DECAPITATED recently played Exeter Phoenix for the second UK night of their Infernal Bloodshed Over Europe tour, supported by Carnation, Warbringer and Cryptopsy.
CARNATION kicked off the night with their flavour of blast-beat fuelled, old school death metal with bone crunchingly heavy vocals. These were the new kids on the block from the night, their brutal performance set the mood for the night going forwards.
WARBRINGER were up next, a Californian thrash-death crossover band - carrying a lot of influence from the German thrash metal movement of the 1980s. Their on-stage theatrics included swords and chains, and their performance was an incredible crowd capturing display of both instrumental and vocal skill.
Then it was CRYPTOPSY, arguably one of the most seminal brutal death metal bands of all time. Their performance was to me the standout of the night, and if it was anyone other than Decapitated on next, they would have been the headlining act!
Finally DECAPITATED take to the stage, this is my second time having the chance to see them, the first being their Nihility Tour in late 2023, with their old singer Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski, now replaced by Eemeli Bodde, who I found to be the more engaging showman. I think a more thorough exploration of their back catalogue also worked to the bands benefit, compared to their previous show. They truly are gods of the technical death metal genre, who have been taking the world by storm and consistently touring for nearly three decades, and consistently putting on incredible shows.
The crowd were frantic throughout their set, but for Decapitated things got even more lively, a mosh pit opened up in the middle of the crowd, with crowd surfers flying over the barrier, and luckily, my head and into the confines of the photo pit at the front where the friendly security team led them back into the crowd. As always the event security deserve praise for their handling of the surfers, an often overlooked role in these environments. Most of their set was formed of tracks from their newer releases, Nihility and Cancer Culture, however they did play the eponymous track from their 2017 album, Anticult, which went down a storm.
It’s not often that Exeter sees a gig of this magnitude with 4 acts performing on the same bill, let’s hope it won;t be too long until they do it again.
Words and Pics by Owen Barton
