LIVE REVIEW: Anaal Nathrakh & Akercocke @ Thekla, Bristol

Co-headliners are always a guaranteed time to enjoy two bands of the same ilk in a relatively stress free evening. One of the best in recent memory goes to the MONOLORD and CONAN run that literally nearly sank the very venue where tonight’s festivities are taking place. The phrase ‘relatively stress free’ is important, because the combination of AKERCOCKE and ANAAL NATHRAKH should be enough to give anyone familiar with their works a sweat of anticipation. Both units have built a controversial name for themselves through either their satanic tendencies or just their horrible, terrifying music. Regardless of how you know them, both bands are legends in their respective scenes, and having them both on a boat in the same night can only spell a good night.

Opening a night like tonight must always be a daunting fact for a lot of bands. Lucky then, that local act AGRONA came out swinging. The small stage didn’t give the extreme metal squad much room to move around, but that didn’t stop the group from impressing the filtering crowd. The wretched cries of vocalists Taranis and Adara pierce through the blackened sounds erupting from the amp stacks. AGRONA felt somewhat out of place given the full stage garbs they donned, wearing armoured costumes in an attempt to create theatricality. However, given the lack of room, the band are forced to awkwardly stand and deliver their noise from a static position. They give it welly, and the band came across well, but for anyone arriving late there is little to really grab one’s attention. A good bit of early noise from AGRONA, but nothing to scream home about and ultimately a forgotten start given what else was to come in the night.

Rating: 5/10

With tonight’s Bristol show kicking off the tour, it’s a little sad that long time vocalist for the group Jason Mendonca is ill and can’t deliver his renown growl. Thankfully, and rather surprisingly, Sammy Irwin (EMPLOYED TO SERVE) is on hand to step in and drop some truly gruesome death metal vocals for the baying crowd. It’s not an immediate start, as the opening songs get the crowd used to AKERCOCKE’s switching styles. The band jump from rapturous blast beats across to progressive, intertwined guitar work with precision. The juggling of styles helps keep the set sounding fresh, and further intensifies the violent moments further. Every band member possesses a magnetism that draws the attention of the crowd, even when the group aren’t decked out in their classic and recognisable full suit attire. AKERCOCKE demand respect thanks to the way they hold themselves even in civvies, and their pummelling, varied music benefits from it. It also feels the swift hand of negativity though as well, as despite their magnetic stature, when the band get knee deep in progressive noodling it all goes down the pan.

The precise and tight band performance solidifies the fact that everyone present in the audience is witnessing one of the finer gems of the British death metal alumni. The drumming is concrete, and when the group sink in deep into the intense moments of violence, it is amplified tenfold thanks to the quality musicianship. The crowd react in kind when the music calls for energy, as pits erupt much to the glee of the esteemed gents on stage, but these switches are turned off just as quickly as they turn on, proving it to be a double edged sword at times. The dull end of the blade is felt in the final moments of the set, as the band plod through a progressive slow burn that unceremoniously kills a lot of momentum in the final moments. Ultimately, this set just serves as an offering of some high quality death metal that never really followed the rules that much anyway. When AKERCOCKE get their teeth into the flesh then they’re lethal, but like the meandering final moments of their set, it proves that sometimes everything doesn’t quite land on target.

Rating: 7/10

The metal unit that have become synonymous with the word extreme thanks to their history of violence. ANAAL NATHRAKH have unceremoniously fused grindcore, death metal, black metal, gabba, noise, and everything in between for their entire career, and after last year’s A New Kind of Horror, the group return to Bristol for the first time in a while.

Despite their newest record, there is a surprisingly balanced spread of the band’s entire back catalogue. Obscene as Cancer kicks off the set, and Forward! gets the best crowd reaction by a bloody country mile, but that is about as far as the group venture into their newest offering. This does, of course, free up lots of space for the likes of Hold Your Children Close, and In The Constellation of The Black Widow, which incites an almighty wall of death in between please from the band for ‘more crowd surfers please’.

It’s undeniable just how intense ANAAL NATHRAKH are as a unit, as Forging Towards The Sunset and the rhythmic pummelling of Monstrum in Animo prove, but as there will always be with a band of this speed and intricacies; it’s very, very messy. The set starts off without any samples, and the band plug the gaps as things go along, but it is only really by the time the metalcore influence of Forward! that the set really gets into gear. Once the band have the crowd in their claws there is no getting loose, but it’s a messy struggle that feels like an uphill struggle at times, with the band solely relying on their sheer brutality to win the crowd over. The stage banter shows the group to be more than comfortable on stage, but this doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good performance.

ANAAL NATHRAKH are great for any gluttons of punishment. The tirade of noise that fills the halls of the Thekla is almost unbearable without protection, so enduring this gig requires sacrificing some form of personal well being. It’s just a shame that the band didn’t deliver an experience to match the sacrifice, other than an overwhelming worry for one’s long term hearing.

Rating: 6/10

Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Bristol from Normandy Photography here: