### Decapitated, Phazm, Hate, 2007-02-22

#### 05/06/07 || The Duff

Engine Rooms in Brighton, UK.

Intro: So I was off to see Decapitated again, making them the first band I’ve seen twice now (which makes sense, as they are one of my favorite death metal outfits). Once more they had the downright dedication to the fans to come down to Brighton upon their tour of the UK, which I think is fucken decent of them; it’s rare that a band as big as Decapitated considers it economically appropriate to travel down this part of the country (Nile and Isis have also shown themselves to be exceptionally good sports when it comes to travel plans), so I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. Hate, Phazm and some other band were supporting, and I had no ideas on any of them (imagine my surprise when cruising GD and finding a review of Hate, thus discovering that they are in fact quite a well established band… with a label and such!). Last time I saw Decapitated play was at the Concorde 2 in Brighton, and I’m guessing due to the fact that the personnel treat those who perform at their venue like utter garbage (on two occasions I’ve been there, I’ve seen the staff actually tell the bands to fuck off for hanging around after a show), the Poles decided a different neck o’ the woods was in order – so this time around the designated location for their performance was the Engine Rooms.

This was my first visit to such a venue, and after a bit of trouble finding the place (I honestly thought it was one of Brighton’s more renowned venues – I was proven wrong, as nobody seemed to know where the fuck it was), I walked into a smallish place that lead to a downstairs, close and personal venue with just enough room for a merch stand at the far end and a bar up against the wall opposite the stage, just before Hate’s set kicked off.

Hate: My first impressions were that these guys looked like Behemoth without the money for realistic-looking props, and so therefore my hopes weren’t particularly high when it came to whatever I was expecting of their music; I simply thought they’d be a third-tier black/death metal group focusing too much on the fake bullet-belts and spiked gauntlets, and not at all on writing something I would appreciate. Well, their opening track, although not amazing by any means (the first track off their new album, I later found out, surprisingly sounds a lot worse in a live setting), sure wasn’t as bad as I had feared, and so I settled down into their set quite comfortably. Thing is, they actually got much better once they got past the opener, many of the elements comprising their sound reminding me of all the things that make me so nuts about Behemoth (just not as great); the band members were head banging with about as much enthusiasm as black/death nihilists can muster, which suggests that they’re perfectly happy to entertain the fans so long as they’re constrained to this mortal existence, but they’d much rather be in Hell giving endless head to their Lord and Master – what do I give a damn, the music was actually pretty fucken good, even making me close to buying the album after the show.

Phazm: Phazm were up next, and I must say, although not quite my cup of tea, these guys were the embodiment of the term “Rockin’ with yer cock out!” (not literally…); these fellas lived and breathed what could best be described as Death N’ Roll, with a hint of stoner (the lead guitarist did, after all, have a seven-string, so quite the opportunity to write slow-paced, sludgy shit in with the faster stuff). They were a great band, with a lot of energy and twice the attitude – aligned either side of the stage were two skeletons which the band and crowd would molest between songs, and any time not spent playing their instruments and fucking the corpses was devoted to either drinking beer, squirting man foam over the crowd or riling up the audience. The frontman played a lot of really tasty licks too, as well as some awesome solos that, although appearing somewhat unnecessary at times by comprising a whole lot of shred inserted just for the sake of it (sure ain’t always a bad thing, I hear you say – well, sometimes it irks me), proved the guy sure had some talent (something I thought I’d never admit to concerning a seven-string guitar player).

Decapitated: Decapitated just ripped my head off and kicked me in the nuts repeatedly they were so fucken good; there setlist remained exactly the same as the last time I saw them when it came to albums running up to their “Negation” album, comprising obvious cuts such as “The Fury”, “Three-Dimensional Defect”, “Lying and Weak”, “The Negation” (the album version is a solid track, but when played live this thing metamorphoses into a ferocious fucken number indeed), “Mother War”, “Nihility”, FUCKEN “SPHERES OF MADNESS OMG I’M CUMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!” and “Winds of Creation” off their debut (do wish they’d play more from their debut). On top of all of this, and what I was most anticipating, were five tracks off the latest album, namely “A Poem About An Old Prison Man”, “Day 69”, “Revelation of Existence”, “Post(?) Organic” (actually mistook this for “Sphere of Madness” the first thirty seconds it was being played) and “Flash-B(l)ack”. What more can I say? The band were exceptionally tight; minus a stuttering start (Covan seemed lost towards the beginning of their set, where the odd timing of “A Poem…” seemed to throw him off – probably due to the guitars not cutting through quite so clearly at first), every bandmember pulled off an exceptional performance (I was glad to see Martin back in the band – the guy clearly belongs in Decapitated, if only for his evil-as-fuck of a face).

Covan was a frontman with a lot of energy, and a great overall stage presence. At times he would fuck around with the crowd, claiming that Brighton folk were crazier than Russians, and even taking the piss out of the English accent on occasion. This didn’t go down too well, as his first attempt (a cheerful “Cheers, mate!” whilst saluting the crowd with his beer) wasn’t met with approval. Still, to give the guy credit, he persisted with “Know what Oi mean?”, which appeared lost on the crowd, ultimately making everyone a winner – Covan got to rip the piss out of the crowd some more, and the crowd thought they’d firmly put him in his place after his first attempt at making fun. Vogg was outstanding as a performer, headbanging away like an absolute nutcase, and his playing was of absolute top order (I was often shocked at how vicious his picking attack was, yet how accurately he hit every single note); Vitek was Vitek, very laid back yet exceptionally tight – I always think that the albums don’t do this guy justice, as live he sounds twice more accomplished a drummer.

Overall: At the end of the gig, the guys at the Engine Rooms allowed the band to loiter somewhat, and even hosted an after-party, so to be frank, what with how personal the venue was, they made the Concorde 2 look like utter shit in comparison by being about as awesome a group of hosts as possible. I got my shit signed (Covan was nowhere to be found, apparently doing a mixture of coke and LSD out of some chick’s ass), finally managing to get Vogg’s signature – failed to get it last time as the Concorde were so busy telling the band to get the fuck out! So, an awesome show in the end; saw two bands, neither of which were a disappointment, and one of my faves doing what they do best – shredding me a new one.

8 mad Russians out of 10.