Joining the New York titans of gore on this history-making trek will be none other than bowel-exploding doom metal kings TRIPTYKON, spearheaded by seminal extreme metal icon Tom G Warrior of CELTIC FROST and HELLHAMMER fame. And, as if that wasn’t enough, both bands will also be joined by veteran Norwegian progressive black metallers ENSLAVED and Arizona death metal favourites, JOB FOR A COWBOY!

‘Just being a part of such a killer package and having these bands on there…it’s gonna be an exciting time and a great tour for the UK‘, says CANNIBAL CORPSE drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. ‘I hope all the fans are really pumped for this one, because we definitely are! This is the first time that this is happening in the UK, and it’s very exciting.’

‘It’s the perfect tour!’ adds JOB FOR A COWBOY frontman Jonny Davy. ‘We still feel like we have a lot to prove, and this is the perfect tour to get in everyone’s faces.’

Destroyers Of The Faith marks the first time that four such blockbuster extreme metal bands have toured the UK on one bill, and promises to be a legendary showcase of some of the gnarliest, darkest and downright heaviest music to ever grace these shores. Destroyers Of The Faith will hit the UK on the following dates. Be there or be forever false:

CANNIBAL CORPSE + TRIPTYKON + ENSLAVED + JOB FOR A COWBOY

March 2012

7th – BRISTOL – O2 Academy
8th – GLASGOW – O2 ABC
9th – MANCHESTER – Academ
10th – LONDON – HMV Forum
11th – BIRMINGHAM – HMV Institute

If you weren’t there to see the headliners tonight, then it must have definitely been for the truly awesome DYING FETUS. The three piece act may not move about on stage a lot, but they delivered an absolutely brilliant live performance tonight as their brutal yet technical death metal was note perfect and the combined dual vocal attack of guitarist John Gallagher and bassist Sean Beasley worked beautifully.

With a new album out, it was great to hear some of the material off it in the form of ‘Your Treachery Will Die With You’ and ‘Shepherd’s Commandment’, both of which were well appreciated by the crowd, who needed no persuasion to pretty much mosh and headbang all the way through their set. Other set highlights included ‘Grotesque Impalement’, ‘Intentional Manslaughter’ and ‘One Shot, One Kill’.

‘Pissing In The Mainstream’ got a great reception, and as the set closed with ‘Praise The Lord (Opium of The Masses)’, the crowd showed them the appreciation they deserved for what was a brutal and intense display of death metal at it’s finest. There is probably only one death metal band that could follow such a performance like that and make the night even better. And fortunately for us, they were next.

CANNIBAL CORPSE, the godfathers of the genre, returned to the UK for the second time this year in their normal headline slot following a main support act for CHILDREN OF BODOM way back in February, where on that night there were plenty of CANNIBAL fans present. And that was no different tonight, as a packed venue waited patiently for them to grace the stage and for the butchery of the venue to commence.

Opening with the title track of their latest album, ‘Evisceration Plague’, shortly followed by ‘The Time To Kill Is Now’, this was going to be a night to remember as CANNIBAL pulled out some classics and usual set inclusions with the likes of ‘I Cum Blood’, ‘Fucked With A Knife’ and ‘Sentenced To Burn’ whilst the newer material like ‘Priests of Sodom’ and ‘Evidence In The Furnace’ were also well received, as the mosh pit never seemed to relent apart from the break between songs.

Corpsegrinder has such a presence on stage that makes him a great frontman and the sheer velocity at which he can whirlwind his hair is impressive to say the least. Put some rotors on him and I bet he could fly! It was also great to hear some really old school material in the form of ‘Vomit the Soul’ and eventual main set closer ‘A Skull Full of Maggots’, before the closing duo in the encore of the legendary ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ and ‘Stripped, Raped And Strangled’ brought things to a close.

As the crowd dispersed and everyone left happy, there was time to reflect on what was a night of top class death metal. CANNIBAL CORPSE and DYING FETUS showed why they are regarded so highly as they both delivered an awesome, brutal and intense set. Roll on August next year, when the mighty CORPSE returns to the UK for BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR 2010.

Ratings:

Review By Adam Fredericks

TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED and ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY will support the bands in the UK.

CANNIBAL CORPSE + DYING FETUS + TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED + ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY

28/10/09 – UK – Colchester – Arts Centre
29/10/09 – UK – London – Koko
30/10/09 – UK – Sheffield – Corporation
31/10/09 – UK – Glasgow – ABC
01/11/09 – UK – Leamington Spa – Assembly

Their set had the obligatory couple of new tracks from new album ‘Evisceration Plague’ (Review) in the form of the title track and ‘Priests of Sodom’, of which the title track was definately the highlight, along with classics such as ‘I Cum Blood’, ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ along with the ever present ‘Fucked With A Knife’ as always introduced by Corpsegrinder in the form of ‘Heres one for all the ladies’. The closing track, ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled’ brought a close to an absolutely brillaint set from CANNIBAL CORPSE who were on top form and delivered a brutal and intense performance.

Onto tonight’s headliners. CHILDREN OF BODOM have steadily increased their fanbase over the past 12 years since ‘Something Wild’ was released, and after seeing the crowd they attracted at Download Festival last year, the turnout tonight was no surprise considering their recent surge in popularity. And its about time too! COB have made album after album of absolute brilliance, and each one made an appearance in the set tonight.

