Der Metal Krieger Let's make this world metal shall we?
Dying Fetus came to the Mojo 13 in Wilmington Delaware on the eve of the so-called apocalypse, 12/21/2012, as the 22nd stop of their tour entitled The Blood of Power Tour.
I can’t think of a better way to spend the eve of the prophesized apocalypse than seeing one of my favorite death metal bands of all time, Dying Fetus and, as an added bonus, one of the rising stars in the death/thrash scene, Revocation. In addition to these two top-notch national acts, the astoundingly brutal Malignancy and Cerebral Bore shredded our faces for a good half-hour or so.
The night started off with a bang thanks to the technical melodic death tunes provided by one of my local heroes, Alustrium. These guys seriously need to get a record deal. Their combination of the technical and brutal aspects of death metal with melodic tendencies is mind-blowing. Although they were short a bass player, they still kicked the asses of all the people who bothered showing up early. The ones who did got quite a treat from these guys.
After Alustrium shredded our faces, a few mediocre local bands played. Only one of them really stuck out to me, and that was a group known as Another Vendetta. They play a very technical brand of deathcore which, fortunately, does not employ the excessive use of “brutal” breakdowns. They’re one of a very small amount of deathcore bands who can actually hold my attention for more than 20 seconds. The only thing that really detracted from their performance was the giant AV set up on stage made up of obnoxiously bright fluorescent light bulbs. While this was a bit excessive, these guys still managed to sodomize our ear canals quite thoroughly (in a good way).
Next on the bill was the Scotland-based group Cerebral Bore. If you are unfamiliar with what’s been going down with them lately, their 3rd singer, Simone Pluijmers, left the band recently, leaving them without a vocalist. Fortunately, they had good relations with Shawn Whitaker of the one man band Insidious Decrepancy, who was gracious enough to temporarily fill the void created when Simone left the band. I was able to see Cerebral Bore at Summer Slaughter as well, and I must say that Shawn had a much more commanding stage presence than Simone. Not only did he tower over his band mates, giving him a somewhat monstrous appearance, but he also was a lot better at interacting with the crowd. Cerebral Bore brought their own brand of brutal death metal to the stage and just killed everyone in attendance. All in all these guys put on an awesome, brutal set.
Malignancy took the stage next, with their über-technical brand of brutal death metal. Sadly I can not say that much about them positively, as almost every song sounded exactly the same as the last. I do have to give these guys credit, though. They do what they do very proficiently while maintaining a very good band/audience interaction. Their vocalist was quite entertaining as he quipped back at members of the audience who made humorous remarks at him, mentioning butt sex more than once. These guys were fun, but sadly, their music was pretty lackluster (in my opinion at least).
Up next was the almighty Revocation from Boston, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, their set got off to a bad start when a misplaced glass of water fell on Brett Bamberger’s pedal board. Fortunately it did no damage to the electronics and the show was able to go on as usual. And thank god it did. These guys have such amazing stage presences on top of their absolutely incredible brand of technical death/thrash. Dave Davidson seems like an absolute madman on stage, shouting his gruff, high-pitched growls and shredding at the same time. I envy his ability to sing and play at the same time, especially with such technical guitar parts. For me, these guys took the cake for best performance of the night, even topping the headliners, Dying Fetus.
Dying Fetus are a band who need no introduction. If you’re into death metal, you’ve definitely heard of these guys and if you haven’t, not only have you been living under a rock, but you’re seriously missing out on one of the greatest acts in death metal. But, for those who aren’t familiar with them, Dying Fetus are based out of Annapolis, Maryland and they play a unique style of death metal that blends the shred fest of technical death metal with the brutal slams often utilized by many modern death metal bands. Their ability to blend these two musical stylistics is uncanny. And while John Gallagher’s guitar playing is very impressive and technical, it’s the bass work of Sean Beasley that really blows my mind. The dude plays the bass like he would a guitar, doing sweep arpeggios to match Gallagher’s playing. It really is a sight to behold. The fact that he can replicate this at live shows as well is even more impressive. The only complaint I have about Dying Fetus’ set is that they do not have anywhere near as much of a commanding stage presence as the band who played before them, Revocation. Other than that, their set was quite enjoyable.
All in all, this was quite an enjoyable show. Apart from a couple mediocre local opening bands, it was a very brutal and fun night. Personally, I think Dying Fetus should come around every time we have an apocalypse…
-Carl Bligan
