LIVE REVIEW: Sanguisugabogg @ The Classic Grand, Glasgow
SANGUISUGABOGG are live in Glasgow following their debut trek to the city in 2024, supporting SUFFOCATION. Something quite unusual has happened, though. The Americans managed to sell out The Classic Grand, an incredibly rare feat for such a young death metal band. To add to this, it’s a Tuesday enduring absolutely freezing subzero temperatures. Nothing can stop them!
Enjoying their debut Glasgow appearance, GATES TO HELL lather the audience in a potent and on-trend syncretism between hardcore and death metal. Formed in 2019, these Americans have quickly drawn enough attention to themselves, scoring a record deal with Nuclear Blast after one album and releasing their second album last year on the famous metal label. Brutal riffs, provocative breakdowns and accentuating pinch-harmonics are the ingredients for their prime cuts. New album Death Comes to All takes over most of the set with songs including A Summoning, Crazed Killer and the title track. The sound is excellent and makes the music sound much heavier than on record. The five-piece whip up non-stop frenetic energy on stage that translates into a unified tide of headbangers doing what they do best. Musically, it’s nothing you haven’t already heard before, but they provide a fair primer for the large number of hardcore adherents new to the swelling death metal scene post-pandemic.
Rating: 7/10
Armed with endless cinematic nostalgia are Italian death metallers FULCI. Last seen in Glasgow in 2024, they’ve continued to amass their cult following, and this show demonstrates why. They’re backed by a projector screen showing compilations from the films of their namesake, Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. At the beginning, a disclaimer warns that the performance features scenes of misogyny, gore, cultural exploitation, porn and much more sordidness – what a tasty start! The band’s eardrum-puncturing brutal death metal is emphasised beautifully by Fulci‘s trademark stringy latex gore, women and child-killing, maggot-infested zombies, and, of course, an eye-gouging (but just one) on screen. Films include Zombie Flesh Eaters most prominently, as well as New York Ripper, A Blade from the Dark and Voices from Beyond. Human Scalp Collection features the lyrics on the projector, so the opportunity for death metal karaoke is there for the taking.
The music’s cadence is FULCI‘s strongest asset. The rhythm section is incredibly slick and polished, moving the listener at such a satisfying pace that brutal death metal rarely achieves. While the compositions aren’t reinventing the wheel, the arrangements are varied, unconventional and interesting enough to avoid the predictability most brutal death metal acts trip into. Plus, it can’t be stressed just how tight the musicians’ performances were. Live vocalist Jason Dahlke replaces Flore and does a delectable job with a rolling chesty growl supplemented by slick pig squeals. The sound is fantastic, and the likes of Rotten Apple, Tropical Sun, Apocalypse Sun and Fucked with a Knife not only sound but look brilliant with the projection and theatrical lighting. There’s no shortage of audacious crowd surfers, massive mosh and circle pits and non-stop headbanging. FULCI hit the spot live in ways most death metal bands don’t; it felt like a headliner’s performance.
Rating: 10/10
FULCI is a challenging act for headliners SANGUISUGABOGG to surpass. The Americans launch proceedings with Rotten Entanglement, the opening track of their latest album, Hideous Aftermath. While SANGUISUGABOGG went viral for their simplistic caveman approach to brutal death metal, their musical capabilities have evolved tremendously, becoming more ambitious. This album dials back the brutality in favour of a grimy, dense, almost sludgy atmosphere. This results in fewer mosh pits, but older unrepentant slam death numbers, like A Lesson in Savagery, Face Ripped Off and Mortal Admonishment, have zero issues convulsing the venue into a combat zone. Still, Felony Abuse of a Corpse, Ritual of Atophagia and Heinous Testimony are full of angular, VOIVOD-esque riffs, and a significant number of headbangers are all for them.
Yet again, The Classic Grand‘s sound blesses the headliners. For this tour, current SUFFOCATION drummer Eric Morotti slaps the skins as a temporary replacement. We’re even treated to the main slam off Liege of Inveracity, which hypes the crowd up to no end before it abruptly ends, revealing it’s just a short sample we’re getting. Morotti does an excellent job behind the kit, embellishing the songs with a particularly technical flourish. Frontman Devin Swank‘s stage persona feels more in line with a hardcore vocalist than a death metal one, most noticeably when he gets the crowd to pogo. However, he does a commendable job of keeping the crowd engaged and earns major Glasgow points for shouting out tech death local legends, INIQUITOUS SAVAGERY. This engagement reaches fever pitch with the concluding twinning of ultimate fan favourites Dragged by a Truck and Dead as Shit, the latter of which sees the fans actually singing the intro chugs and pinch harmonics. Total, utter chaos ensues as these older tracks barrage the venue, leaving behind a devastatingly sweaty but awesome night of contemporary death metal.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:
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