DECAPITATED

w/ Psycroptic, Origin, Misery Index

The Esplanade, St Kilda – 2nd April, 2010

A mighty billing of international death metal talent awaited the massing hordes, snaking their way through The Gershwin Room foyer and into The Espy front bar for a night of blast beating chaos. All of this of course is thanks to Soundworks Touring, who once again have provided a stellar lineup headlined by the amazing Decapitated!

Opening the night were American’s Misery Index, who provided a more than solid set of Death/Grind metal. Gathering a larger than expected crowd (for this early in the evening), and a small but extremely enthusiastic moshpit. With the majority of the bands set comprising of songs from the bands previous albums Traitors and Discordia, the 4-piece also offered up a song or two from their upcoming release Heirs To Thievery, due out on Relapse Records in May, 2010. Having listening to exactly zero of the band’s songs before entering the venue, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the bands set, especially so when in addition to the vicious riffing, the band employed a twin vocal attack to assault the ears.

Origin, another American band of which I had no prior listening knowledge of, were up next on the hallowed Gershwin stage, and went one better than Misery Index by unleashing a tri-vocal assault on the still building crowd. Layering the vocals with high, growling and guttural delivery, the four-piece offered a precise yet somewhat uninspiring set of the blackened technical death metal. The performance of new vocalist Mica “Maniac” Meneke was solid, no doubt clearing the worries of the dedicated fans who were concerned with the departure of circa 2001-2010 vocalist James Lee.

Playing their first Melbourne gig since the Initiation DVD filming of 2008, Tasmania’s Psycroptic were the ‘eternally’ suitable main support for the evening, and confirmed such reasoning with an especially brutal set that combined older material with the best of their recent works.

Having seen the band many a time over the years, I am continually amazed at how the band continues to deliver entertaining and amazingly precise sets. And it is clear that the punters are still keen as ever on the quartet, with one of the most punishing moshpits I’ve been involved in at a Psycroptic gig. Tracks such as Colour of Sleep and Skin Coffin were met with much admiration, and those more familiar with ‘(Ob)Servant’ moshed away to songs like Horde in Devolution and Initiate, not to mention the title track of the new album where vocalist Jason Peppiat hits form every time, employing 3 different vocals styles within the one song.

I spent the week before the event building up my excitement levels, listening to Decapitated’s glorious catalogue nonstop, however I was a little surprised when, as the band entered the stage, I found myself feeling a little apprehensive of how the new band would go. If you’ve got this far in the review, then you’ll no doubt know the entire back story surrounding the tour, and it was the worry that “well, can they actually live up to the last time they hit Australian shores in 2007” that had my mind wondering.

A few technical hiccups early in the set only compounded this dread feeling, but it wasn’t long before the band hit their stride and the crowd got heavily involved involved as the band reeled off titles such as Post(?) Organic, Day 69 and Spheres of Madness – a track that saw most of the front half of the venue implode into one chaotic monstrosity! The new band members were excellent both technically and visually, with the vocals of new front man Rafal Piotrowski ideal. Obviously this meant that the apprehension I’d felt had long since dissipated, and aside from the typical drunken douche bag annoying people on their multiple trips (literally) to the bar, the night was an absolutely killer one that I’d expect everyone in the all but packed out Esplanade would be in agreement with!

Photos by Albert van Gestal (Sydney)