Tonight is all about celebrating the release of Godeth’s solid ‘The Path Of Destruction’ EP. This release has brought in favourable reviews across the board and represents a moment in time when Godeth took a step up and evolved into the band they’ve been promising to be. So it’s with much anticipation we step inside the Key Club to usher in a new era for a band we’ve been championing for quite some time.
Neon Rituals
Neon Rituals deal in chunky hardcore metal, as exemplified on ‘Influencer’ which includes a nice line in doom speed heavyweight riffing and Korn-esque leads. New single ‘Death Crows’ gets an airing ahead of its imminent release and displays a nice almost jazzy edge on its intro before the crushing wah wah augmented riffing gives way to a neck snapping stomp. This is a high-quality opener, and it bodes well for an amazing night of underground UK metal. Unafraid to take detours into more experimental pastures this is a band who are more than just brutality and we’ll keep an eye out for them in the future. The band bow out on ‘Swamp Creature’ with its foreboding intro showing off a lot of musicality and virtuosity with the bass in particular shining. The track steadily grows into a hardcore stomp before retreating to build again. Impressive stuff!
Arwassa
Erupting onto the stage with ‘Chaos’, Arwassa are a whole lot deathlier than their predecessors. The bands are benefitting from excellent sound here which makes for a great sense of occasion and a celebratory feeling. Arwassa are very polished and bring to mind the likes of Harbinger albeit with a more progressive nature. Vocally it’s 50/50 between deathcore delivery and clean croon. Again, this is another underground UK band to watch intently. This evening, they are playing their ‘Chaos’ EP in its entirety and they complete this with the full-on death metal assault of ‘Tempestas’ bringing a great chorus hook and a raging full tilt percussive barrage. The high quality of talent in the UK metal scene is absolutely astonishing right now and the musicianship is top drawer!
Dekaytah
Mancunians Dekaytah bring plenty of bruising metallic hardcore stomp, which is apt since they actually have a track called ‘Stomp’. This is ten-ton hammer neck snapping territory. Where Arwassa brought technicality Dekaytah just wanted to give you a good-natured kicking it seems. The drumming is straight from the Igor Cavelera School of drum kit punishment. On this note the drummers across the board have killed it tonight, in fact everyone has so far but tonight’s tub thumpers in particular have stood out as being particularly impressive. Dekaytah are on fire with slabs of bouncy mosh pit fodder, must be something in the water in Manchester but the bands from across the Pennines are always premium rabble rousers. Dekaytah straddle the point between Sick Of It All and early Machine Head with plenty of UK street smarts and a grit that Manchester does so well. Bowing out on new single ‘Move’ they unleash a groove that wouldn’t be out of place on a Skindred album before switching gears into a circle pit friendly thrash out then hitting the half speed to crushing effect. Go seek out this track people! It even has a few rapped bars thrown in for good measure, definitely on trend with the returning nu metal flavour becoming increasingly popular here on our shores.
Godeth
What a difference 12 months makes! When we first encountered this band, they were a perennial support on the local circuit, now they stand before us headlining and releasing an incredible EP cementing them as a serious UK metal concern. The confidence emanating from the stage is incredible, Godeth play like a band reborn, precise, honed and set to stun. Older tracks are given a shot in the arm with newer cuts like ‘Hatred’ sounding totally crushing with the band shouting out their producer rightly for a job well done. Bassist James as usual is a man who can’t be contained on any stage and it’s not long before he’s in the pit moshing with his fellow hometown crew. ‘Suffocate’ also destroys and it’s on these new cuts that Godeth truly become the feral beasts they’ve been threatening to be. It’s heartening to see this band’s trajectory in real time and long may it rise! The successful customary wall of death does indeed go off without a hitch as it always does. Dekaytah frontman Joe joins the band onstage for a good old bro-down ahead of the bands reciprocal support agreement across the Pennines at Manchester Academy later this summer. An incendiary ‘Leeches’ is introduced as, “the hardest track in our set.” Although it’s a close call in a set rammed with stormers. ‘Path Of Destruction’ is unloaded in apocalyptic style and sees us out in fine style.
It has been said frequently across the board how strong UK Metal is right now, as highlighted by the annual Metal 2 The Masses competition turn out this year. The exciting part is that most of these bands are just getting warmed up, imagine them in a couple of years’ time!
Review & Photos By George Miller
Neon Rituals
Arwassa
Dekaytah
Godeth
