Angelcorpse
26th July 2017
Whammy! Bar, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review and Photography by Mark Derricutt.
When the Angelcorpse show was first announced I must confess my reaction was… Angel who? It’s not often I come across bands I’ve never heard of before, but somehow this old school brutal death metal act was lost on me – it was time to get educated – so it’s off to the YouTube machine! Watching the odd videos here and there I was getting a sense of what was to come, and oddly this is when the psychosomatic body pains kicked in – this show was going to leave me injured in some fashion I was sure.
First up was Auckland’s Exordium Mors, extreme blackened progressive metal at its finest – with Scourge Witchfucker’s ceremonial robes and demonic demeanour somewhat fitting in the Whammy Bar’s dungeon like setting. Ever since the release of 2014’s “The Apotheosis of Death” Exordium Mors has been one of those bands that’s always on my MUST SEE list when they have shows’ and tonight was no exception – channelling their inner Fleshgod Apocalypse the band unveiled new material complete with choir like chants, and even clean, operatic lead vocals from the Scourge – whilst a little rough around the edges and raw the intensity and power being conjured forth was evident, and cemented a hunger for the album. I’ll say it right here – this was the highlight of the show for me.
Next up – Wellington’s Heresiarch, this was the first time actually seeing these guys live after knowing about them for some time, but only hearing them on their recent 2017 release “Death Ordinance” – there’s not a lot I can say about these guys – super tight, relentless brutality – with dimmed and limited red light for the set, and a band whose ferociously was largely confined to their wrists, I captured a few photos and made my way to rear of the room to soak it in. Unfortunately, I was soaking it in too well, I strangely find such cacophonous death metal soothing, and often use it as music to sleep by – wearing out the mind of the day’s thoughts until a peace emerges from the chaos, and soon I found myself starting to drift in and out during their set; lost in the haze of sound this was actually a positive in my mind.
Finally the headliners – Angelcorpse hit the stage, up until now the crowd has been fairly tame, often leaving a strange 2m channel between the stage and crowd – making my job of capturing photos merely a battle of finding suitable light. With each passing song I knew it was only time — and then out of nowhere bodies started flying and throwing me hard into foldbacks, beer spilling down my leg and neck, an elbow to the rib, a shin to the edge of a speaker, and another elbow to the back – with the frailty of my human body now compromised, I braved the pit for another song catching photo after shadowy photo, slowly making my way to the edge of the stage and escaping once more to safety.
Not being familiar with the bands back catalogue I felt a disconnect between myself and the music – it was tight, polished ( yet guttural, and dirty ), technically proficient, intense death/thrash metal with shredding solos that clearly evoked an early/mid-80s vibe. Just when I thought we weren’t going to see much variation in songs, out comes a shift, more groove and a shift in the variety of patterns and even some slower passages around solos before returning to blasts and mechanical chaos.
Part of me wants to say they seemed nothing special, but they were tight, solid, and showed a calibre of performance that says otherwise. Musically for me, they didn’t bring out feelings of WOW and I put this solely down to being unfamiliar with the band or their music. It was old school death/thrash, and they totally nailed the show.
This is definitely one I’ll be remembering, and feeling for some time to come.
Were you there at Whammy Bar for this magnificent display of death metal dominance? Or have you seen Angelcorpse perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!