The Rotted + Rex Shachath + The Obscene Machine – Voodoo, Belfast – 07/09/2012

Your humble PM scribe feels like he has been living in the brilliantly named Voodoo for the best part of a week, as this is my third gig in as many days in the Belfast city centre venue.

Industrial thrashers The Obscene Machine must feel the same way, as it is less than 24 hours since they last graced the intimate Voodoo stage, having decimated the place the previous evening on the way to winning the second Belfast heat of Molten magazine’s ongoing nationwide battle of the bands. Without going over old ground – you can read our review of that gig at http://planetmosh.com/gargantuan-the-obscene-machine-stand-with-heretics-cursed-sun-voodoo-belfast-thursday-september-6th-2012/ – TOM’s set is, if anything, more aggressive and in-your-face than that of the night before.

http://www.facebook.com/obscenitywithin

Rex Shachath are playing only their second gig and their first on home territory (they had made their live debut a few weeks earlier at a festival in Dublin), and are celebrating the launch of their debut mini-album, the impressive ‘Sepulchral Torment’, around which the set understandably centre.

Despite the relative newness of the band itself, the various members are highly experienced and veterans of several stalwarts of the Belfast scene, such as Overoth and Condemned, and this is quickly evident, as the five members operate as a tight, destructive death metal machine: the musicianship is all exemplary, the songs are well-written and very well performed and frontman Dave is indeed a powerhouse. A very worthy debut and a band with a great future ahead of them.

http://www.facebook.com/rexshachath

You know it has been a extremely good night when you wake up not knowing if its beer or piss squealching around inside your DMs, both your stomach and head hurt from unsuccessful attempts to avoid wayward flailing limbs and your neck feels like you should have left it at home before going out…

Well, this was one of those nights thanks to headliners The Rotted, who were making only their second appearance in Belfast – and judging on tonight’s reception it won’t be long before the Londoners are making their return to the Northern Ireland capital. As soon as they hit the stage, the place turns into a sweatbox filled with writhing bodies, the pit a seething mass throughout their 45 minute set as the quartet are brutal and non-stop in their anarchic, punk-fuelled hardcore death metal.

Vocalist Ben McCrow pauses for breath only long enough to urge the crowd to create more and more mayhem in front of him, and to dedicate the track ‘Motorbastard’ to “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world”: otherwise, the d-beat onslaught in magnificently unrelenting.

http://www.facebook.com/therotted

Photographs by Paul Verner / www.livei.co.uk

The Rotted and Rex Shacrath play Hordes Of Belial III in Dundee on September 22nd (with The Rotted, Firebrand Super Rock, Threshold Sicks and Zillah) and Ivory Blacks in Glasgow (w/ Bonesaw and Filthpact) the following evening.

The Rotted also play Format in Liverpool on September 20th and Flanagan’s Bar, Elgin (w/ Bonesaw and Filthpact) on September 21st.

Rex Shacrath’s ‘Sepulchral Torment’ is out now. Their ‘Pestilence Procession’ tour also visits:

September 26th – Bannermans, Edinburgh (w/ Necrotize)
September 27th – The Borough, Sunderland (w/ Necrotize)
September 28th – The Ringside, Hull (w/ Overoth and Necrotize)
September 29th – The Lomax, Liverpool (w/ Overoth and Necrotize)
September 30th – Snooty Fox, Wakefield (w/ Overoth, Necrotize and Necrogrinder)
October 1st – Fox & Newt, Leeds (w/ Overoth, Necrotize and Necrogrinder)
October 2nd – South Sea Live, Sheffield (w/ Overoth, Necrotize and Necrogrinder)
October 3rd – Scruffy Murphy’s – Birmingham (w/ Overoth and Necrotize)
October 4th – The Croft, Bristol (w/ Overoth and Necrotize)
October 5th – Alton Live Lounge, Alton (w/ Bloodshot Dawn, Flayed Disciple, FuryBorn and Overoth)
October 7th – Bogiez, Cardiff (w/ Overoth and Necrotize)

Read our interview with Andrew and Dave of Rex Shachath at http://planetmosh.com/interview-with-andrew-and-dave-of-rex-shachath-voodoo-belfast-friday-september-7th/

About Mark Ashby

no longer planetmosh staff