Suffocation
w/ Exhumed, Jungle Rot, Rings of Saturn and Adimiron (4/6/13)
The Note,
West Chester, PA
Review by Jude
Felton
On a
beautiful springtime evening death came to the town of West Chester,
Pennsylvania. The third date of Suffocation’s Despise the World tour was coming
through, with a cool looking line-up of bands set to hit The Note, which is
owned by none other than Bam Margera.
When Italians’
Adimiron hit the stage the venue was far from full, however they proceeded to
thunder through their short set. Musically, their blend of thrash and death was
pretty good for the most part, with only the vocals being the real weak point.
Unfortunately Sam Kinison was all that came to mind, and as such distracted me
slightly away from the solid wall of sound that the band delivered.
 |
| (Adimiron) |
Following
Adirimon were Californian band Rings of Saturn, who hit the stage running. A
far more imposing stage presence than the previous band, thanks mainly to Ian
Bearer on vocals, they proceed to belt out their vicious brand of technical
death metal/death core. Being new to their material I did find that a few of
their songs seemed to blend into one another, although this did not take away
from a fine set delivered by some talented musicians.
 |
| (Rings of Saturn) |
It was now
time for the Wisconsin death machine, Jungle Rot, and they hit the stage
running. They may not have been the most mobile band ever to hit the stage, but
the delivery of their set was top-notch. Tunes from the latest album, Terror
Regime, which included a blistering rendition of the title track and my personal
favorite, I am Hatred, were absolutely blistering. To say that Jungle Rot was
tighter than hell would be a mild understatement. The only real problem with
their set was the fact that whoever was controlling the stage lights decided
not to turn them on until well into the set. This unfortunately was a problem
that had plagued the previous two bands as well. Still, this did not take away
from the fact that Jungle Rot came to West Chester and destroyed it. The back
of one of their t-shirts proclaims ‘Savage, Monstrous, Vicious, Heartless’;
words that were spot-on in their description.
 |
| (Jungle Rot) |
San Jose
lunatics, Exhumed, were next up and the veterans proceeded to dive straight
into the new track The Beginning After The End, which is on the flexi-disc that
comes with the latest issue of Decibel magazine. There was no denying Exhumed’s
enthusiasm on stage, and they were definitely a mobile bunch, however their set
didn’t do too much for me. They did throw in a little theatrics, which was cool
to see, but it was until they launched into a brand new track, entitled The
Ride. If that is a sign of things to come from the next album, it could be well
worth checking out.
 |
| (Exhumed) |
Closing out
the night were Long Island’s finest, the technical death masters Suffocation.
This, however, was one of the dates on the current tour that vocalist Frank
Mullen would not be attending, which quite honestly was a bummer. His
replacement for these dates, including this one, was John Gallagher from Dying
Fetus, and it was quite apparent that he was well up for the task.
However, the
beginning of the set was plagued with sound issues, which really distracted
away from Suffocation’s terrific tunes. Their latest album, Pinnacle of Bedlam,
is an absolute beast and it was great to see tunes such as As Grace Descends
being belted out. Still, despite Gallagher doing an absolutely solid job on
vocals, it was strange for me to see them play without Frank, and a bit
disappointing.
Overall, this
was a great fun gig though. The crowd picked up during the evening, although I
would say that the venue was far from packed, and there was a good mixture of
music on display. Despite only being third on the bill, Jungle Rot definitely
were the band of the night and judging from this performance I would not want
to be the band that follows them. It may not quite have been the pinnacle of
bedlam, but there was certainly a terror regime delivered.
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