DESPISED ICON // SUFFOCATION // CARNIFEX // .357 HOMICIDE // LIVE REVIEW // ELECTRIC BRIXTON // LONDON
Some heavyweight metal tours are just tours; others feel like an outright declaration of war on your eardrums. The Death Dominion European Tour brings together three generations of extreme music, uniting Canadian deathcore pioneers Despised Icon, San Diego’s blackened deathcore merchants Carnifex and New York brutal death metal legends Suffocation. With .357 Homicide opening the proceedings, Electric Brixton celebrates everything gloriously ugly about extreme metal.
This lineup needs little introduction. Between them, these bands have helped shape the development of deathcore and brutal death metal, influencing countless acts that have followed in their footsteps. With a combination of technical brutality, crushing breakdowns, blast beats, and enough low-end punishment to cause structural damage, London is in for a particularly savage evening.
Opening the evening, .357 Homicide have the unenviable task of warming up a crowd that has come specifically to witness three established heavyweights. However, there’s no easing the audience into the evening. Their appearance provides an appropriately aggressive introduction to the carnage ahead, establishing the groove-infused brutality that runs throughout the night’s line-up.
The importance of an opening act on a bill like this shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s about establishing an atmosphere, getting bodies moving and preparing the audience for what’s to come. As the room fills and anticipation builds, the foundations are laid for an evening that promises little breathing space.
San Diego’s Carnifex have spent most of two decades establishing themselves as one of deathcore’s most recognisable and consistently brutal names. Since emerging in 2005, the band have developed a distinctive identity, combining the genre’s hardcore foundations with blackened atmospheres, death metal ferocity and an almost cinematic sense of darkness.
Their set is a particularly effective demonstration of that evolution. Opening with ‘Die Without Hope’, the band immediately establish their intentions, delivering a crushing combination of technical riffing, thunderous percussion and Scott Lewis’s unmistakable vocal delivery.
Carnifex’s ability to balance outright aggression with atmosphere is particularly effective. Their music isn’t simply about playing as fast or as heavily as possible. Darker melodic passages and sinister guitar work create underlying tension, making the inevitable breakdowns feel even more devastating.
‘Slit Wrist Saviour’ and ‘Graveside Confessions’ provide further opportunities for the band to demonstrate their considerable experience, while ‘Lie To My Face’ brings a particularly savage dose of old-school deathcore aggression.
The audience responds accordingly, with the heavier passages providing plenty of ammunition for the pit. A wonderful contrast emerges between the technical precision onstage and the absolute chaos developing in front of it.
‘In Coalesce With Filth And Faith’ and ‘Hell Chose Me’ are particularly effective, the latter carrying the sort of monumental heaviness that has become synonymous with Carnifex. Meanwhile, ‘More Than Misery’, ‘Hatred And Slaughter’ and ‘Roses & Rotting Corpses’ maintain the relentless assault before ‘Drown Me In Blood’ brings proceedings to a suitably violent conclusion.
Carnifex have always understood the importance of creating atmosphere within extreme music, and tonight demonstrates precisely why they remain such an important part of deathcore’s evolution
If Carnifex represent the darker, more atmospheric side of deathcore, Despised Icon remind us of the genre’s original blueprint.
If one band on this bill has an influence that stretches far beyond its own genre, it’s Suffocation.
Formed on Long Island, New York, in 1988, Suffocation helped establish the blueprint for brutal and technical death metal. Their landmark 1991 album ‘Effigy Of The Forgotten’ remains one of extreme music’s most important releases, introducing a level of technicality, rhythmic complexity and sheer brutality that would influence generations of death metal and deathcore musicians.
Their influence on the bands sharing this stage is unmistakable. Without Suffocation’s combination of intricate guitar work, blast beats, guttural vocals, and crushing slam-inspired grooves, modern deathcore would look considerably different.
Their performance is a masterclass in controlled brutality.
The guitar work is a constantly shifting barrage of intricate riffs, dissonant passages and punishing rhythmic changes. The musicianship is exceptional, but what makes Suffocation so effective is their ability to make technical death metal feel genuinely physical.
