Live Review: Cannibal Corpse - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
Support: Municipal Waste, Immolation, Schizophrenia
27th September 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
The expected Friday delays and traffic hold up seem particularly egregious this evening and a half-hour delay at the point the M61 and meets the M60 means I sadly miss the whole of Schizophrenia’s set.
Formed following the demise of Rigor Mortis, New York’s Immolation have been steadily and assuredly going about their thing for close to forty years, with the core partnership of Robert Vigna and bassist- vocalist Ross Dolan having been the band’s bedrock since 1988. A consistent stream of albums since 1991’s Dawn of Possession have kept the Immolation flame burning with some of that Old School Death Metal we all know and love.
Built on solid rhythms and tortured guitars, Immolation know how to use the blast-beat and, importantly, when less is more. The atmosphere they create through this combination takes you back to those times Deicide oozed evil, with Immolation showing they are as adept at the slow and haunting as they are at the fast and furious. A new track is dropped in, not challenging the band’s sound to any great degree – but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – leaving just Into Everlast Fire, the debut’s opening tune, to close the set and remind us – if we needed it – that we might be decades on, but those there’s still plenty of life in them thar classic DM discs.
After the end of Immolation’s set, I spotted the frontman of the sadly now-defunct Nihilism Incarnate, and my mind turned to the first time I saw Richmond thrashers, Municipal Waste, in Manchester was at The Phoenix Club (straight up!) Nihilism wasn’t on the bill, Craig was just with us at that show.
The rise of Municipal Waste has been consistent and impressive, without the band deviating a whole lot from their signature Crossover Thrash sound; it’s as though they’ve taken the style of Suicidal, D.R.I. and the Cro-Mags and foisted it on the world, with the world suddenly realising they needed a band to party with, and here they were.
If you’re watching the Waste expecting a profound revelation, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If you’re after party anthems about beer and mutants to which you can lose you shit, then this is the band for you.
No matter where, or with whom they play Municipal Waste is going to give anyone a run for their money. The headliners are no slouches when it comes to their support bands and Tony Foresta and company are no respecters of reputation of stature.
From the opening notes to the closing ones, Manchester is ready to party; a circle pit fills the front of the stage, giving just enough room for the surfers to take to the skies.
The set is heavily loaded with tunes from last record Electrified Brain and the 2007 opus, The Art of Partying, but there’s an argument to be made to say it hardly matters which of Municipal Waste’s tunes are played, there’s still a good time to be had.
Tony goads the crowd on the right-hand side of the stage for not forming a circle pit in the introduction of You’re Cut Off; The Thrashin’ of the Christ is the only cut from Hazardous Mutation to make the show, and Poison the Preacher informs us this is a usual zero-fucks-given set.
Crank the Heat is slow and stompy, with a huge breakdown, while Headbanger Face Rip results in the immediate front of the stage looking like a scene from World War Z; the circle pit being in perpetual motion the whole time.
“This is the most security I’ve ever seen,” remarks Tony, “other than Download” before calling for the two punters dressed as bananas to crowd surf together. Under the Waste Command gives everyone a moments respite, before the final charge through one whiplashing track after another. Restless and Wicked, The Art of Partying and Born to Party have their intent fairly-well writ large in their titles.
One reveller is carried out for what looks like an HIA – Head Injury Assessment to those unfamiliar with the sport of Rugby. Don’t want to make light of it, but I remember Mike getting quite a serious bump on the noggin’ after an incident at Bolt Thrower in 2009. A few more beers and a large doner kebab and, barring a mild concussion and double vision, he was right as nine-pence; Health and Safety there days, I ask you!
You’d have been brave – or foolish – if, in 1990, you would have put money on the fact Cannibal Corpse would not only be functioning as a band but recording quality albums and packing out venues of the size of Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse in 2024. Don’t know what odds you would have got on a treble with Obituary and Deicide, but you’d be quids-in today on that one.
With album number sixteen, Chaos Horrific, just having celebrated its first birthday, Cannibal have set out on this European trek to showcase their long and storied history, by dropping in on almost a dozen of their past records.
Blood Blind from Chaos… opens things after the band have ambled on stage, strapped on and plugged it. No airs, no graces, just pure, unadulterated Death Metal power. Corpsegrinder wastes no time before getting to windmilling, joined by guitarists Rob and Erik, to create almost a new Olympic event.
Scourge of Iron has something of a groove to it, while Inhumane Harvest ups the tempo with blistering blasts and chunky riffs. Chaos Horrific itself is fast and furious, even for Cannibal Corpse, but is a lesson, given by masters of their craft, of how Death Metal is done.
Death Walking Terror and Disposal of the Body fit CC’s visceral version of the genre; where Morbid Angel is esoteric, Deicide is sacrilegious, and Obituary is environmental, Cannibal Corpse are all about the body and the ways it can be disfigured.
Theirs is the perfect music for a serial killer’s rampage: Corpsegrinder’s delivery being devoid of empathy, Paul’s drums echoing the heartbeat, while the guitars vocalise the adrenaline thrill of the slaughter.
Fucked With a Knife is dedicated to all the ladies in the crowd, The Wretched Spawn’s complex opening show the band are more than mere noise merchants, and the descending guitar parts and crazed solo of Unleashing the Bloodthirsty are worth the admission price alone.
Kill or Become follows Pit of Zombies, linking a dozen years seamlessly; leaving The Bleeding duo of Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead and Stripped, Raped and Strangled to lead the set to its finale of Hammer Smashed Face, the oldest tune on display tonight.
Nothing from either Eaten Back to Life or Butchered at Birth, but with such a back catalogue to choose from, maybe Cannibal feel they can rest A Skull Full of Maggots and Meat Hook Sodomy for another day.
Cannibal Corpse, live, are an efficient Death Metal machine and it’s a testament to their conviction that the machine is still purring sweetly, even after all the miles under its wheels. A class act, but that was never in any doubt, was it?
Photo Credits: Tim Finch Photography
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