I know I have become a broken record on this subject matter, but something fundamentally changed in regard to our collective relationship with live music over lockdown. I think we had started to take for granted the primal thrill of seeing a band in a live environment and we only began to really miss it once it was gone. Our daily dollars may not be going as far as they once did, but I have never seen the live scene this healthy. 

Tonight the Academy is not just packed it is positively oversold. Every nook and cranny is crammed full of delirious souls desperate to escape the mundanity of modern life even just for a few hours. With Sabbath and Slayer now playing bingo in the retirement home, Cannibal Corpse have taken on the mantle of metals ubiquitous band. Even your straightest Melody FM listening work colleague has not just heard of them but has an inkling of what they sound like. They will always have a special place in our world, but frankly, the amount of people who want to jump up and down to them and lose their collective shit is mind-boggling.

Storm Ruler are usually a duo but for their stint as the opening act on this tour they have expanded to a quartet. They trade in accessible black metal, creating a never-ending crescendo of catchy riffs and melodic interludes. The atmosphere that is so central to black metal’s psyche is there, but it is peppered with sections that have been swiped from Iron Maiden's big book of twin guitar clichés. For a tour that is a double-header between heavyweights of the black and death metal seems, Storm Rulers, deft straddling of both quadrants makes perfect sense as an opening salvo. Clean and crisp enough to warrant a return visit but corrosive enough to stand out from the crowd they use their 30 minutes on stage times wisely and eloquently warm up a crowd desperate to run around in circles.

Ingested are hometown heroes and it is obvious that getting to tread the boards at a venue they would have seen many of their heroes perform on is a massive deal for them. An essential component of a Mancunian is the possession of a level of reserved cockiness. If they are thrown by playing one of their city’s biggest and most prestigious venues then they certainly don't show it. Jason Evans comes across as slam metal's answer to Liam Gallagher (credit to our Ben who came up with that simile in the pub after), full of lager, confidence, and sarky irreverence. He knows that his band are the last word in savage brutality, he just now needs everybody else to wake up to that fact. He goades the crowd in that unique Mancunian fashion, replacing synthetic adoration with harsh barbed encouragement.

Ingested feed of the audience and put on a performance that is tight, taut and as harsh as fuck. Whilst they still refer to themselves as slam metal (and as coming from the Slamchester) their sound has evolved beyond the puerile confines of the genre. It still coarse and monumentally heavy but their tracks have a level of complexity that is usually alien to this subgenre. The riffs pound on your cranial load like sledgehammers, unrelenting and unrepentant. But it isn't just noise, their song-writing has become concise and consistent and there is a good chance they may well be the first slam band to make it out on the underground. 

Jason demands multiple pits and what Jason wants Jason gets. From my vantage point on the balcony, the room has become a tumultuous ocean of flagellating human bodies. The various pits swell like circulating tornadoes, rotating in increasing velocity. The reception is utterly astonishing and for all their Mancunian detachment you can tell that the band are hugely affected by the love coming from the room. It really is the definition of short and sweet as the last number seems to appear mere seconds after they take the stage. ‘Echoes of Hate’ is extraordinary in its girth, magnitude, and savage nihilism. And then with final platitudes thrown to the hometown crowd they are gone.

Dark Funeral are Black Metal royalty. They emerged in the early 90’s in Stockholm during the second wave of Black Metal at the same time as their Nordic brethren Dark Throne, Mayhem and Emperor. Whilst others have faltered or fallen (and then subsequently reunited when the money was right) Dark Funeral have consistently marched on, building in both stature and standing. Their latest creation "We Are The Apocalypse” has been a chart sensation across mainland Europe and Scandinavia. Tonight, they prove why they are so highly regarded. This is a masterclass in theatrical bombastic Black Metal. It’s as camp as a pride march through the gay village but that's the point. Black Metal was always about escapism and an antidote to the realism the founding fathers felt was creeping into metal. Dark Funeral put on a show and it enticingly riveting and intoxicating.

They are wonderfully malicious and malignant, like a barrel load of pantomime villains converting to Satanism. But it isn't just about the carefully crafted band personas, musically they are also grandiose and anthemic. After the frantic furiosity of Ingested, they exhibit a much more lethargic pace. Their songs unfold like unravelling tales. Slowing and ethereal but also blessed with extravagant and opulent choruses.

Having had the honour of conversing with Heljarmadr (interview here) I knew that they were circulating tracks and trying to touch all bases of their esteemed career. As he says in our chat, the hardest decision is what to leave out as opposed to what to put in, and with only 50 minutes to play with there are always going to be casualties. ‘The Arrival Of Satan's Empire’ and ‘The Secrets Of The Black Arts’ are as far back as we go, with everything else coming from the last three records. But as Heljarmadr rightly puts it in our chat they now have a large fan base whose entry point to the band were those recent releases.

This evening they are a stunning indictment of the utter magical intensity of Black Metal. Yes, it's daft and yes it's all rather preposterous and pomp, but that is the point. It's opera but just with lower production values and harsher vocals. Lush, extravagant and utterly utterly compelling. Through hard work and conviction Dark Funeral have become one of the big names in black metal and tonight they showed us that they thoroughly deserve that top-table status.

There is nothing grandiose, subtle or reserved about Cannibal Corpse. They are the last word in intensity and brutality and for 80 minutes they utterly pummel the hell out of the place. Everything is stripped back, this is pure minimalistic noise. The songs are short, the riffs are precise, and the effect is utterly apocalyptic. There is something wonderfully cathartic about the incessant nature of their delivery. It's nasty, it's jagged and it’s utterly divine.

Corpsegrinder is as wonderfully irreverent and confrontational as ever. He cuts a foreboding figure, a man mountain of flailing hair and muscular intent. He is so much an integral linchpin of the band it's bizarre to realise that he is not their original vocalist. Tonight, he is as ever cutting and offhand in his interaction with the audience. He, with a knowing snigger, dedicates ‘Fucked with a Knife’ to all the women in the audience and regularly goads the front row for not being able to keep up with his incessant headbanging.

As I said there is no let-up tonight, it's just wave after wave of vicious power.  We visit all but two of their studio albums, but the fact is that Cannibal Corpse haven’t particularly altered their style since they emerged all those years ago so ‘A Skull Full Of Maggots’ from 1990’s “Eaten Back to Life” sound pretty identical to stuff off last year's “Violence Unimagined”. It all blurs into a constant shower of sonic oscillation and that is very much meant as a compliment. You don't go and see Cannibal Corpse for the intricate niceties.

Corpsegrinder playfully banters with the audience about ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled’ being the last track. He mocks the howls of derision and pretends to be coerced into playing more tracks but then remorselessly throws it back in our collective faces. However this is all a façade as we know that ‘Hammer Smash Face’ is still to come and it is as ever utterly beautiful in its simplicity.

They will hit their 35th anniversary of being an outfit this December but they remain the very last word in ugly impenetrability. Others may try to be this repugnant and this all-consuming but there is simply not a band like Cannibal Corpse. They do this far far far better than anybody else and god they are magnificent tonight.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Ingested