Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	December 07, 2008
Event:	Cryptopsy: European Tour (Website)
Location:	Corporation, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Cryptopsy - Sheffield, England, 1st December 2008 by Baz Anderson (32)

A bitterly cold December night and in the old industrial city of Sheffield it was time for one of the most extreme tours of the year to drop by. As the doors opened, only a handful of people were waiting to get inside to the smallest room of the Corporation venue. As time went by more people found their way inside, but still as the first band started, the audience still only consisted of a handful of people casually looking onwards.

Shame really as British death metallers Ignominious Incarceration were the first on the bill, and although these guys may not be the most known band around, they still had the enthusiasm as if they were playing in front of a large audience and seemed extremely humbled to be on the tour with two of Canada's top extreme acts. They played death metal with a healthy load of double bass drumming, and especially with the vocals live, didn't sound too dissimilar to Deicide. A few breakdowns in the music were one of the few spoilers, but overall these guys put on a good show and are certainly a band to watch out for.



Next up, second British death metal band of the night Trigger The Bloodshed. These guys are becoming more and more known among the extreme scene of our island and rightly so. The group have a new vocalist from my last encounter with the band at the Download Festival, and from then to now they appear to have grown incredibly. These guys are a little more blastbeat oriented and is obvious bands such as Behemoth have had a big influence on their songwriting process. The drummer looks like a young guy, but his potential future looks good as he blasted his way through this impressive set. The inside settings definitely suited the band more and lead the band onwards to a superb death metal set. This band have the potential to be great, we'll just have to keep an eye on them to see how they turn out when they have properly found their own style.



Now, it would appear there is a wide difference of opinion where next band Beneath The Massacre are concerned. On CD, these guys are absolutely insanely fast drum-wise, but are entirely one-dimensional. Live the band is something else. There was two good things about the Beneath The Massacre set, as expected the drumming was a pleasure to watch unfold even though the live environment doesn't give a crisp production to hear them as studio recording do, and the bass player's sheer enthusiasm. Opinion on this band boils down entirely to your opinion on slow, chugging breakdowns that seemingly set out to break any sense of momentum the speed creates. The whole set seemed to be one long breakdown with the most amusing accompaniment by some of the audience members. By now the floor in front of the stage was pretty much full until some of the most retarded actions known to man emerged from the "scene kids" of the audience. These guys were swinging their arms around and trying to kick things that just were not there to all of these breakdowns and it just wasn't right. Beneath The Massacre might be as brutal as hell, but they came across as a -core band, and the incessant breakdown after breakdown ruined their show.



"That is the sound of inevitability..." At last, after three bands we finally get to the meat of the show in the form of Canada's new most controversial band of the death metal world, Cryptopsy. No one needs reminding about the recent line-up changes and highly notorious new album, but of course curiosity was running wild at the prospect of this new Cryptopsy hitting the stage. Kicking off with the first song of the new album "Worship Your Demons", we had a good hear of how this new material comes over live. It sounded great, good stuff, but something was missing, these guys have one of the greatest death metal drummers sat behind the kit, and although the drums are fast, it just isn't as manic and truly terrifying as the older material. Still, the band plummeted straight into "Graves Of The Fathers" afterwards and onwards and upwards into a set of absolute insanity. New vocalist Matt McGachy fits the image of the band well, and with his long hair added some Corpsegrinder-esque head-spinning to the set. Vocally he doesn't have such a deep or guttural voice as the older songs perhaps cry out for, but in the live environment this isn't an issue, he pulled off the old songs. Amusingly the band played over the sound system the "It's Dinner Time" track they posted to make fun of all the people whom made themselves heard about the change of style Cryptopsy took with their new album. The character in the track saying how lame the new Cryptopsy was, how they had turned emo and had singing on the album. The amusing part being the band failed to include any new tracks with singing in them, obviously feeling that singing is out of place in the live environment but not on CD, and then also later in the set introducing a couple of songs for the "old school fans".



However you want to look at it though, there are no complaints coming from this direction, the new songs sounded good although generally meant a slight rest from utter carnage, and all of the old songs sounded just magnificent. Three from the new album, three from "None So Vile" and one from every other album. The band did have to pull one song out due to the venue needing to start the club night, but with songs such as "Abigor", "Emaciate" and "Phobophile" consumed and taken on board, the by now full room had all endured and enjoyed an hour set of still one of the best death metal acts on the planet. Four bands may have been pushing it a little for time, but a full on death metal night was certainly what the doctor ordered, and especially for Cryptopsy in such intimate settings was such an experience. Cryptopsy are still very much here ladies and gentlemen.




Cryptopsy Setlist

Many thanks to Alex of Cryptopsy for the accreditation.
Written, and photos by Barry Anderson