Live Review: Dying Fetus - Academy 2, Manchester
Support: Chelsea Grin, Despised Icon, Vitriol
4th December 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
With Christmas just around the corner the last of 2024’s awesome touring packages rolls into town. At the mid-point of a European tour that will last for another couple of weeks, Maryland brutal death metal trio, Dying Fetus, have recruited a stellar bill to see out the last embers of the passing year.
The problem with some of these stacked bills is the early starts, especially on weekdays when it’s a dash from work, and with awful weather and worse traffic, the risk is missing the early part of the show. Luckily, Portland’s Vitriol have a more reasonable start time and don’t find themselves playing to an empty hall.
If tonight is about looking at the many different faces of death metal, Vitriol is the most left-field; all the DM aspects are there, packaged in a modern, fiery delivery that confirms a more technical approach doesn’t have to be dry and clinical.
With twenty-years plus experience, Canadian Deathcore machine, Despised Icon are ready to make an early play for most aggressive band of the night. Opening with A Fractured Hand, the massive low end and down-tuned guitar assault seems to strike a chord with the huge crowd. Dual vocalists Steve Marois and Alex Erian marshal the Academy 2 into circle pits – though no wall of death tonight after an incident in Birmingham the previous evening. Bad Vibes and The Aftermath confirm these Canuks have old school death metal forged into their DNA, the modern twist coming in the form of the many huge breakdowns.
It's been five-years since the band released a new full-length, so the likes of Retina, Furtive Monologue and MVP are all greeted like old friends. Skipping two-stepping rhythms, sustained chords and a combination of slamming squeals and grunts and throat-ripping yawls find both vocalists pushing themselves as much as the musicians do. The title track from the last record, Purgatory, is the set closer, but not before Despised Icon have given a shout out to Malevolence and Ingested; self-confessed supporters of UK death metal and hardcore, DI look pleased as Punch to be back in the country.
Chelsea Grin opt for a more direct approach to their Deathcore, hitting immediately with the huge opening of Hostage, a crowd-pleaser straight out of the gate; surfing begins almost instantly, as do calls for the pit to be opened and the mayhem to commence. The Isnis comes with asynchronous drumming and frenzied guitar runs, My Damnation is nothing but multiple layers of modern brutality, with enough of a look into the past to know the band acknowledge from whence their sound derives, and Crewcabanger is a bluster of whirlwind frenzy.
Playing with Fire keeps us back in the early years of the last decade, its choral intro and relatively melodic hue could almost be a soundtrack; by contrast Dead Rose is big and brash. Singer Tom Barber suggest Manchester make the security staff earn their corn as he beckons surfers over the top during Cheyne Stokes as Chelsea Grin close out the show with brutally devastating versions of Sonnet of the Wretched, Sing to the Grave and Recreant.
With such a line up and its reasonable start time, the one thing most affected is the length of the bands’ sets. As such, Dying Fetus don’t take the stage until just after ten – on a school night, too – and with an 11 o’clock curfew in place, it gives them less than an hour to deliver their trademark devastation.
After a short, ethereal intro, Reign Supreme’s From Womb to Waste blasts forth. The basic premise of brutal death metal is back, and the Greater Upper Marlboro three-piece blend such primal attack with a thoroughly technical approach. Blitzkrieg drumming from Trey Williams forms the foundation of the Dying Fetus sound; John Gallagher’s pestilent riffs snarl and snap and go on savage, technical flights, while Sean Beasley’s bass holds it all together.
If Despised Icon and Chelsea Grin aimed at some finesse, then Dying Fetus are the rabid and untamed beast of the evening. First new song, Unbridled Fury, from this year’s Make Them Beg For Death album, show the band aren’t willing to mess with a tried and trusted method. For the most part, the set is taken from the more recent albums, going back to 2012, but there are a couple of trips into the deep dark past for Grotesque Impalement’s millennial title-tune and the raw Intentional Manslaughter from Killing on Adrenaline, from back when we were all petrified of Y2K.
Both The Wrong One to Fuck With’s tracks, Weaken the Structure and the title tune, finds Dying Fetus adding a little more melody to the mix; the titular track having a discernibly catchy riff about it. Throw them in the Van confirms the latest record’s place among the band’s canon and set closer Subjected to a Beating is the most appropriate short sentence anyone leaving the Academy 2 could use to sum up the previous four hours.
On paper, the line-up of the European Fall Tour seemed a little odd; on stage it worked magnificently.
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
