LIVE REVIEW: Cannibal Corpse @ Academy, Manchester

Death metal has undergone significant evolutions since its unholy inception forty years ago. What was once a small pocketed collection of bands pushing heavy music to unfathomable new depths, today, the scene is enormous with a large quota of killer bands deploying a host of varying soundscapes from death metal’s diverse sub-genres. For all the exciting new blood that is keeping the genre healthy, for CANNIBAL CORPSE, they remain one of death metal’s heaviest hitters. For all their sonic brutality, they sit in a unique position of being insanely popular, and as such, tonight’s sold-out show at the Academy in Manchester reflects just how much of a cultural phenomenon CANNIBAL CORPSE stand 32 years after Eaten Back To Life shook the foundations of our world to its rotten core.

Despite the early doors, there’s a healthy number of people awaiting openers STORMRULER. The St. Louis, Missouri-based black metal band have made ripples in the underground with 2021’s Under The Burning Eclipse and last year’s Sacred Rites & Black Magick, and in Manchester, the band showcase their craft with ample effect further bolstering their stock on our shores. Their take on black metal leans more towards accessibility as opposed to the brash vitriol of the genre’s more savage beasts, but this plays to their strengths as copious twin guitar harmonies and melodic passages wash over the crowd effectively and Jason Asberry‘s vocals cut through the mix rather well indeed. For their first time on our shores, STORMRULER are in prime position to bolster their influence opening a tour like this, and it’s fair to assume they will have won themselves numerous more fans following their outing in Manchester.

Rating: 7/10

For INGESTED, tonight’s show is a homecoming affair as Jason Evans proudly declares the Northern powerhouse as “Slamchester”. Though they have evolved considerably into a more straightforward death metal band as opposed to 2009’s slamming Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering, their potency for delivering death metal that shakes the venue’s foundations to its core is just as strong. And this is clear as day as the band waste absolutely no time in levelling their hometown as a one-two punch of Rebirth and No Half Measures incites utter bedlam in the pit, whilst Shadows In Time and Echoes Of Hate (both pulled from last year’s Ashes Lie Still) sound utterly monstrous in the live environment. The riffs and slams are relentless and Evans‘ dispatches his monstrous growls and snarls with the utmost ease, all whilst displaying utter glee at the throng of people losing their minds to the band’s aural barrage. A homecoming show is always a treat, and it is clear evidence that INGESTED are one of the UK’s finest when it comes to death metal.

Rating: 8/10 

Having emerged during black metal’s infamous second wave, Sweden’s DARK FUNERAL have similar levels of pedigree as tonight’s headliners. With a career spanning over three decades and a reliable stream of blasphemous records to their name, DARK FUNERAL are a recognised force within extreme music. As such, the room of Manchester’s Academy is packed to the rafters as they arrive with Nosferatu, and set a precedent for their frostbitten soundscapes. At their best, DARK FUNERAL are infectious as My Funeral whips up a sea of banging heads and the sinister riffs of Unchain My Soul sound majestic in the live arena as Heljarmadr leads the line with the utmost conviction. However, there’s an air of repetitiveness around DARK FUNERAL, enough for attention spans to wane during their nine song set. Their approach to black metal is very much by the numbers with every trope of the sub-genre ticked off the list, and it ultimately impacts the memorability of the performance itself. For those who are fully immersed in the DARK FUNERAL world, they won’t care one bit, but ultimately, their performance won’t be one that lingers long in the memory.

Rating: 6/10

Over the course of their extensive career, CANNIBAL CORPSE have never strayed away from their path of offering brash, brutality and blistering death metal. As such, over the course of their lengthy headlining set, they proceed to pummel Manchester into submission. Set opener Scourge Of Iron strikes like a ten ton hammer, as the riffs from Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett sound absolutely colossal and Corpsegrinder‘s vocals sound as monstrous as ever. It’s a triumphant opening and one that perfectly reflects CANNIBAL CORPSE‘s MO. With the tour coming in support of the band’s latest studio album, Violence Unimagined (a staggering achievement in itself considering it’s the band’s fifteenth record!), we get three cuts from their latest slab of death metal and the likes of Condemnation Contagion, Inhumane Harvest and Necrogenic Resurrection all sit comfortably to more decorated cuts.

But where CANNIBAL CORPSE truly shine is when they dispatch the songs that made them leaders of pack. Evisceration Plague still hits just as hard as it did when it first battered eardrums back 14 years ago, I Cum Blood‘s sick blasts from Paul Mazurkiewicz is utterly blistering, and Stripped, Raped and Strangled‘s fitting tribute to the late, great Trevor Strnad of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER is one in which sits perfectly to an individual who championed death metal with his every breath. As they close their time in Manchester with the iconic Hammer Smashed Face (the bass soloing from Alex Webster still sounds just as wicked as it did when we first heard it), CANNIBAL CORPSE reaffirm their status as the kings of death metal. Long may they reign.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here: 

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