Morbid Angel, MalignantMonster, Nails of Imposition @Club Capitol Perth, 3/06/2009

Sat 6th Jun, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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The bass rumble from Perth’s Nails of Imposition could be heard all the way up the street; this five piece technical death metal outfit is making their presence felt. With some solid songs, good playing and an impressively professional outlook, especially for such a new band, we’ll no doubt be hearing a lot about them in the coming months.

Malignant Monster took to the stage next and got a good crowd response, as they always do, with their theatrical stage show. But ignoring the corpse-paint, studs and shirtless chest-beating, this band has a great thrashy black metal sound and they play together exceptionally well.

Techno interludes notwithstanding, the excitement started to build as the stage was cleared for the headliners. Morbid Angel are one of the pioneers of death metal and it’s been a long, long time since they last visited Australian shores. When drummer Pete Sandoval, new guitarist Destructhor and bass-wielding vocalist David Vincent took to the stage, it was to roars of approval – but the biggest cheers of all were reserved for guitarist Trey Azagthoth, long regarded as one of the best death metal guitarists around.

Rapture and Pain Divine, both from 1993’s classic album Covenant (the best-selling death metal album of all time) opened the show – making it clear from the outset that Morbid Angel have lost none of their skill: fast, brutal, and unbelievable technical as well as musical; standouts even in a genre where musical wizardry is commonplace. Without saying a word and barely even visible behind a huge mop of black hair, Azagthoth lived up to his legendary status, with killer solo after killer solo doing the talking.

Tracks from across a discography spanning nine studio albums got an airing, with an emphasis on the older material. A taste of a planned forthcoming album was given in the form of Nevermore; a song that sounds anything but retro, raising expectations for the new album which is expected to have a title starting with I (all previous Morbid Angel album titles run in alphabetical order).

The end of the set came with Dominate; but it didn’t take much to get the band back on stage for the expected encore, God of Emptiness. As the house lights came up, that horrible techno started yet again, and the crowd dispersed, one thing was clear: death metal is alive and well, and no one is more awesome than Morbid Angel.

Were you there? Find yourself in the gallery