Gigs

Gig Review: The Rotted + Centurion’s Ghost + Burning Skies + Malignant Germ Infestation

[Venue: Man On The Moon, Cambridge]
[Date: 14 June 2008]

You know that feeling you get when you wake up one morning and everything is bound to go wrong? I woke up on Saturday to find out that, following a 16-hour defragmentation, my laptop was plagued with “Blue Screens Of Death” - nobody was able to come down with me to the show to take pictures and, to top it off, Neighbours wasn’t going to be on for another 48 hours. Not surprisingly, I was a bit late getting to the venue, missing the opening band, and I never found out who they were. Bummer. I asked a few other people about them, but all I found out was that they were “good” and presumably they played a short set of some sort of metal. This was one of those rare nights where I went to a show alone and didn’t know a single person in the audience. Nothing alternate pints of lager and whiskey and DopeWars ZX on your mobile phone can’t solve mind you, but still pretty weird.

I got there in time to see Ely’s Malignant Germ Infestation set up and at first it didn’t seem that promising. Their stage costumes of bed-sheets and rubber masks, the singer’s “forced enclosure” in a cage and the abundance of cheesy horror film sound-clips before every song made me think that this was going to be some sort of amateur Slipknot tribute act. Instead, I was treated to some brutally entertaining splatter grind, that was more Evil Dead than Ichi The Killer; outlandishly brutal to the point of laughter. The vocals are of the human furnace/pig variety, making it impossible to understand a single thing, but team them up with Cannibal Corpse riffs, a drum machine set to “Kill” and some creepy stage lighting and it all makes sense. Their techno/dance interlude (where they all dropped their instruments and danced like idiots) was one of the night’s highlights along with their singer’s evil sex-fiend ghoul shtick. Cambridge’s answer to Gut? Maybe, but in any case Malignant Germ Infestation should be on every bill in Cambridge.

Next up were Bristol’s Burning Skies, whom I’d previously (and wrongly, as it turns out) associated with the Converge and “Clevo” sound (think Integrity, 100 Demons and, um, Integrity 2000) when, in fact, they have more in common with Dying Fetus and Decapitated. I’m really glad about that because I am not a fan of the Clevo/Converge sound as it leans on the purely metal side of metalcore, to the point where you can argue there’s nothing “punk” and very little hardcore about it any more. The death/grind thing though is easier on my ears and feeble mind (no silly off-time tempo changes and lack of structure) and, as far as attitudes go, Burning Skies are clearly in the “question everything and fuck the world” mentality that characterises punk/hardcore, making for a very explosive combination - blast-beats, brutal breakdowns, death metal vocals, thrash solos and bulging head veins anyone? Their wall of sound had more weight behind it than the previous band, encouraging some harder moshing but not without some laid back moments. A few songs into their set and their singer dedicated the next song to the metal-heads, only for some confused kid up front to retort “but we are metal-heads”. I haven’t seen so many eyes roll back on stage in sync! I think they dedicated their pean to marijuana, ‘Sticky Dick’ to the very same kid later on. Great stuff.

After a short break, Centurion’s Ghost took to the stage and while their name evoked images of epic power metal/hard rock, their heavy singer’s beard hinted towards the sort of music that only big sweaty bearded men can deliver. Yes, this is slow, groove-laden Doom-inspired metal; the sort of sounds where you are transported back in time to some battlefield and everything is in slow motion. Some people might call this “sludge”, I like to call it “slow crust”. This is what From Ashes Rise probably sounded like before they broke up, if they really slowed the fuck down and smoked (more?) pot. Again, I was not familiar with their material, but it all worked together nicely, with brooding intros and epic groove parts drawing my attention. The kids with the long hair and Sabbath shirts were definitely getting a kick out of this. Unfortunately though their set was short and they only played 5-6 songs. If I wasn’t the poor student I am, I would have bought a shirt of theirs, despite the silly name.

The Rotted, until recently, used to go by the name of Gorerotted. They justified the changed because of the numerous line-up changes they’ve had over the years and the progression of their sound. I’m not too convinced about that, since the founding guitarist/songwriter is still there, their current singer was on everything apart from their first demo and, even though I haven’t heard their new record, I can’t imagine it being that different to their older stuff. I was troubled by these thoughts (and alcohol), until it occurred to me that it was half-past eleven and the Rotted were still setting up their drum kit. An announcement that “half the fucking stage is not working” from their singer Ben kept the crowd pumped and about fifteen minutes later their drummer hammered out some blast-beats, signaling that everything was set to go. The Rotted kicked into life and almost instantly rewarded everyone who stuck around. The sound was pretty muddy so it was pretty hard to make out what songs they were playing, but I’m positive I heard riffs from ‘Only Tools and Corpses’. The moshing was on, the riffs were sick and the drumming was brutal. As with every other band tonight, Ben spent most of his time in the pit with the crowd, keeping it pretty up-close and personal. He’s got some pretty slick moves. Their short set came to a close with their upcoming video-single ‘Get Dead Or Die Trying’ at about ten past midnight. In those very short but sweet 25 minutes though, they managed to get a tired and restless crowd pumped up more than any of the other bands I saw tonight. Don’t let the name-change deceive you, they are still one powerhouse of a grind band.

The surprising variety of sounds, change of pace and intense performances made this one of the most entertaining gigs I’ve been to at the Man On The Moon, since the Strike Anywhere show a few years back when my friend Ben and I stumbled into and fought with half the crowd after a cider-bender at a weird techno club down the road. While it’s unfortunate that the last couple bands had their sets shortened despite the show ending an hour late, it gave the bands that extra push to get as much done in the least amount of time. That frustration worked its way into their performances, making a lot of people happy, myself included. Totally worth the waiting and a great way to end a day that started out messed up.

For fans of: Gorerotted, Decapitated, Cannibal Corpse
Band links = The Rotted | Centurion’s Ghost | Burning Skies | Malignant Germ Infestation

MGI photo courtesey of MGI!