As war rages in every corner of the world and as we hurtle towards climate catastrophe, it seems that death metal is the perfect soundtrack to our inevitable demise. This tour compiles four of the scene’s most brutal bands, and if we are going to perish in a lake of fire, I want all four on my playlist.

Bearing that in mind, my evening gets off to an earthshaking start with Vomit Forth. They’re a feisty quartet from Connecticut who deliver a brutal brand of death metal that goes straight in for the kill. They hit the stage as the crowd are being admitted, yet those who arrive early are treated to a blistering set with tracks culled from their latest long player (2022’s Seething Malevolence) and the band’s efforts are rewarded with some serious headbanging action and a wild swirling pit, and it’s a set that raises the bar for the rest of the evening.

For me, a big appeal of death metal has always been the horror aspect, and that’s exactly where Ohio’s 200 Stab Wounds step in. It’s four songs from their latest LP, Slave To The Scalpel, which opens their set with ‘Phallic Filth’ being particularly feisty. Their magnetism draws the crowd towards the stage and ‘Tow Rope Around The Throat’ turns them into a mass of bodies that ululates like some strange organic creature. On record the band’s sound is thick and dense, often utilising choice samples, and it’s something they manage to replicate in the live environment and turns their set into a heavy experience…like hammer-crushing-skull heavy. Big things await.

Now celebrating their 10th anniversary, Signs Of The Swarm celebrate this milestone in the best possible way; i.e. by blazing a trail across Europe. Since bursting out of Pittsburgh in 2014 they’ve been colouring our world monochrome with their ferocious brand of deathcore. Only drummer Bobby Crow remains from their original incarnation, yet this new line-up gels exceptionally well with vocalist David Simonich confidently commandeering centre stage, and this means that opening salvo ‘Pernicious’ hits extremely hard. ‘Pray For Death’ from new album Amongst The Low & Empty follows, and it makes for a perfect one-two punch. There’s an emotional quality to the band’s sound which elevates them amongst their peers, but it’s a dark, oppressive kind of sentiment that’s in perfect sync with songs such as ‘Unbridled’. In fact, such is the band’s fire that as closing track ‘Shackles Like Talons’ fades into the ether, the crowd are rendered exhausted, and not just from moshing.

On the surface a name such as Cattle Decapitation would imply your typical blood, guts and gore-type death fest, yet dig a little deeper and you’ll find a band who grapple with some weighty topics such as animal liberation and deep environmentalism. Accompanied by an equally heavy sound, it is this combination of the visceral and the cerebral that makes this Californian quintet such an intriguing proposition. Having formed in 1996, Cattle Decapitation know exactly how to work a crowd, and the chosen introduction creates just the right amount of tension. It means that when the band appear and launch into opening shot ‘Terrasitic Adaption’, it feels as if a dam has burst and the release of tensity is fairly palpable and some present lose their sh*t (but in the best way possible, of course).

Having recently released a career-best album in Terrasite, Cattle Decapitation are very much riding a crest of the wave, and they sound as if they know it. David McGraw’s hypersonic blast beats are mind blowing, and he seems intent on nailing his kit to the floor and he’s ably supported by bassist Olivier Pinard. His bass was kind of subsumed on Terrasite, but tonight it takes a more prominent role and sets about punching the crowd in their collective chest. Guitarists Belisario Dimuzio and Josh Elmore give the band their trademark chop and grind, yet it’s vocalist Travis Ryan who appears on top form to deliver a tonsil-shredding performance. Tonight’s set is culled from four albums, so it feels as if a big chuck of the band’s discography has been ignored, yet the warmth with which ‘Mammals In Babylon’ and ‘Time’s Cruel Curtain’ are greeted suggests nobody seems to mind. A full-on sixty minute set passes in the blink of an eye, but when the band leave us with ‘Kingdom Of Tyrants’, it’s with a feeling of satisfaction but a hunger for more.

Cattle Decapitation Set List:

1. (Intro) Terrasitic Adaption
2. We Eat Our Young
3. Scourge Of The Offspring
4. Dead Set On Suicide
5. (David Attenborough Segue) The Storm Upstairs
6. Bring Back The Plague
7. Finish Them
8. A Photic Doom
9. Mammals In Babylon
10. Time’s Cruel Curtain
11. (The Burden Of Seven Billion) Pacific Grim
12. Kingdom Of Tyrants

Signs Of The Swarm Set List:

1. Pernicious
2. Pray For Death
3. Nameless
4. Amongst The Low & Empty
5. Tower Of Torsos
6. Borrowed Time
7. Between Fire & Stone
8. Unbridled
9. Shackles Like Talons

200 Stab Wounds Set List:

1. Phallic Filth
2. Skin Milk
3. Tow Rope Around The Throat
4. Drilling Your Head
5. Gross Abuse
6. Hands Of Eternity
7. Masters Of Morbidity
8. Itty Bitty Pieces
9. She Was Already Dead
10. Fatal Reality