Live Review : Carnifex + Revocation + Aborted + Vexed @ Club Academy, Manchester on March 24th 2024

Another day and another four-headed death metal package rolls into town. However, if you open the bonnet and do a bit of careful inspection you will find that this quadruple bill offers some enticingly distinct delicacies. You see Vexed, Aborted, Revocation and Carnifex represent four very very different aspects of Death Metal’s multiple personalities. This is a comprehensive guided tour through the genre's current state of the nation. It also makes pretty good business sense as each band has its own distinct group of diehard supporters, all of whom have gathered here tonight for some bizarre gathering of the clans.

There is something deliciously and evocatively different about Vexed. This is not because in Megan Targett they have a female growler (a situation that is sadly still the exception rather than the norm), it is due to their amalgamation of electro-tinged alt-rock with the trappings of death metal. Their sound is refreshingly irreverent and modern. They seem unfazed and unbothered by convention and instead magpie-like toss in a whole host of seemingly unconnected musical influences. One of those is industrial, giving their output a clinical crunch that makes their tracks stand out. 

The eclecticism of their inspirations is deftly matched by the dynamism of the performance. There is a hardwired kinetic energy to them that is both enthralling and intoxicating. For half past six, they have attracted an impressively athletic gathering. As with all the bands tonight, it is obvious that there is a good dollop of attendees in the pit who have dragged themselves out purely to see them.

As the sole British contingent on the undercard, Megan sees it as her job to hype up the crowd, telling them to show our friends from Belgium and across the pond what a true pit looks like. The rapidly filling crowd does not need much encouragement and bodies slam against each other with vigorous vitality.Vexed are one of those bands who are on the verge of something (and why not check our video interview with the band at Tech-Fest 2023). You can taste the anticipation in the air. There are a few rough edges that still need to be smoothed over, but the potential of their brutal but simultaneously sheen and well-polished take on death metal is palpable.

Putting a band of the pedigree and with the legacy of Aborted on at this early juncture seems at best an indignity and at worst an insult. Their well-stocked merch table, adorned with an Aladdin's cave of goodies including action figures and turntable mats, does brisk business all evening and the reception that unfolds for opener ‘Retrogore’ outshines anything afforded to the other acts. Their usual overtly dramatic theatrics have been scaled down to a before-set cameo by “Jigsaw” sitting on a tricycle. But the downsizing doesn't mean that there is any less of a punch.

Sven De Caluwe and co-seem to be quite enjoying not having the expectation of headliner on their shoulders. Instead, they lean into the situation and pummel out nine tracks in a little over 40 minutes. The short set time though doesn't stop Sven from being his usual affable self. Before ‘Condemned to Rot’ he states that he is aware of the obesity issues in the UK and that is going to curb that by getting us all to do jumping jacks during the aforementioned track.

The magnificent beauty of Aborted is the gore-obsessed simplicity of their tracks. Fuelled by feral blast beats this is death metal reduced to its primal decaying husk and it is all the better for it. With their 30th anniversary less than a year away they seem to be in no mood to deviate from their trademark sound. 

We get half of just released “Vault of Horrors” in an all-encompassing sweep identical to how the tracks stack up on record. The fact that the new material feels indistinguishable in quality to veteran set closer ’Threading on Vermillion' Deception’ is testimony to the band's singular and unwavering vision. They may well have been (the decaying corpse) of the bridesmaid as opposed to the bride but Aborted still manage to own the evening. They prove, if it needed doing so, that death metal is at its best when it is rampantly repugnant and skilfully shaun of all unnecessary paraphernalia. A masterclass in malignant menace that just screams “follow that”.

There is a change of guard upfront as Aborted’s sizeable fan base drifts towards the allure of the bar (or in some cases home) and is replaced by a distinctly younger demographic seeking more technicality in their death metal. Back as a three-piece Revocation bring the prog and the pomp. There is no getting away from the fact that Dave Davidson is a bit of a virtuoso when it comes to the old guitar, and he takes every opportunity to show off his prowess. The widdly widdly solos come thick and fast, full of serious finger-twisting and a serious overindulgence in notes. 

Essentially this is death metal with a PhD in astrophysics. It's all very clever and complicated and the fact that there is just three of them gives the distinct air of a more rampant Rush. Whilst impressively rendered the tracks do blur into a continuous stream of technical consciousness. Enjoyable but probably lacking in a little bit of colourful variety.

There is yet more place swapping upfront as the deathcore contingent brace themselves for the masters of that particular art form. Carnifex have never been afraid to own and revel in this particular label. There is no pretension of technicality or any sort of nuanced approach at play. This is Route 101 brutality. Precision-engineered heaviness at its very best.

Carnifex have always worn their genuine nature on their torn sleeves. There is no big scene-setting intro, instead, they stride onstage and get stuck into ‘Dark Days’. Scott Ian Lewis marshals the crowd as if he was one of us. He consistently calls for heads to be banged and for the pit to rotate. He fundamentally understands his audience's need to funnel their pent-up aggression and cultivates an atmosphere of shared belligerence where we can collectively and safely scream into the void.

Whilst the crowd has thinned as the evening has proceeded there is still a righteous and unrestrained energy pulsating from the crowd. Scott requests that old-school Carnifex fans make themselves known, he teases a return to the Myspace days and then rains down ‘Lie to My Face’. Ugly, contorted, and thoroughly un-housetrained, it is a brilliant indictment of the unadulterated magnificence of pure malevolent rage.

This particular variant of death metal may well have its detractors, but tonight Carnifex are utterly magnificent. They are bold and defiant but ultimately grounded in reality. Scott talks with great fondness about their many visits to this city and this very building. His accurate recollection that their first visit was in 2008 supporting Parkway Drive in the room directly above us reveals a sincerity that is a wonderful antidote to the rockstar bullshit of most other performers.

We get material from last year's “Necromanteum” but it doesn't dominate the set. Instead, they provide a fan-friendly jaunt through all their incarnations that provides even the most demanding fan with enough to savour, (though tracks from the rather splendid “World War X” are conspicuous by their absence). But they finish by taking us once again right back to the beginning. ‘Slit Wrist Saviour’ is stirring and strident. Guttural but simultaneously gigantic. A fittingly hefty conclusion for a fittingly hefty set.

The biggest takeaway about this evening though is the fact that this is for all intents and purposes a tri-headliner uniting three very different sets of fans. A timely reminder of the diversity of death metal and also of the marketability of that diversity. Package tours do not need to be based around similarities and this evening proved that in spades.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Carnifex, Revocation, Aborted, Vexed