Live Review: Obituary - Club Academy, Manchester
Support: Winterfylleth
9th December 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Nic Howells
In the opening paragraph of his novel, Jaws, Peter Benchley writes that the great fish “survived only by moving” (page 3), and much the same can be said about musicians, and specifically bands on the musical extreme who cannot rely solely on album sales to make a living.
Like the shark of Benchley’s classic, Obituary’s need for constant movement finds them back in town and back at the Academy complex a mere four and a bit weeks after destroying the big room with Jesus Piece, Jinger and Sepultura.
Billed as One for the Old School, the death metal legends have popped back to Blighty for half-a-dozen gigs in which they can expand the scope of those support shows. For its final evening, prior to heading off to the Low Countries – then, presumably home for Christmas and a well-earned rest- Obituary make one final stop on English soil.
Originally intended for Academy 2, the re-location to the basement gives this show a gritty feel, akin to the sweaty clubs of old. I saw Obituary upstairs a few years ago, at the Battle of the Bays with Exodus, but the Club Academy is a more fitting location for this end of tour shindig.
Support was supposed to come from Sadus but, for reasons unknown, they don’t appear to have made it across the channel. Still, local lads Winterfylleth, themselves fresh from a recent show at the town’s Rebellion Bar, step in to offer a contrast to Obituary’s blue-collar death metal, with some quintessentially English Heritage Black Metal.
The intro tape is The Imperious Horizon’s atmospheric opening couple of minutes, First Light, before the bludgeoning drums and wall of sound guitars of Dishonour Enthroned is unleashed. Evocative of the Olde England of Winterfylleth’s general mythology, the soaring leads and barely concealed melody reveal a vast soundscape, Mark Deeks’ keyboards lending the whole thing a lush, warm ambience. Another of the latest record’s singles, To the Edge of Tyranny arrives with savagely rampant drums and a clean, crisp bridge; vocalist Chris narrating stories of times long past in one of the band’s rare sub-five-minute moments.
The back-to-back pairing of Absolved in Fire and The Reckoning Dawn, from the album of the same name, form the central part of the set. The former’s choppy rhythms and furious triplets morphing into folk elements, while the latter blends its more ambient side with a dark rawness. Closing with Whisper of the Elements’ progressive keys and vast ambition, Winterfylleth provide a rather different version of the extreme metal scene as the headliner; like the eloquence of Pinhead, against the unbridled carnage of Jason Voorhees: you just know both will kill you in the end.
Still flying the flag for Florida death metal after all these, Obituary are long enough in the tooth to know better; but they just don’t care. I don’t image the brothers Tardy, or Trevor Peres would have believed they would still be touring thirty-six years after getting together to make, what was then, the most unholy racket imaginable.
Yet here we are, eleven records later, and Obituary aren’t just still active and releasing albums, but are making some of their best material. Last year’s Dying of Everything was a death metal highlight in a year when many of the genre’s big hitters were knocking it out of the park.
Pat Traver’s Snortin’ Whiskey gives way to the instrumental Redneck Stomp and then into Threatening Skies, whose gnarly, twisted riffs and vomit vocals have all the ingredients we want from the band. By the Light follows, reminding us that, while Back from the Dead was the product of a band on the verge of a hiatus, it still has some banging tunes.
Newer track The Wrong Time, with its fat riff and robust grooves gives way to the raw-throated Deadly Intentions and, although separated by thirty-four years, the pair are unmistakeably the work of the same creatives.
The Cause of Death cover of Celtic Frost’s Circle of the Tyrants was not something I expected to hear tonight, but was a welcome addition to the set, John making hay with Tom G’s vocal idiosyncrasies.
Screaming guitars usher in I’m in Pain, while World Demise’s Solid State remind you to revisit one of the band’s more overlooked records. The trio of Cause of Death material, Chopped in Half, Turned Inside Out and Dying can’t help but drag you back to 1990 when you first sat and listened to the sophomore album and had your socks knocked off.
The stage’s simplistic lighting is given much to do for the introduction of War, as it becomes a site of shelling and bombardment. The whole tune adopting the sound of firing munitions and incoming artillery. As on the album, Dying of Everything follows, leading to the inevitable and justified conclusion of Slowly We Rot.
Obituary don’t do anything approaching mediocre gigs and, at the end of a long touring cycle, they weren’t about to begin tonight. Terry Butler has been with the band since 2010 and has previous experience providing the basslines for Death, Massacre and Six Feet Under; and Kenny Andrews has been whipping up the leads and torturing the guitars since the late Ralph Santolla departed a dozen years ago.
Must admit, I do like these touring packages featuring a black metal and a death metal band; it provides some variety and attracts a wider audience. Marduk and Vader played together in 2022 and, going further back, Gorgoroth and Vital Remains locked horns in an awesome show at Sound Control back in 2014.
Hopefully, tonight might inspire more promotors to get on board with the idea.
Photo Credits: Nic Howells
Ref: Benchley, Peter. Jaws. London. Pan, 2012
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