Towards the end of their set, Grotesque lead growler Tarren Whitfield paused to reflect, looking over the nearly-capacity audience before suggesting that “it would be nice to see some of youse people at a local metal gig”. Someone should have gotten that man a beer – and maybe an ice pack for his neck – because Grotesque’s tight sound and energetic stage presence make them one of the best local death metal acts to come along in quite some time, and more Perth metal punters need to see just how promising this band is.

Taking over on stage, Dyscord played a set from Dakota, their 2008 debut – and if the crowd didn’t respond with quite as much enthusiasm as they showed the openers, it may have been that Dyscord’s style of metal isn’t as extreme as the bill perhaps warranted. This band is becoming a well-oiled machine and they certainly didn’t put a foot wrong, although frontman James Herbert’s growled between-song banter does get a bit tired.

The stage setup for UK grindcore legends Carcass involved two ceiling length banners, a projector screen, and two stand up banners on stage. Could it be that this, the first date of their Australian tour, is in a much smaller venue than they are used to playing after the European summer festival circuit and 14-date North American tour?

The lights dimmed, smoke filled the stage, and the creepy “prayer” that starts Inpropogation preceded the appearance of the band: founding guitarist Bill Steer, bassist and vocalist Jeff Walker, guitarist Michael Amott, and drummer Daniel Erlandsson (the Arch Enemy skinsman filling in for original drummer Ken Owen, who is unable to tour due to ill health).

Reunited for touring for the first time since 1994, Carcass ripped into a series of classic tracks from their five album, three EP, genre-skating discography – ranging from full-on grindcore, the style they are best known for, to thrash and melodic death metal. Incarnate Solvent Abuse made an appearance, as did No Love Lost, Reek of Putrification and Genital Grinder, along with plenty of others – the screen above cycling appropriately gory imagery throughout.

With his bass guitar, impressive moustache and Liverpudlian accent, frontman Walker hits almost all the criteria to be the death metal version of Motorhead’s Lemmy. He filled in time between tracks chatting with the crowd, telling stories from their last Australian tour 15 years ago (including a plea for someone to punch the guy in Brisbane who stole their backdrop), ribbing the other band members and thanking the crowd for making a bunch of old men happy.

Amott’s guitar work was predictably impressive, given his current work in Arch Enemy, but Steer also showed that time away from Carcass hasn’t dampened his skills. Not that most of the crowd were paying attention, given the amount of crowd-surfing and the intensity of the pit.

The set ended with Exhume to Consume – no encore was forthcoming. The future for Carcass isn’t clear – rumours they are planning to record a new album after the current tour have been brushed aside – but whatever the outcome, a whole bunch of Perth metal heads can be happy that they got to experience the grindcore pioneers.