Live Review: Ascended Dead – Bristol

Ah the dreaded mid week gig. Usually a pain to navigate with work commitments but also a great way to break up the drudgery of the week. Tonight’s show in Bristol was definitely the former and a great showcase at how healthy the underground death metal movement is right now.

Opening up the show were young London band Hellish Torment who only have a solitary EP “Mass Dismemberment” to their name to date. This four piece were a bit of the ‘odd band out’ of the evening with their mix of black metal, crust punk, death metal and sludge metal as the the rest of the bill being no holds barred death metal. This was a throwback to the proto-black metal of the early 80’s with a very simplistic and stripped back approach to the music with the passionate roars and screams of singer Grace being a particular highlight. The band started later than their allotted time slot meaning we got a very short sharp three song set. Hard for me to have a strong opinion of the set as it was over as quickly as it started but It was raw, sloppy and uncompromising which is exactly what I imagine the band intended.

Cryptworm are a band that I have heard mentioned many times but I had never got round to checking them out until this evening. Consider me suitably impressed as Cryptworm are a furious death metal machine. The Bristol based trio took no prisoners with their groove laden brand of death metal with songs that mixed bouncy riffs with uncompromising rhythmic brutality and vocals that are as guttural as can be. The set took songs from the bands ten years of existence with most introduced as “a song about killing people” and they were rapturously received by the audience with heads banged, hair flying and the first pit of the evening. The band did try and encourage a wall of death but a Tuesday night crowd wasn't quite ready for that. I’m a bit cross at myself at not having checked out Cryptworm until now especially as the band are based geographically close to me but I will certainly be seeing the band again and delving into their discography.

In the main support slot were Leeds death doom band Slimelord. With three of the band members also being members of technical death metal band Cryptic Shift you knew this wasn’t going to be straightforward death metal and the music certainly wasn’t orthodox with this being a very progressive and ‘outside the box’ take on death doom metal. The band had all the core ingredients - furious riffage, blast-beats and slow lumbering passages - but mixed in a huge amount of dissonance and trippy almost psychedelic sections. This was a set to be absorbed and analysed which is exactly what the crowd did with no mosh pits, diving or shenanigans. This was definitely thinking man’s death metal and although I initially found it hard to digest after the groovy bludgeoning of Cryptworm I found myself warming to Slimelord by the end of their set. The musicality was superb and the vocals from Andy Ashworth were the right side of unhinged but the complexity of the music meant it wasn’t quite as engaging. Or maybe I just like my death metal on the straightforward ‘meat and potatoes’ side of things.

Ascended Dead are a band I’m only a recent convert to. Back when I saw Incantation play last year I noticed that frontman John McEntee was wearing an Ascended Dead shirt and thought if they have the endorsement of an old school death metal legend then they must be worth checking out. It was a decision I do not regret. Ascended Dead worship at the throne of old school death metal but perform with a degree of intensity and ferocity that is as intimidating as it is infectious. This was certainly the case for this headlining set. Walking on stage the band certainly looked the part adorned in old school death metal shirts with studded gauntlets, gloves and belts and all with flowing long hair. The band literally look like they have walked onstage in a death metal show in 1992. Plus they sound like they have as well.

Ascended Dead are old school through and through from the jagged riffs, screaming solos, snarling vocals, thunderous bass and the blast-beat assault of the drums with drummer Charles Koryn hitting the snare with such intensity that it must have offended him personally. From the first note to the last this was a true death metal assault with absolutely no respite from the onslaught that the band were unleashing. The mosh-pits returned and there was as much hair flying around in the crowd as there was on stage (including my own). I had a massive grin on my face for the entire 50 minute set as it was a masterclass in how to do death metal right. The true way.

From some of the best bands in the UK underground to a US band rapidly growing in stature, this was a superb evening of metal extremity. There were a few technical issues throughout the evening with guitar and pedal issues affecting the Cryptworm and Ascended Dead sets but the bands are professional and dealt with the issues quickly and without fuss meaning that they didn’t interrupt the show. Ascended Dead frontman Jon Reider mentioned during the show that the band last played Bristol five years ago to about 20 people. It was a different story this time as the room was packed out for the majority of the bands proving that the appetite for extreme metal is still strong and that a Bristol crowd is willing to spend a Tuesday evening supporting the metal underground.