Live Reviews : Morbid Angel & Belligerent Intent @ The Hi-Fi, Melbourne 23/04/2014

Images: John Raptis
Words: Jonathan Besanko

I don’t mean to overstate this but this night was a dream come true for me. Seeing Morbid Angel live for the first time: the band who first got me into death metal, and showed me what it truly meant to ‘death growl’; and of how effortless some guitarists playing can be, even when they’re ripping out chord after chord, riff after unholy riff. That’s not even to mention the frequency and insane fretwork in their soloing (Trey Azagthoth, I’m talking to you, buddy).

When news first broke that David Vincent and the boys would soon be touring down under to do a special tribute show covering the entirety of their classic third album, Covenant, I’ll admit I was a wee-bit excited.

Obviously, while I hadn’t been born when Altars of Madness and those early albums were first released, regardless, the early Morbid Angel stuff is the first material I ever heard from the band; with my introduction to them being through a limited-edition copy of Blessed Are the Sick (still a favourite of mine) I bought from JB Hi-Fi a fair few years ago now. As such, these particular records hold a special place in my heart, and while I enjoy the Steve Tucker era (Gateways To Annihilation is one of the finest records to come out of the death metal genre in my opinion), the early Vincent era stuff is what I love most.

And now, I was getting the closest chance I’d ever receive in my life time to see the band playing the songs from the album when Morbid Angel was at the height of their power.

Opening the night was Melbourne band, Belligerent Intent. The blackened death metallers were a force to be reckoned with, that’s for sure. Being the first show with new shredder Matt Wilcock, their relentless assault was something to be seen. Largely all business and no play, Belligerent Intent began with the title track from their debut album Seven Are They.

Given a 45 minute set, for a band consisting of only a trio of members, I must say I was impressed by the sheer sound that crawled its way forth from this band. With a thick wall of blackened death goodness the size of the bordering Wall to Castle Black in Game of Thrones, Belligerent Intent brought a crushing rhythm section to the fore, with drummer Matt Belligerent an absolute beast behind the kit.

Craig “666Omen” Priestley’s devastating vocals and bass lines, coupled by Wilcock’s bleeding solos and Belligerent’s hell tolling on the drums, made for quite a monster of a band on the night. That being said, with it being a Wednesday night, it was the middle of the week and whether it was because people were tired because of work or because Belligerent Intent left little room between notes for applause, I must say I was surprised at the rather small amount of enthusiasm I saw from the crowd when these guys were onstage. I mean, yeah, there were the few punters you always see who were getting into it near the front of the stage, but apart from a few people swaying about and lightly bopping their heads, the response for the band felt a little lacking.

It’s a shame though, because these guys in the best sense of the word crushed it in my mind. And with it being his first ever live performance Wilcock was fantastic as well. His melodic solos and riffs were the perfect counterweight to offset the rest of Craig and Belligerent’s playing, serving to produce an interesting aberration of sound.

Promoting new tracks off their upcoming second album Eternity of Hell & Torment such as “The Serpent Lord Enthroned”, Belligerent Intent proved you don’t have to be a big seven-piece band or something to produce quality aggressive, powerful death metal. Every moment felt like one of innovation, and the boys ended on a great note with “Burn in the name of Satan”.

Having already drawn a strong crowd from the outset, when Morbid Angel arrived on stage, it went off. David Vincent and the guys sounded fantastic, and while it’s not always easy portraying the brilliance of a live act in words, what I can say is that one of the best aspects of the evening was watching how band founder and lead guitarist Trey Azagthoth and Thor Anders “Destructhor” Myhren would bounce off one another’s playing and creativity. Where Trey would rip out one of his many notable and insanely metallic solos, Destructhor would chime in with a lick and a riff that’d immediately draw your attention over to him, and all the while mind you with neither one looking over at each other, but purely listening to what the other was doing and then focusing on their own.

Watching the maestros at work. There was nothing better. Both were just mesmerising to watch. Tim Yeung was a machine behind the kit, and you could see him feel every moment of his playing just by watching him. It was a great thing to witness.

‘We’re so glad to be back in Melbourne celebrating over 20 years of death metal,’ Dave went on to say. All the while Azagthoth and Destructhor continued to shred up a storm, with Trey’s trademark voluminous hair enshrouding his face. Tim Yeung would rise at bits like some type of demon.

Morbid Angel sounded fantastic especially on “Angel of Disease” and “God of Emptiness”, drawing a huge response from the former and a great band-crowd chant during the latter.

As the Covenant side of the evening drew to a close with Dave Vincent’s proclamation of ‘show me where the Slime live, Melbourne!’ it then ushered into the encore. ‘Now that we’ve got the Covenant stuff out of the way,’ Dave began, ‘we’re going to play a song from every other goddamn record!’

Covering stuff from both Heretic, Blessed Are the Sick, and so on, one of the strongest responses for the night came when Dave said, ‘We’re going to take you back 25 years now to the Altars of Madness album’ as they led into a brilliant rendition of “Immortal Rites”. The pit just blew up on this one, with the best lighting, chanting, and overall band and crowd interaction I saw on the night.

Opting to close the night with “Fall from Grace”, it was an excellent way to bring the evening to a close, and being the fan of Blessed… that I am, I had a ball headbanging along to it. While for whatever reason a fight broke out between a couple guys near where I was standing during this song, thankfully aside from this mishap, the night ended on a positive high note. I will say this though, it was a bit of a shame they didn’t get around to playing some of my other favourites of theirs such as “Blessed Are the Sick/Leading the Rats”, “Chapel of Ghouls”, and “Abominations”.

Still, all in all though, I had an awesome time at this gig. And I feel lucky to have finally been given the chance to see these legends live. I wasn’t in any way disappointed.

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