Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	March 15, 2013
Event:	Cannibal Corpse & DevilDriver: European Tour 2013 (Website)
Location:	Rock City, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Devildriver, Cannibal Corpse - Nottingham, England, 8th March 2013 by Baz Anderson (28)

A cold Friday evening in Nottingham and even at the earlier opening time, an impressive queue of bright-eyed & bushy-tailed people in dark t-shirts had gathered for this co-headlining show.




With the main hall filling at a rapid pace, Italians Hour Of Penance were soon to get the night under way with their machine gun-like death metal. It was hard not to notice the general age of the audience was a little younger than usual, presumably for the popular headlining bands of the evening. Still, the sheer wall of sound emitted by the Italians on stage was enough to provoke some amount of flailing within the audience below. Similarly for The Black Dahlia Murder up next and their more metalcore/deathcore approach to musical destruction, the audience were only too pleased to oblige.



Co-headliners Cannibal Corpse found themselves next on stage to continue the aural assault. The death metal legends filled their hour slot with new and old; crushing as always. Choice visits back to the older albums for songs like "I Cum Blood", "A Skull Full Of Maggots" and "Disfigured" were received as well as the newer favourites "Priests Of Sodom" and "Make Them Suffer". Cannibal Corpse are the archetypal death metal metal band and never disappoint on stage; receiving massive "boos" upon announcing their last song. Closing with the classic pairing of "Hammer Smashed Face" and "Stripped, Raped, & Strangled" the band left the audience forgetting there was even one more band to go. Easily band of the night with their sheer, simple and effective brutality - giving the final band a tough job to follow up.

Setlist: Demented Aggression (G#) / Sarcophagic Frenzy (G#) / Scourge Of Iron (G#) / Disfigured (G#) / Evisceration Plague (G#) / The Time To Kill Is Now (G#) / I Cum Blood / Encased In Concrete / A Skull Full Of Maggots / Priests Of Sodom / Unleashing The Bloodthirsty / Make Them Suffer / Hammer Smashed Face / Stripped, Raped And Strangled



Unlike the three bands before them, DevilDriver are not all about uni-directional destruction. Contrasting with their co-headliners, the groove aspects of their style were magnified and greatly appreciated. The younger members of the audience here for the Californians still had plenty of energy to follow Dez Fafara's orders and cause havoc in the middle. Amazing to think that DevilDriver's debut album is a decade old this year, but with songs appearing in the set such as "The Mountain" and "Meet The Wretched" it is easy to see how the band have made a success of themselves with the energy they invoke live. Putting on a thoroughly enjoyable show, the band were also restricted to one hour and had to say their goodbyes sooner rather than later.

Setlist: End Of The Line / Cry For Me Sky (Eulogy Of The Scorned) / Dead To Rights / These Fighting Words / Not All Who Wander Are Lost / Pure Sincerity / Head On To Heartache (Let Them Rot) / I Could Care Less / Horn Of Betrayal / Hold Back the Day / The Mountain / Clouds Over California / Meet The Wretched



Each band provided something different to the show and made for a promising precursor to the upcoming Spring season of shows.