Unfortunately owing to a biker down on the M40 & idiots insisting on rubbernecking I missed King Parrot completely, but am reliably informed they put on a great show & impressed many this night.
Next up on the bill were Prong & while I would have liked them to have been a bit louder, I still thoroughly enjoyed their set. They were just wrapping up “Beg to Differ” & started “Unconditional” when I settled into a good spot in line with the sound desk to watch them perform. Arturo Cruz was a manic frenzy behind the drums on “For Dear Life”, head banging away as he slammed his sticks into the snare making it ring out solidly with each blow. Next up was the opening track from their latest album ‘X – No Absolutes’ where Tommy Victor’s yells of “Ultimate Authority” were only matched by his squealing lead and heavy guitar riffs. The frantic pace of “Sense of Ease” had Jason Christopher’s fingers running all over his bass as he ran back & forth on the stage. The staccato rhythm of “Cut and Dry” appeared to get the crowd up front bouncing about but nowhere near as much as “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?” did. Cruz was having fun with a drum tech throwing a stick over to him & catching it when returned during their final song & fan favourite “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”.
My main reason for attending the show were up next & still standing in for Gary Holt on this tour is Kragen Lum, but thankfully the rest of Exodus were most definitely present as they joined him on stage during the acoustic intro from “The Ballad of Leonard and Charles” before breaking into the song itself. They quickly followed it with the title track from their latest album “Blood In, Blood Out” which most definitely had the pit moving as if it were 31 years ago. Speaking of which, and harking back to 31 years ago, Zetro Souza was making “And Then There Were None” all his own as he howled into the mic inviting all of us to sing along to the chorus, which of course we did and rather enthusiastically at that. Only a couple years younger was the song that followed with Lum & Lee Altus having no problems matching the H-Team’s intensity while we all belted out “Deranged”. They followed this up with a song that’s only 2 years old but heavier than a lot of the material from 20 years ago in the form of “Body Harvest” with lead trade-offs aplenty. I guess it’s my fondness for the song that prevents “Piranha” from sounding stagnant and from the way the pit was swirling I can attest I certainly wasn’t the only one of that opinion. Heading back to their first release from this century “Blacklist” was dedicated to a young lady Zetro had chatted to before taking to the stage who was having a bad day, but luckily for us Jack Gibson was having a great day as his rumbling bass rang out vibrating our rib cages. Another dedication was “War Is My Shepherd” for Lemmy owing to his fascination with military memorabilia & his collection thereof. It was at this point in the evening where things were definitely heating up & everyone was getting rather sweaty, but as we were all “Bonded by Blood” the grins did abound. I could no longer resist and after the opening riff of “The Toxic Waltz” hit my ears, I dragged my 15 year old into the pit with me as I can think of no better band or song to initiate him with. By virtue of the face the was still rather actively involved after the wall of death, circle pits & crowd surfing and set closer “Strike of the Beast”, I can happy say: “Mission accomplished”. & as if you didn’t work it out for yourself… Awesome show by an awesome band.
Now the thing about Obituary for me is… When I first listened to them 26 years ago I really didn’t like them. I just didn’t get what they were doing & being exclusively a thrash fan at the time, I found their sound too muddled and muddy for me so just never bothered with them again, even with repeated requests to do so from my best friend and drummer, who happened to worship Donald Tardy. This also happened to be the first time I was going to see them live, so with that in mind & deciding I wasn’t going to have any preconceptions about whether I was going to enjoy their show or not, I was just going to let loose, go with the flow & see what happened. & I am so glad that I did. Being uninhibited by the fact of not knowing a lot of their stuff, I figured that I wasn’t going to be impairing my review in any way if I was just in the thick of it and composed this paragraph later. The first track I recognised was “Chopped in Half” with its distinctive drawled growl by John Tardy & the non-stop pedalling on the kick drums by his younger brother Donald. By the time “Turned Inside Out” was ending I still hadn’t stopped moving in the slowly writhing and slamming mass that was what the mosh pit had become. Trevor Peres & Kenny Andrews’s leads were just scything through Terry Butler’s low end and the thumping of the drums on “Intoxicated” before we were presented with the 2 new tracks in the form of “Loathe” & “Ten Thousand Ways to Die” from their latest single, which also contains 12 live tracks recorded on their last world tour. Both being brutally heavy and feeling suffocating by their monolithic pace, or was that just the crush of people behind me forcing me into the row of punters already jammed into the barrier? Oh & the 15 year old was far more actively involved in the Obituary pit than I was, even though it wasn’t as frenetic as the Exodus one it just never stopped heaving and boiling over with crowd surfers. “Find the Arise” did up the ante however & paved the way for “Don’t Care” which had everyone around me roaring the chorus and their approval. Next up was what I guess now epitomises Obituary for me with its lumbering tempo, heavily down tuned guitars and even lower vocals growling out “Slowly We Rot”. Trevor Peres quite matter of factly informed us after they had finished playing “Circle of the Tyrants” that tonight was the first time in 24 years that it had been played live which had the crowd howling enthusiastically & baying for more. I may too now relent & give them further listening. A lot of further listening…
Marco Gaminara
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