It’s an early Sunday evening start for a very heavy night at Rebellion, and New Jersey progressive metalcore crew Sentinels are first up. They prowl the dark stage in sinister fashion with a mysterious electronic backing-track before exploding into an exciting, high energy set. The best way to describe them is a tech-metal Malevolence, but they cover way more bases than that suggests. There are brutal hardcore/metalcore vocals, fast as lightning fret work and even faster stick work on drums. The drumming is indeed as technical and awe inspiring as the various fret tapping segments we’re treated to. They blend experimental elements of The Locust and Every Time I Die in with big heavy beatdowns and catchy mellow segments. Fans of the more violent parts of The Dali Thundering Concept will especially enjoy Sentinels. It’s testament to their infectious stage performance that the pit is already kicking off at 6:30pm! Closer ‘Embers’ is the standout track and that together with the rest of the latest album mean this quartet are ones to watch.

Next up are Great American Ghost a hardcore band from Boston, Massachusetts. In fact, as front-man Ethan Harrison informs us, they’re from a Manchester in the USA and he later jokes when hyping the crowd that this is a home gig for them and to just pretend they’re Ingested! The band don’t waste any time smashing straight into their furious set. They’re very much the metal end of hardcore, piledriving their sound at the enthused crowd. Harrison is charismatic and you can’t keep your eyes off him – bouding around the stage manically, living every word he aggressively barks to the crowd. The whole band are excellent and engaging throughout, keeping the listener on their toes with some clean vocals, thrashy elements and even stompy doom passages thrown in on occasion too. The crowd are wild for them and I’m definitely left impressed.

Enterprise Earth take to the stage and I’m intrigued to see how they are live with it being my first chance to catch them since original vocalist Dan Watson and guitarist BJ Sampson have left. The deathcore band from Spokane, Washington are led by the lean-framed Travis Worland who delivers the range of screeches and guttural bellows perfectly. Guitarist Gabe Mangold dances his fingers across the fretboard throughout, and provides dueling guitar lines and solos in abundance in between the crushing beatdowns and thrashy high tempo riffs. Drummer Brandon Zackey provides some delicious force and power behind the whole thing, and the crowd seem to be keeping theirs and the band’s energy up throughout.

Local heroes INGESTED have the main support slot, and get themselves in position to the backdrop of sinister horror-style music. As always, leather hooded front-man Jason Evans is the ring-master and immediately interacts with the crowd, their old faithful, with the venue fully packed and the pit eager for the songs ahead. The band unleash their brutal signature slam death metal and Evans shows his ever-developing vocal prowess bringing the traditional death metal growls and shredding with a hardcore edge. The local lords of Slamchester deliver impressive death metal that feels fresh and vibrant rather than unnecessarily stuck in tradition, and that freshness is what brings them to life when performing live. You can’t help but at least nod your head along to their catchy take on this sub-genre, and I’m always impressed at how enjoyable they are in person. The self-proclaimed UK Kings of death metal are certainly staking their claim once again.

Headliners Fit For An Autopsy don’t even need to hit a snare or strike a chord for the crowd to be in a frenzy. The New Jersey deathcore crew seem to get better every time I see them, and tonight is no exception. I’m a massive fan of Thy Art Is Murder, and for me these are the only guys of this ilk who come close to them in live terms. It’s like a wall of unadulterated distorted noise that hits us as they open with ‘Oh What The Future Holds’ straight into ‘The Sea of Tragic Beasts’, and it remains unrelenting throughout. Whether it’s the rumbling, visceral death metal sections, the hardcore-laced clean vocal passages, or the atmospheric Deftones/Gojira-style offerings found on tracks like ‘Far From Heaven’ it’s simply pure joy from start to finish. Joe Badolato is a controlled focus of fury and vocal talent, the drumming is intense and so precise, with the guitars and bass equally note perfect and a technical delight. Guitarist Tim Howley suffers a blown amp head which affords the other guitarist Pat Sheridan an opportunity to earnestly and amusingly banter with the crowd before they unleash the standouts ‘Warfare’ and ‘No Man Is Without Fear’ on us. Genius writer/producer Will Putney doesn’t tour live with the band now, but his signature magic is across the whole set and the wealth of amazing songs they now have at their disposal sets Fit For An Autopsy apart as without a doubt a genre defining band.