Speed is abundant, but the slower passages are arguably even more devastating. The band’s signature slams provide enormous contrast to the frantic instrumentation, creating moments when the entire arrangement seems to collapse into one enormous, crushing groove.
The current tour’s setlist draws heavily from the band’s celebrated back catalogue, with ‘Thrones Of Blood’, ‘Seraphim Enslavement’, ‘Breeding The Spawn’ and ‘Perpetual Deception’ providing a particularly brutal opening run.
‘Catatonia’ and ‘Pierced From Within’ demonstrate the technical precision that has made Suffocation so revered, before ‘Effigy Of The Forgotten’ provides an essential reminder of their historical importance.
‘Funeral Inception’, ‘Liege Of Inveracity’ and ‘Infecting The Crypts’ complete the assault, delivering a collection of material that represents some of the most influential compositions in brutal death metal history.
What makes Suffocation particularly impressive is that their music has never relied on gimmicks. The brutality comes from the musicianship itself, the sheer density of the arrangements and an understanding of extreme metal that very few bands can match.
They are not simply surviving on nostalgia. They remain a formidable live proposition.
Emerging from Montreal in 2002, Despised Icon helped establish the combination of technical death metal, hardcore aggression, and devastating breakdowns that would eventually become the foundation of modern deathcore. Records such as ‘The Healing Process’ and ‘The Ills Of Modern Man’ remain essential listening, influencing an entire generation of bands.
Their live performances have always been about controlled chaos, and the dual-vocal approach remains one of their greatest weapons. The contrast between guttural death-metal growls and hardcore screams creates a particularly vicious dynamic, giving the music an almost relentless sense of confrontation.
The current tour also provides an opportunity to revisit different periods of their catalogue, incorporating material from their latest album, ‘Shadow Work’, alongside the classics.
‘A Fractured Hand’ is a particularly effective opening statement, immediately showcasing the band’s ability to combine technical precision with savage rhythmic changes. ‘Snake In The Grass’ and ‘Bad Vibes’ maintain the momentum, while ‘Furtive Monologue’ provides one of the evening’s essential reminders of just how influential ‘The Ills Of Modern Man’ remains.
The newer material sits comfortably alongside the older classics. ‘Over My Dead Body’ and ‘The Apparition’ demonstrate that Despised Icon have lost none of their appetite for aggressive, technically demanding songwriting.
However, it’s the arrival of ‘In The Arms Of Perdition’ and ‘MVP’ that really reinforces their legacy. These compositions helped lay the foundations of deathcore as we know it, combining intricate guitar work, relentless drumming, and breakdowns that practically demand physical confrontation.
There is a real sense of history attached to watching Despised Icon perform these songs. They aren’t simply playing old favourites; they’re revisiting the foundations of a genre they helped create.
Closing with ‘Purgatory’, the band leaves another reminder that their place among deathcore’s most important pioneers is well deserved.
The Death Dominion tour is a particularly impressive gathering of bands whose respective histories are deeply intertwined. Despised Icon and Carnifex represent different generations and interpretations of deathcore, while Suffocation provides the historical foundation on which much of the modern extreme metal landscape has been built.
This combination works so well because of its variety. From Carnifex’s blackened atmospheres and crushing breakdowns to Despised Icon’s technical, hardcore-driven assault and Suffocation’s intricate, uncompromising brutality, the lineup offers enough variety to keep the evening constantly moving.
It’s also a reminder that deathcore and death metal are far more closely connected than some would have you believe. Both thrive on aggression, technical ability and the ability to make music that feels genuinely physical. The difference is often in the rhythmic approach and the emphasis placed on breakdowns, hardcore influences or traditional death metal structures.
This stage represents three decades of extreme music history, and the importance of these bands shouldn’t be understated.
For anyone who appreciates metal that’s technical, punishing, and completely devoid of compromise, the Death Dominion tour delivers precisely what it promises.
An evening of absolute brutality, celebrating the past, present and future of extreme metal.
Review: Joseph Mitchell