When a tour like this rolls round, you’d be foolish not to grab a ticket and get along to it. Two of Death Metal’s most titanic bands in the past decade or so along with another Symphonic Mediterranean based Death Metal band in a small venue which has great acoustics and is easily accessible is a night you do not want to miss out on and the fact that Aborted were on the bill sealed the deal for me.

My first encounter with Aborted and Kataklysm was back in 2007 when they played Damnation Festival 2007 up in Leeds and needless to say, it was fantastic! Since then, I have always tried to catch Aborted whenever I can and it seems like when they are in town, Kataklysm aren’t usually far behind or they play the following year.

Getting to the venue for doors at 6:30, the first stop was the merch table manned by Sven, the charismatic and commanding frontman for Aborted and after forking over some of my cash for a new shirt and then hitting the bar for Red Stripe, I was all set. I was still amazed with the fact that they were the opening act (personally, I saw them as a headliner but ah well!) but when the opening music from the film “Hellraiser” was used for their walk out, a quick look around the venue, seeing it fairly packed out for the opening act, all that went out the window – only brutality mattered.

And brutal it was. The grindcore tainted death metal slammed into you like a jackhammer and didn’t stop. Pummeling with harsh vocals, blasting drums and intense guitar and bass, everything was spot on as you would expect from the long standing five piece. Recent works such as Necrotic Manifesto and Termination Redux went down a storm with the crowd, as did the relentless onslaught of brutal riffery and sublime lead work but the most well received part was the talk of a new album either coming in April, or work beginning on it in April. Either way, I am eagerly anticipating this.

Up next after a brief changeover were Greece’s Septic Flesh. Greece has a rich history for extreme metal bands, the most notable riding the wave of interest being Rotting Christ and a lot of people were eagerly anticipating this act.

Opening up their set, you could tell the symphonic element was a key component to their sound as it really augmented the death metal beneath it. With a grand feel about them and a decent tone too, they delivered the goods. I don’t know much about them so I cannot really say which tracks went down a storm and so on, but the crowd loved it. Interacting well with the crowd, the frontman had a good stage presence and the music was filled with blasts and solid death metal grooves under the dramatic and sinister symphonic overtures, the latter of which I found enjoyable and found myself wondering if a venue with better suited acoustics to this kind of music would make them sound phenomenal. Their final song, “Prometheus” really sparked the crowd after the dedication to the bands and those in attendance and it did have a real epic feel to it and maybe it may be worth investigating this group more, but to me, as good as they were in the live setting, they didn’t sit right on the bill for me and personally, I feel they should have opened.

With those down and more booze in me, it was time for the headliners. Kataklysm, hailing from the United States of Canada (according to Septic Flesh’s frontman) are a band who really need no introduction.

From the off, the solid groove driven brutal death metal hit hard and didn’t relent in the slightest. Tight and precise, it was excellently delivered and the band the majority of those in attendance were there to see were received as expected. Breaching the Asylum opened the proceedings and from there, it just rolled through. With tracks spanning their discography for the most part, there wasn’t a song which wasn’t happily lapped up. Rarely played Open Scar’s went down a storm whilst crowd favorite Crippled and Broken tore the place a new one setting up an encore of Iron Will and Elevate to round off a storming live performance.

By the end of the night I was a bit bruised but not as crippled and broken as I would have expected to be, but one can only put that down to Aborted opening the show and not closing it!

The ‘Of Ghosts And Gods Tour’ is one of those special tours which comes by every now and then and it is well worth trying to catch it, after all, where else can you find three of the most in form Death Metal bands of the moment on the same bill? Symphonic, Groove, pounding, brutal… It was an enjoyable night for all who went!

(Fraggle)