Cattle Decapitation // Shadow Of Intent // Revocation // Vulvodynia // Live Review // London

Cattle Decapitation – Shadow Of Intent – Revocation – Vulvodynia (30th Jan 2025 Electric Brixton)

Kicking off the year we have one of the most brutal tours hitting our shores. Cattle Decapitation is joined by co-headliners Shadow Of Intent And Special Guests Revocation And Vulvodynia.

South Africa’s Vulvodynia are kicking the show off with a bang. Mixing their own style of deathcore & BDM to create fun, energetic but balls-out heavy sound. It might be an early door tonight but the room is full for these guys & they have the crowd eating out of their hands.”Entabeni” gets headbanging quick with its fast-paced riffing style, tasty pinch harmonics & nonstop double kick.These guys have really set the standard early on in the night for the level of talent that’s on show.

Next up is the Boston-based tech death titans Revocation. Always keeping things lighthearted but heavy as fuck they kick straight into the banger “Diabolical Majesty”.Guitarist & vocalist David Davidson is on top form tonight. His guttural lows & crazy raspy highs cut through the mix & give a punch to the band’s set. A very welcomed surprise is a new track “Confines of Infinity”. This track was heavy as a track with the nice little technical twists the band liked to put on things. Also, the bridge section was so heavy.

Now for our first headline act Shadow Of Intent takes the stage & rips straight into “We Descend…” with a bang. Now I admit this is the first time I’ve seen SOI let alone really given them a listen. And I’ve gotta say they killed it. Bringing me back to the 00’s sound of deathcore mixed with symphonic keys. Evoking Winds Of Plague meets Dimmu Borgir which I’m all here for.”Barren and Breathless Macrocosm” grabbed me straight away with its brutal yet simple opening riffs. Catchy & not overly complicated. Adding in a big chorus this track really shined in their set.Vocalist Ben Duerr’s range is truly remarkable. Some of the lowest growls I’ve heard in sometime, but also his high vocals are just as impressive.

These guys might have just gained a new fan as well as the hundreds at tonight’s show.

Now for the final act that doesn’t need no intro, Cattle Decapitation.

Opening their set with a golden track “The Carbon Stampede” & giving us a fantastic setlist with some older & new tracks they have the audience eating out the palm of their hands.

A now gigantic hit for the band “We Eat Our Young” gets a huge pop & the crowd singing along. Looking over the balcony from where I stood the crowd looks just like the sea of cockroaches invoked in the band’s newest albums themes.

Getting to hear “Forced Gender Reassignment” after such a long time of being out of the set was a highlight, even though it got cut short due to a pit injury it was still great to hear such a classic track.

Travis Ryans always comedic & lighthearted stage presence is always a breath of fresh air within a metal show. Even with a moment of getting the song title for “A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat” wrong he is able to reel it in & give an album-like recording performance for this bonkers track.

As the set comes to an end “Death Atlas” allows the band to close the night off with one of their darkest & epic tracks to date. Tonight has been a great showcase of just how strong the extreme scene is right now with such a stellar top notch tour. Lets just not “Bring Back The Plague” eh?

Review: Joseph Mitchell

Photography: Artur Tarczewski