LIVE REVIEW: Rings of Saturn @ Mama Roux’s, Birmingham
Eclectic. Experimental. And so extra – terrestrial, that is. Birmingham last played host to Texas tech-death eccentrics RINGS OF SATURN last May when they landed as part of the Sounds Of Carnage tour. Since this encounter of the live kind, these sonic purveyors of so-called Aliencore have ramped up the galactic chaos via album number five Gidim; a release as ostentatious as it was extreme in terms of its hyperfast atonal shredding and ominous atmosphere. The four-piece are back in Birmingham for The Gidim European Tour 2020 tour and show number five of the 23-date headline run across Europe. And with ENTERPRISE EARTH, TRAITORS and BRAND OF SACRIFICE joining them on what could be deemed as the most face-melting bill of the bleak winter so far, it promises to be an otherworldly experience.
Anyone with a penchant for uncompromising death metal tempered with atmospheric arrangements would find Toronto’s BRAND OF SACRIFICE hitting their proverbial radar following the release of 2018’s manga-inspired The Interstice. The EP – along with the band’s name – took influences from Kentaro Miura’s Berserk and the homage continued with debut full-length God Hand. This run also marks the five-piece’s first ever slew of European appearances and they’ve certainly come prepared, unleashing a relentless storm of brutal death metal, deathcore and slam. Glowering at the crowd beneath eerie red strobes, vocalist Kyle Anderson’s glass-gargling screams segue into low-end cricket gutturals. The high energy of opener Charlotte bleeds with intensity, encouraging the pits to open and the hammers to throw down whilst crushing blast beats spliced with sweep picking and ominous orchestrals emerge from the depths of Eclipse. Huge breakdowns sit alongside frequent tempo shifts resulting in an all-out assault on the senses by the time this all too brief set comes to its end. Watch this space – BRAND OF SACRIFICE are a force to be reckoned with.
Rating: 8/10
As a band who were born, met their demise and then were fully resurrected within just a few short years, TRAITORS certainly give new adage to the phrase “go hard or go home”. Skull-rattling beatdowns and voracious aggression are the fundamentals of the four-piece’s arsenal and the Floridians waste no time in unleashing their Deep South deathcore upon the baying throng beneath them. With a setlist comprised of songs from across the discography including latest release Repent, the ensuing result is a brutal mix of down-tempo slams spliced with sinister grooves; both of which permeate the blackened core of Suffocate and Dwell. Prolapse-inducing squeals sit alongside a near-perpetual battery of extended breakdowns and blastbeats as the hammers are brought down with brute force; flashes of sweeping tech-death guitars emerge as frontman Tyler Shelton’s insistent shouts of “It’s time to move this fuckin’ room a bit!” encourages this crowd to smash into in one another with zero regard for their own personal safety. Slam, bam, thank you ma’am – the hate campaign continues on its face-melting journey.
Rating: 7/10
It takes approximately one apocalyptic sounding intro for ENTERPRISE EARTH to propel this crowd into a maniacal frenzy. Dropping Scars Of The Past and the relentless gut-punch of Shallow Breath in rapid succession, both explode with all the strength of nuclear bombs; unfurling amongst a cacophony of filth-laden blasts, syncopated rhythms and enamel peeling screams courtesy of Dan Watson. Atonal and gloriously unsettling, the Washington deathcore aficionados bring an incredible level of atmosphere to their live performances. Jaws drop as Gabe Mangold’s virtuosic solos veer seamlessly into flurries of arpeggios and alternate picking – tempos reach mind-bending speeds before slowing down to foreshadow those impenetrable vocal lows. Highlights of the set come thick and fast but a back-to-back salvo of The Failsafe Fallacy and There Is No Tomorrow proves untouchable. The former’s hook-drenched chorus sounds utterly colossal whilst the juxtaposition of lilting acoustics and gutturals throughout the latter have arms waving and send fists flying. Polished yet still inescapably primal, it’s a display that will surely see ENTERPRISE EARTH headlining stages on their next visit. And hopefully that day will be sooner rather than later.
Rating: 9/10
Crowd numbers are lacking given the lineup on offer but as RINGS OF SATURN hit this model planet-adorned stage in gloriously overblown fashion, the ensuing noise for the extreme metal genre-benders certainly makes up for it. Pustules is the jump-off for an inhuman barrage of indecipherable screams amongst demented riffs and propulsive drumming as Ian Bearer stomps, stalks and seethes over every inch of available space. The classic RINGS OF SATURN grooves are omnipresent along with the punishingly fast blastbeats, as both The Relic and Genetic Inheritance blend sinister atmosphere and audacious noodling whilst the carnival-esque intro to Inadequate quickly segues into dirge-laden breakdowns and effortless transitions between low-end gutturals and pig squeals. It’s an eye-popping display but there’s still time for guitarists Lucas Mann and Joel Osmans to steal the show via some of the most fluid bends, solos and clean sweeping we’ve witnessed at a live show and this rapt crowd are quickly transported to seven-string heaven. The cosmos remains RINGS OF SATURN’s proverbial oyster and Aliencore’s otherworldly allure remains to boot.
Rating: 8/10
