Live Review : GWAR + Voivod + Childrain @ Academy Club, Manchester on November 30th 2019

Three things we learnt from this gig. Number one is that GWAR do really take it up the arse, secondly that Voivod are still gleefully subverting Metal thirty seven years after they started and finally beetroot does not come out, of anything. For Metal fans of a certain age (i.e. a teen in the eighties and distinctly middle aged in this decade) this is both an intriguing and rather puzzling bill. You see Voivod were the champions of intelligent avant-garde deconstructed Metal. Their fourth album “Dimension Hatross” is the last word in complex progressive thrash and stood head and shoulder above anything else going on. GWAR on the other hand always seemed to be the last word stupid. Dressed in gross homemade costumes, they sang simple seemingly idiotic songs and poured suspect liquids all over their audience. But here they are in 2019 sharing a stage in Manchester.

However first we have Spanish melo-death outfit at Childrain. They have an early start of 7pm and is quite evident that Club Academy is half full or half empty depending on how you look at it. They are from the Basque Country and they tell us so expecting no one to know where it is. From the get go this is an aggressive take on melodic death and they hit the stage with a furious fury. Central to their sound is Mikel on drums who manages to kick seven shades of shit out of his kit. Ini on vocals growls like his life depended on it but then switches to clean vocals for some insanely catchy choruses. Overall this is fairly standard, but rather well done, melodic death. Aggressive in the places where it needs to be aggressive, but also heaped in melody in places where that is required. Impressive.

I’m biased, really really biased but Voivod are utterly brilliant tonight. For a band that have spent four decades trading in highly sophisticated and musically complex structures, they actually are heaps of fun tonight. Throughout the set it looks like they are having a blast and they muck around with each other like goofy teenagers. This is by all intents and purposes a co-headline tour and the crowd are as up for Voivod as they are for GWAR later (though probably standing a little bit nearer than they will do later). We also get a good set length meaning that Voivod are able to give us a twisting and turning guided tour through their sizable back catalogue. Back in 1988, “Dimension Hatröss” blew by teenage mind and second song in ‘Psychic Vacuum' is still utterly exquisite. Techy progressive thrash that doesn’t in anyway sound thirty one years. 'Overreaction' from 1987’s “Killing Technology” is also stunning, it swerves away from the thrash and towards a more prog template that again is years ahead of its time. We then hurtle back up to date and into avant-garde territory with 'Orb Confusion' from last year’s excellent “The Wake”. 

I consider Voivod to be horrendously underrated and 'The Unknown Knows' and 'Fix My Heart' (both decades old) prove that they were challenging the confides of what is Heavy Metal long before it became acceptable to do so. Piggy may sadly be no longer with us, but Chewy has assimilated perfectly into his place, firing out wondrous complex jittery riffs. We end with the almost straight forward thrash of 'Voivod' itself and it is obvious all four of them are having a ball. Wonderful utterly wonderful.

And so to GWAR. Those in the know head towards the back. Those either not fully informed about what is to follow or who have arrived in clothes that have no fiscal or sentimental value, head to the front. GWAR circa 2019 feature no original members, but as every person on stage is hidden under outrageous polystyrene foam costumes and fake armour it doesn’t really matter. What is important is that the ideology of the band is intact. GWAR were always fiercely anti-establishment, even the heavy metal community that they found themselves part of. They used to use their outrageous shows to challenge our understanding of art and what is actually offensive. After having claimed they were dumb earlier on, I actually do need to concede that this is actually all a very clever (and messy) statement on societies moral standards and how they are all constructs.

It still though is a highly messy and vulgar evening. There are beetroot juice cannons agogo and we all get covered with fake ejaculations and lacerations. Musically GWAR have veered all over shop during their carrier. They have done the Glam rock thing and also the brutal death stuff. Tonight we get tracks from across the years and it is all played at an outrageous speed. Songs that used to be almost poppy are now most defiantly metal. The crowd love it. And the increasingly coated pit leap around with glee. Tonight is essentially one what the fuck moment after another, culminating with Blothar driving a stake up some monster cop arse and then have him carried off stage on that same stake. It is enjoyable in a what the hell have I just seen way. It is also a night where everybody comes out of the venue wondering if by some miracle they have been spared, somehow safe from the beetroot juice thrown by cannons while others cry about their favourite jumper being ruined forever. So just a normal night out in Manchester then.