Opening up with the opening track from latest album ‘Blooddrunk’, ‘Hellhounds On My Trail’, the pit needed no encouragement as it went wild and seemed intent on destroying anything in it’s path. The other new tracks on display tonight were the slower but still kick ass ‘Banned From Heaven’ and the title track, ‘Blooddrunk’, both of which like set opener sounded awesome live. Another set highlight was the two medlies that were played entwining ‘Children of Decadence’ and ‘Bodom After Midnight’ in one, and ‘Lake Bodom’ and ‘Bodom Beach Terror’ in the other, of which both medlies were superb and the way the band went from one into the other with which seemed like no effort at all showed how tight and how good COB are as musicians and as a band.

Surprisingly, and to be honest, a nice surprise was that ‘Downfall’ wasn’t the last track for a change, however surprise omissions from the set were ‘Everytime I Die’ (but I guess when you’ve got ‘Banned From Heaven’ and ‘Angels Don’t Kill’, that’s enough slow stuff for a COB gig!), ‘Deadnight Warrior’ and ‘Needled 24/7′. But hey, you can’t keep everyone happy and the set that they performed tonight more than made up for it with the rare outings of ‘Lake Bodom’ and ‘Bed of Razors’ in the encore. Bringing a close to to the gig was what the Nottingham Hate Crew had been waiting for, ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’ which topped off an awesome performance from the Finnish metallers, with no one going home disappointed in the slightest!

CHILDREN OF BODOM Setlist: Hellhounds On My Trail / Living Dead Beat / Sixpounder / Silent Night, Bodom Night / Banned From Heaven / Hate Me! / Children of Decadence / Bodom After Midnight (Medley with previous track) / Follow The Reaper / Blooddrunk / In Your Face / Angels Don’t Kill / Lake Bodom / Bodom Beach Terror (Medley with previous track) / Downfall / Bed of Razors / Hate Crew Deathroll

CANNIBAL CORPSE Setlist: The Time To Kill Is Now / Death Walking Terror / Disfigured / Evisceration Plague / I Cum Blood / Fucked With A Knife / The Wretched Spawn / I Will Kill You / Priests of Sodom / A Skull Full of Maggots / Hammer Smashed Face / Stripped, Raped and Strangled

Ratings:

Photography By Alexander Shaw

16/02/2009 – Academy 1, Manchester Photos

17/02/2009 – Rock City, Nottingham Photos

The tracks are also more subtlety titled on this release rather than aptly titled ‘I Cum Blood’ or ‘Fucked With A Knife’ for example, it brings to wonder if the masters of gore and offensive tracks have run out of majorly offending names, but its good to see that the goryness still portrays a part in them, examples being ‘Skewered From Ear To Eye’ and ‘Beheading And Burning’. The production is second to none also. Every riff, growl (if you can make out what Corpsegrinder is saying), and beatings of the drums are clearly distinguishable and do not sound mish mashed at all. It sounds like the tightest album CANNIBAL CORPSE has ever produced.

Also, even though the songs contained on this album are extremely brutal and fast at times, some appear to be extremely catchy and you can’t help but headbang (or at least nod your head) to the groove of them. This appears to be a slight evolution in the style of the way the songs are constructed and written and continues off from most notably ‘Make Them Suffer’ from last opus ‘Kill’.

Album opener ‘Priests of Sodom’ is a heavy brutal track, yet has some brilliant technicality to it which continues their evolution in sound from the just straight up style of death metal. ‘Scalding Hail’ is such a short, fast and brutal track, it flies by so quickly, I had to replay it to make sure I hadn’t missed it. This is an in your face no nonsense classic CANNIBAL CORPSE track that will pulverize anything that stands in its path! Another instant classic is ‘A Cauldron of Hate’ along with ‘Carniverous Swarm’ and title track ‘Evisceration Plague’ which go straight for the jugular, tearing it out and spitting it on the floor, before being chucked into a mosh pit of zombies. ‘Shatter Their Bones’ is another cracker of a track and there is evidence here along with some other tracks, that some lyrics from Corpsegrinder may be actually made out rather than the ‘What the hell did he just say approach’.

‘Evisceration Plague’ mixes the tempos in the tracks too, and combining this with the aforementioned traits also found on this album, shows true diversity here and shows that death metal can contain technicality along with extreme brutality, heaviness and pace. Credit has to go to the dual axe attack of Rob Barrett and Pat O’Brien for probably the best guitar work yet on a CANNIBAL CORPSE release. Once again, CANNIBAL CORPSE show why they are the godfathers of death metal and this will be the death metal album to beat this year hands down!

Rating: 4.2/5.0

Review By Adam Fredericks

Be sure to check out CANNIBAL CORPSE supporting CHILDREN OF BODOM on tour soon. Dates are as follows:

CHILDREN OF BODOM + CANNIBAL CORPSE

February 2009

14th – Glasgow, ABC
15th – Norwich, UEA
16th – Manchester, Academy 1
17th – Nottingham, Rock City
19th – London, The Forum

CANNIBAL CORPSE (Headline Show) + THE ROTTED

February 2009

18th – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms