LIVE REVIEW: Archspire @ The Asylum 2, Birmingham

ARCHSPIRE’s aptitude for sonic destruction and penchant for dazzling complexity has long been met with reverence within the tech-death genre, but it’s their uncanny ability to replicate such eye-popping craft in a live capacity that triggers fans into frothing from every orifice. The announcement earlier this year that the Canadian quintet would be headlining November/December’s monstrous Tech Trek Europe 2019 was made all the more outrageous given that they’d be performing Relentless Mutation in full. And with INFERI, VULVODYNIA and BENEATH THE MASSACRE joining them on the 21-date run, Birmingham’s The Asylum 2 is just one venue about to have their walls well and truly tech’d.

“We’re gonna roll out the red carpet for your asses!” INFERI vocalist Stevie Boiser declares as he makes an immediate beeline for the rumbling throng before him. Sporting a grin of Cheshire cat proportions as the monstrous strains of Thy Menacing Gaze reverberate, his excitement to be hitting hit UK stages for the first time alongside his Tennessee tech-death wrecking crew might just surpass that of everyone here. It takes approximately three eye-popping sweeps and a solitary blastbeat for The Promethean Kings to land on this crowd like a ton of bricks, during which an animated Boiser whips his shirt off, amidst a frenzied soundtrack of sinister atmosphere and hook-filled shred. The loudest shouts of the night are reserved for cuts from 2018’s Revenant, in particular Behold the Bearer of Light; combining blackened ferocity and orchestral-tinged blasts bolstered by hair-raising melodies it’s quintessential INFERI and enough to send arms flying skywards. As debut performances go in another country, it’s an intense insight into the raw talent this five-piece have at their disposal.

Rating: 7/10

There is a primitive urgency to South African death slam merchants VULVODYNIA whose fearsome live reputation as a crowd killing-inspiring, tribe-like machine precedes them. Everyone gathered here knows what lies ahead, and as talisman Duncan Bentley spews forth some of the nastiest pig squeals and bowel-loosening growls imaginable, the whole affair becomes almost ritualistic. Leading his charge into an unholy salvo of Feast and Mob Justice, the pits open and when the countless bodies aren’t smashing into one another, they’re contorting into the most extreme of states. Soundbites and chugging beatdowns usher in the feral assault of Nyaope – the cricket growls on which send this audience suitably batshit – but it’s the gut-punching depravity of dank slammer Psychosadistic Design that could probably raise Lucifer from the fiery depths. The mic is thrusted into the baying sea of faces on countless occasions during the 30 minutes, the pace of which halts briefly when the band bring on axeslinger Luke Haarhoff (who is sadly in absentia for the EU dates) for Drowned in Vomit – the gloriously vile splendour of which is the ideal closer to a meticulously filthy set.

Rating: 8/10

The online hype machine went into instant overdrive this past month when, after an interminable hiatus, Montreal tech-death progenitors BENEATH THE MASSACRE announced their signing to label giants Century Media and dropped a new single to boot. The fact that their last release was 2012’s Incongruous and that it’s been the better part of a decade since the band dirtied our shores, is yet another catalyst for the anticipation that’s been steadily building over the course of tonight. It’s unfortunate that the band are minus new addition-slash-drummer Anthony Barone on this run, but what follows is an intense genre masterclass which succeeds in being jaw-droppingly technical without resorting to ostentatious displays of purposeless noodling. Gripping the mic like it’s a bomb poised for detonation, vocalist Elliot Desgagnes is a man of few words, preferring to let the cacophony of adrenaline-fuelled shred, finger tapping and unrelenting bellows do the talking as they surge through material from 2008’s Dystopia. The inclusion of new cut Autonomous Mind is a timely reminder that despite being under proverbial wraps for years, they’ve remained true to their crushing style. For a main band opener, it’s a noticeably brief outing that’s sadly over almost as quickly as it begun. But if what Birmingham has witnessed here is anything to go by, 2020 looks set to usher in a brutal new chapter.

Rating: 8/10

Extreme metal delivered at 350 bpm. In other words, ARCHSPIRE performing 2017 paragon Relentless Mutation in in its entirety. Dazzling complexity is the order of the day with rabid cuts Involuntary Doppelgänger and Human Murmuration being the jump-off for thirty succinct minutes of absurd sweep picking, outrageously precise arpeggios and plenty of low-end chug alongside progressive passages brimming with melodic introspection. Sitting somewhere between half-man half-machine, vocalist Oliver Rae Aleron unleashes round after round of guttural vocals more akin to machine-gun fire whilst the complex juxtaposition of neoclassical nuances and vicious blastbeats permeating the core of The Mimic Well have the power to confound and combust. Unsurprisingly, the room splits apart almost immediately, and bodies proceed to smash into one another with all the ferocity of wild rabid dogs on steroids – all the while with huge shit-eating grins plastered all over faces. Comedy ensues mid-set with Aleron’s request for “the biggest pit you’ve got” in exchange for free merch and a subtle taunt regarding the crowd’s ability to “be bigger than those Scots”. His sarcastic quip of “Dude I’m forty, I need these longer breaks just to breathe!” in response to one punter’s counter-request that the frontman join the pit instead is met with genuine laughter. The remainder of the set is rounded off with some of The Lucid Collective’s most potent slabs of heaviness as the Vancouver natives close the evening tech’ing the halls in breakneck style.

Rating: 9/10                 

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Birmingham from Yasmine Summan here: