On the eve of London’s best underground extreme metal festival Necropolis the organisers have set up this fantastic gig the night before to whet our appetite for tomorrow’s main event.
First up tonight is a relative newcomer Vaticinal Rites. Forming in 2020 and releasing one of the best EPs seen from the UK death metal scene this group have been behind locked doors getting to make their first live debut & also make this show their release show for their newly released phenomenal album “Cascading Memories of Immortality”.
Right from the feedback & first thick as hell riff these guys do not feel like newbies. This is the tightest first show I think I’ve ever seen any band play. All that time behind said locked doors has paid off as their set was killer.
Guitarists Chris Cleovoulou & Andreas Yiasoumi riff riff-writing capabilities as well as their interplay between the trade-off lead sections is fantastic.
Vocalist Marcus Broome’s energy is there throughout the whole set. His deep, even sometimes guttural vocals are a great texture to the band’s very precise Morbid Angel / Vital Remains-like sound. These guys are a must-watch when they start playing more shows!
Like a shining light within the UK underground scene, VACUOUS are such a refreshing band within said scene. Every time I’ve seen them live now it’s been a mesmerising experience.
These guys bring this very cavernous, dank & blackened sound to this already death-doom style. With fast blasting sections & the great slowly escalating moments, this bands overall textual sound is so large & emotive.
Jo Chen’s agonising screams sound like his blood is boiling, and some of the deepest guy-spewing low vocals i think are being performed right now.
When these guys play you are totally teleported through a gateway to a hellscape (yes that is a good thing) where creatures want to rip off every limb on your body. Yeah, they are that metal!
Italian horror death metallers CLAUSTRUM are up next. Full of dissonance, expansive echoing sections & unbridled blasting this group really impressed me in the live setting. I’ve been playing their 2023 self titled release constantly & their live show really lived up to the albums huge sound. Even more brutal & barbaric in the flesh these guys have it.
A track like “Destined to Rot” is a heavy hitter but it’s also very vast in its overall sound & they are able to bring the brutality as well as keep those more ethereal moments clear & precise even in the sometimes blown out live sound. So happy these guys killed it.
Now for the final band of the night, Berlin’s TERATOMA.
These guys brandish this nonsense style of putrid death metal. Very low & slow. Even their faster sections have this great headbanging ability to them. Showcasing tracks from their 2021 release “Purulent Manifestations” is full of these slamming sledgehammer like tracks that bludgeon you over the head & thankfully they replicate it live x100.
One of the heaviest live bands I’ve seen this year so far. Like a mega ton tank these guys are an unstoppable force.
If tonight’s warm up show was any indication at how brutal & uncompromising tomorrow’s full festival will be then we will be all going home in body bags! Top FUCKING notch!
LONDON IS A GRAVEYARD
Underground Death Metal
VOL. II Saturday 25 May 2024 – New Cross Inn, London
https://linktr.ee/necropolisldn
Review: Joseph Mitchell