small audience and not a lot of action from the crowd no matter how much lead singer interacted and tried to involve them. At the end of their set they received a much deserved applaud.
New vocalist, Serge Kasongo, did an awesome job. His menacingly brutal roar gives Leng Tch’e a scary, ruthless touch that makes the impact factor of their razorgrind soundeven bigger. Serge continued to joke around and bring members from the crowd up on stage to sing… well shout ‘along’ and then shared his beer with a lucky member which I wished was me! Drummer Olivier Coppens performed with such precision that the band remained tight and kept structured each song perfectly, all this tied in with bassist Nicolas and guitarist Jan whose riffs seemed to flow endlessly rounding off the performance as some funky grindcore insanity.
The crowd certainly got off their feet more, and Leng Tch’e were very energetic and entertaining, which seemed to flow throughout the venue making the crowd livelier as people fully began to settle in to the gig.
Eagerly awaited, Australia’s Psycroptic were on next and I was beyond psyched to see them.
Methodically working their way through a collection of songs from their five studio albums, the blood connection of the band really rides on the founding members and brothers Joe and Dan Haley. Perhaps being brothers gives them some kind of musical mental telepathy, but the musical talent shows through in the calculating and mesmerising songs they piece together. “Lacertine Forest” was just a total face peeler full of crazy riffs and insane drums meshing with step in vocalist, Zdeněk Šimeček’s ardent screams. “The Scepter of Jaar-Gilon” and “Initiate” were close followers as the best songs that night. Working their magic as well was fill in guitarist Joe (Former bassist, Divine Heresy) as he blasted out the intricate riffs as if it were no problem; I was to find out later that they were the most difficult songs for him to learn and this was all held together by bassist Cameron Grant, who rattled away, keeping the chaos in a state of order. for the first time since I missed them last time they were down in Plymouth. As I took my spot near the front and waited for the mayhem to begin the audience all moved forward which was good to see. Starting the set off was the brutal and fast “Skin Coffin” the crowds were whipped into a frenzy of small pits and swirling hair.
Headlining band Origin are a band I’ve wanted to see for several years blew me away as they as they delivered technicality and speed flawlessly making them an amazing band to watch live. The band erupted into their set with mass energy that suddenly seemed to spread around the room as nearly everyone in the venue moved to the front. Starting on the opening track from their new album ‘Entity’, “Expulsion of Fury” caused a whirlwind of long hair and flailing arms, continuing with the next two tracks on the new album was definitely a good choice as they whipped out frantic hell paced grids of metal torment.
Origin delivered a performance of a lifetime with the unrelenting drumming of man-machine John Longstreth, which is accentuated by the bass shredding of Mike Flores and the extreme proficiency of founding member Paul Ryan’s guitar. Former Skinless front man Jason Keyser did an impressive job, delivering the guttural vocals of Origin’s sound. As well as interacting with the crowd, even jumping into the pit at one point, and incited a one man circle pit during “Swarm”. At one point he even pulled all the women on stage only to be thrown off a few seconds later in an attempt to ‘crowd surf’ , with a very little people this turned out surprisingly well. He completes this band like no other singer ever has, delivering the kind of guttural power that the music demands
As a result, this was nearly an hour’s worth of a spectacular performance, showcasing oldies such as “Vomit You Out”, “Portal”, and “Staring from the Abyss” followed by Antithesis standouts such as “The Aftermath” and “Wrath of Vishnu”, with plenty of selections from the outstanding new record Entity.
Overall the show was very fast, very good and very brutal. I would class this as by far one of the best live shows I’ve been to in a while with three hours of death metal at its finest, who could want more?
