Live Review: Mutagenic Host – Manchester

My first gig of the year took me to my favourite venue in Manchester, the fabled Star & Garter, set in the shadows of Piccadilly Station. After doing battle with the online parking payment scheme, I walked up the stairs as Stockport’s own Acid Vat were churning out their own brand of old school death metal. Starting with “Vat Massacre” and “Grandma’s Teeth” they generate a decent amount of noise, in front of a sizeable crowd.

They announce the excellently title “Barbeque Death”, which has rapid drumming accompanied by a spot on rhythm, before a few punters start a pit for the intense “Cannibal Sanctuary” which joyously has some fast solos. “Misery Enslaved” has that slow and heavy feel to it as frontman Jordan Sheffield asks the crowd to “get up close and personal” for the excellent “Shrapnel Brain”. There’s lots of whammy bar action as they finish with more fire and fury by playing “Motherless Entrails” and the impressive “Gangrene Rot”.

The Star & Garter is long been one of favourite venues, for many reasons, but mainly because the sound has always been impeccable, but tonight, it really let the bands down. I’m not sure what it was like on stage, but from the moment Londoners Ego Death started, the vocals were all over the place. I was confused to begin with as I couldn’t figure out where the almighty scream came from when they started with the brilliant “Grit those Teeth”, but then I saw the drummer who was wearing a headset mic.

Sadly for the quartet, the sound got worse, with several people looking round to the back, when the guitarist was screaming into his mic, but no sound came out. It spoilt their set for me, as musically they are superb, incredibly tight, huge double bass sound and great intensity. With songs such as “The Lesser Son” and “Empathy Bypass” they have a melancholy edge to their crunchy death metal riffs and are great to listen to. They play “Angelic Gone Insane” and finish with “Cast No Shadow” incorporating a range of styles, but I want to see them again, this time with proper sounding vocals.

“I’m going to apologise now, my throat is a bit knackered from the tour, but I’ll try my best” announces frontman Ash Moore, and after what seems like an eternity since Ego Death finished, one of the best of the new wave of British Death Metal bands, Mutagenic Host, hits the stage in Manchester. Last years album “The Diseased Machine” was one of my favourites of 2025, as it’s a merciless and relentless assault on your senses, and they play most of those songs tonight.

Opening with “Neurological Necrosis” they simply explode into life and it’s akin to being bludgeoned to death with a rusty knife. “Genestealer” is pure evil, frenzied even, and gets people moving with brutal drumming and fast riffs from twin guitarists Jack Thompson and Dan Bulford. “SWARM” is next to test the eardrums, with Moroe prowling the stage like a snarling pit bull, as the mid-section riffage explodes and heads are banging all over the venue.

They follow this up with two newly released songs, “Grotesque Union” and “Chimeric Vestige” which sound more brutal, with several beats drops and a gorgeous bass sound from Eddie Swales, which continues into “Incomprehensible Methods of Slaughter”, with its slow and heavy rumblings, before ripping your head off. The persistent pummelling proceeds with “Organometallic Assimilation” which has a groove and swagger to it, ahead of more intensity on my favourite track, “The Twisted Helix”.

Their now trademark chugginess is evident here and this is what having your head pounded by a sledgehammer must feel like. It’s a stunning song and they do those slow, heavy sections so damn well, before the endless battering kicks in further with the thoroughly enjoyable “Hive Unintelligence”. For their finale, they rip into the loud and powerful “Enforced Bodily Terror” and sums up exactly what these guys are all about, as it’s a superb way to end their impressive set.

However, as they finish, the crowd whips up the “one more song” chant and with a crowd and stage full of smiling faces, they duly oblige with “Artificial Harvest of the Obscene” which is stunning, really gets the crowd kicking off, and begs the question, why isn’t this in the setlist in the first place? What a way to round it off and it confirms that the new wave of British Death Metal is safe in their hands.