LIVE REVIEW: Cattle Decapitation @ The Bread Shed Manchester
In all of modern music, very few artists manage to climb to the very pinnacle of their respective genre and go on to attain legend status. Death metal has seen its fair share of these monumental artists: CANNIBAL CORPSE, SUFFOCATION, and DYING FETUS to name just a few. But, another artist who has done more than enough over their 20-plus year career to enter legend status are San Diego natives CATTLE DECAPITATION. With the band gearing up to release their seventh studio album Death Atlas later this month, the band join up with the UK based OLD WHARF and OSIAH to lay waste to the eagerly awaiting Manchester crowd.
With the room already brimming with people, it was time for Wolverhampton beatdown/slam band OLD WHARF. Playing to a cold room can be a daunting thing for some bands, it’s a skill that takes most acts years to master, but not this band. OLD WHARF shot straight out of the gates and immediately took hold of the room with their captivating brutal music. Having only existed as a band for a year almost to the day, OLD WHARF played with the skill and presence of a band with many more years experience than they actually have. Every aspect of the band has been carefully considered from the ground up – the tactful interplay between the instrumentalists, the myriad of complex vocal techniques, the strong command of the crowd between tracks and before breakdowns, and the symbology and stories weaved into their songwriting. There’s a reason that OLD WHARF have gained so much traction in such a short space of time and this performance just goes to show why.
Rating: 7/10
Next up was a band who are no strangers to the UK metal scene, the north-eastern deathcore phenomenon that is OSIAH. Following the release of their second full-length album Kingdom of Lies earlier this year, the band kicked off their set in incredible form with the crowd responding by opening the pit as wide as the room would allow. It was immediately clear that the crowd was in no small part made up of existing fans of the band, with the melee of people only stopping to cheer the announcement of the next song.
Playing a mix of favourites from their first album Terror Firma and their latest release, OSIAH commanded every inch of the stage showing why they’re considered one of the very best deathcore bands to ever come out of the UK scene. The band’s newest material went down an absolute storm, with the cheer and subsequent free-for-all for The March more than rivalling the response for fan favourite Humanimals from their previous release.
If ever there was a perfect band to be one of the figureheads of a whole genre, representing their country on the world’s stage, it’s OSIAH representing British deathcore. The sheer power contained within the band’s music is further amplified by the excellence of their live show, and whether listening to their records or watching live, the band can easily contend with the genre’s heavy hitters.
Rating: 8/10
With the room fully limbered up from spin-kicking and elbow-throwing their way through the previous two sets, it was time for the true living legends CATTLE DECAPITATION. Opening their set with brand new track The Geocide from their forthcoming album Death Atlas, the band were greeted by cheers and chants fully reflective of their beloved status among fans. Immediately following the opening track the band offered no respite for the rabid moshpit journeymen and promptly jumped into the ferocious A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat from 2012’s Monolith of Inhumanity and The Prophets of Loss from the band’s previous record.
The band’s set was broken up by short interludes from Death Atlas – namely The Great Dying I & II – with the meat of the set being comprised by a lot of new material not yet formally released by the band and a large amount of their older certified classics. The two leading singles from the upcoming album One Day Closer to the End of the World and Bring Back the Plague came as the only familiar territory from Death Atlas and the packed room marked the occasion by erupting once more in fervorous turbulence.
CATTLE DECAPITATION fostered an atmosphere that, from beginning to end, was firmly held at a fever pitch. The room’s enduring intensity is best summed up by the constant chants of “let’s go fucking mental”, with the crowd following through on that proposition until the very end. Despite vocalist Travis Ryan admitting that he’d probably “had a bit too much to drink” before the show, Travis, and indeed the whole band were unequivocally performing at their sparkling best. The band brought their set to a close in signature style with the titular track from their new album much to the delight of the packed house. Due to the sheer quality of the set and the atmosphere in the room utterly insatiable, the band returned to the stage for two last songs; Manufactured Extinct and Your Disposal.
CATTLE DECAPITATION have proven time and time again why they deserve to be considered one of the death metal greats. With each album the band release they continue to stake their claim to the death metal throne, and with an impressive live show to further back it up, that claim only gets stronger. CATTLE DECAPITATION have been a constant fixture within the scene for the entirety of the modern era and no conversation about death metal should be considered complete without their inclusion.
Rating: 8/10
Check out our photo gallery of CATTLE DECAPITATION in action from Jacob Kazara here:
