Suffocation / Cephalic Carnage

Last year brutal death metal pioneers Suffocation laid waste to Camden's Underworld. Now the New Yorkers are back with a new album 'Pinnacle of Bedlam' to promote. Tonight's proceedings are also a change from the usual Suffocation set with Dying Fetus frontman John Gallagher taking over vocal duties on this tour as vocalist Frank Mullen is unable to join the band. Gallagher's impressive vocal talents in Fetus ensure that the show will still be one worth catching. However, originally scheduled for the downstairs venue O2 Academy Islington, a last second change has the gig taking place in the significantly smaller Bar Academy for some unexplained reason.

Crazy potheads Cephalic Carnage proceed to aurally pummel the sweat-stained audience with their take on technical deathgrind. Angular guitar riffs are teamed with frenetic five-string bass work and a combination of growls and with a sprinkle of clean vocals. The show is intense with the band fully rocking out, unaffected by the tiny stage size. Their interaction with the audience is very entertaining with frontman Leonard 'Lenzig' Leal instigating a two man wall of death – the world's smallest wall of death – a slow-motion circle pit and getting the crowd to brainlessly shout "Beer!" and "Weed!" in unison. The usual setlist staples are executed for violent audience consumption, namely, 'Lucid Interval' and 'Kill for Weed'. 2010's 'Misled by Certainty' is represented in the forms of 'Raped by an Orb' (dedicated to all the women who have had an abortion), 'Abraxus of Filth' and 'Warbots A.M.'

When the five-piece don black metal spikes and comedy masks in an attempt to look grim, it is clear the set is reaching its end and 'Black Metal Sabbath' is the standard closer with its black metal tailed off with Black Sabbath style riffage. Although not congruous to what Cephalic Carnage usually play, it certainly does not drop its intensity level, securing a mosh pit and ensuring these stoners left their mark on the capital. Again.

Opening with the classic 'Thrones of Blood' from the 'Pierced from Within' album, the relentless Suffocation take a no-holds-barred approach to their live show. It feels strange to see John Gallagher on stage without a guitar but his vocals are deeper than Frank Mullen's and his stage presence is understandably more dynamic than when he is with his primary band. Mosh pits fly instantly and, although the venue is not entirely rammed , bodies are thrown in all directions towards the front of the stage. Suffocation have not aged badly, their churning slam death metal rhythms still as relevant today as they were in the nineties, easily outshining their rip off and unoriginal contemporaries. Guitarist Terrance Hobbs is beastly on guitar, constructing extremely heavy riffs alongside technical prowess.

With new album 'Pinnacle of Bedlam' to support, the band do not hesitate in showing off their latest full-length with 'As Grace Descends', 'My Demise', 'Purgatorial Punishment' and 'Rapture of Revocation' doing the honours. Classics 'Catatonia', 'Pierced from Within' and 'Liege of Inveracity' drive the fanatics into an alcohol-drenched frenzy, while some adherents of early-era Suffocation are probably miffed at the surprising absence of any 'Breeding the Spawn' material. But it is impossible to resist headbanging viscerally to the bone-crunching slams.

A whirlwind of a show later and the classic 'Infecting the Crypts', which Gallagher asserts invented the entire slam death metal genre, is aired out and fans know that this is the final track. Easily one of the top three, if not the best, songs in Suffocation's repertoire, the anthem goes down a storm in the tiny venue and concludes the show dramatically. Those hoping for an encore are left disappointed but it undoubtedly takes a phenomenal amount of effort to put on a Suffocation show. The godfathers of slam certainly earned pats on their backs tonight. Here's hoping to a return to the capital next year in a larger venue. They deserve better.

FUTURE GIGS