There’s normally all sorts of ghoulish behaviour once the sun sets in Camden Town but tonight was going to be like none other and all manner of grizzly and gruesome things were about to happen in the Underworld. First we had a date with a Lunatic Hooker and although I thought we had never been acquainted on closer inspection it appeared that to some extent she was an old flame. This band from the UK are actually comprised from the jumbled limbs past and present of acts such as Pythia, Abgott and Descent. There was little in the way of foreplay as they got down and dirty on stage, it’s as though they are going for the climax straight away and bomb in with a loud, dense and battering sound. If anything it’s too loud and distorted and the fuzzy ballast has an almost HM2 level of scuzz about it that sends us reeling. It’s kind of like a mix of Entombed and a 70’s XXX Roughie and when you throw a song about a walrus in the mix it probably deserves banning. The hooker is obviously not going to survive this ordeal, carved up giallo style with a cut-throat razor and launched through a closed window in a shower of glass and gore. An album is on the way so we will be able to get any sharper edges from the sound out of that but as Blood Eagle proves at the end, the band flail off the skin and deliver some good and efficient butchery here tonight.

Well Insanity Alert know how to create an entrance! Lead singer of these Austrians Heavy Kevy comes on the stage wrapped in what looks like bandages, wearing a balaclava and wielding giant sparklers all to what appears to be a deranged SNES game playing through the speakers. They crank up the ‘Glorious Thrash’ and it’s well and truly party time for those wanting to mosh and the place although far from packed suitably erupts. Songs are short sharp bursts of crossover thrash with no lack of energy about them as the band tear through as many they can fit in from their two albums over the allotted time. It’s a tried and tested formula but that makes it all the more enjoyable as the old and the new wave of collides like a mangled wreck of M.D.C. and Municipal Waste. Naturally it’s not long until they get a circle pit and those not involved stand around nodding heads and tapping feet with shit eating grins on faces as the band tell us about pacts with Satan along with bizarre stories of pasta afflicted ‘Macaroni Maniac’s. Strangely there’s a touch of vocal blues before we are also told in no uncertain terms that ‘Life’s Too Short’ and everyone seems to agree we may as well go out bruising each other in the pit. There’s songs aplenty about weed and mentions of pizza too but one person not invited to the party is obviously David Guetta as the band ponder how he is still alive? They leave the ‘Metal Punx’ in a bit of a dizzy mess after showering us in bloody confetti and a cheeky Maiden enhanced call of ‘Run To The Pit’ but things are about to get even more foul and disgusting.

You know it’s not going to be a normal show when a big ugly skinhead gets on stage, mouths off and gets his entrails ripped out by a Rasta with a very large blade. Naturally the gore showers anyone in the vicinity of the front but as the monitors had been covered with plastic anyone caught out only had themselves to blame. I have never seen Ghoul, apparently they did play here 4 years ago and I had at least caught the now sadly (it would seem) on ice Impaled when they visited many years ago. For those not knowing the faces behind the sackcloth mask, of corpse they share some of the same members as well as those up to their nuts in the guts of Exhumed and Engorged too. The Creepysylvanian Ghoulunatics kick things off in style and get into a thick and rugged groove which we listen and bang heads to as all manner of bloody pantomime ensues on stage. As songs like Bringer Of War from new album Dungeon Bastards prove despite spectacle they can throw out a damn good tune too and quickly get people skidding on claret down the front. Meanwhile we have some sort of voodoo priest on stage waving some sort of horrible looking hairy bag around. Cutting it open we get another impromptu shower but licking my lips I do believe it was a baptism in red wine, very nice!

Songs like ‘Off With Their Heads’ and ‘Wall Of Death’ are just asking for trouble. There’s some sort of fascistic sci-fi overlord griming it up and firing shit out of a laser gun (thankfully not actual shit) and getting a much needed pint it is obvious that the bar staff are not aware what is going on and practically duck for cover as I go up wondering if there’s been some sort of fight and is anyone hurt? Walking corpses could be heading their way soon thirsty for other liquid and brains as the band are shredding the dead and turning things into a right old graveyard mosh. Of course it’s all done in the best possible taste. At one point a big, tall nasty thing invades the stage and so does an audience member to grapple with them pulling the costume off much to the annoyance of its wearer. Hang on that wasn’t actually staged and there is nearly a punch up, somehow the band manage to carry on playing through it all. Although the gimmicks are great fun the band can walk the talk and do so without interruption over a couple of numbers before some massive hairy beast has a turn at causing mass carnage. As the casket draws to a close another gruesome fiend limbers on with his balls hanging out carrying a gutbucket and sharing the contents with us liberally. For some reason no matter how much I tried nobody would engage in conversation with me on the way home, in fact a couple of people actually run away. Luckily I made it back without arrest and although it’s not the 1st time I have left the venue in this sort of state it was the most fun all round. If these Ghouls ever return I’ll be back and may even bring my own bucket of offal

(Review and pics Pete Woods)