With the weather just starting to warm up, it was almost worrying to think that Obituary could have been bringing the weather with them from Florida. Given how flipping hot it gets over there, I’d prefer it if they just brought the music! Thankfully with three acts on the bill, this wasn’t going to be a problem. Kudos to the headliners for carrying Pest Control in their wake, and having each opening slot on the tour filled by a local band.
Tonight’s honoured individuals were Sacrificial Burial, an act that we’ve never featured before. They certainly seem to be known on the local scene with a very large crowd watching them from the moment they came on stage. Initially they seemed like a fairly run of the mill death metal band, and a half decent one, but they mixed it up a bit with a track entitled “The Serpent” towards the end of their set. With a little Egyptian theme (they did ask the audience to do their best Egyptian dances which seemed to fall on deaf ears as they just kept hitting each other), they started to show what they could do if they strayed a little outside of “the box”.
The sound wasn’t great for their set, which was a shame as it led to the vocals being virtually non-existant at points. They definitely know their stuff, but there was a little something missing in their stage presence – I think just a little pizzaz or energy. However, with some good tunes to back them up I’m sure this will come with more shows. And now they get to add “supported Obituary” to their CV.
Jayne provided the photos for this article and did so at the Sheffield date where Swamp Coffin were opening. She had this to say:
Swamp Coffin opened up the night with some deep guttural screams and heavy riffs. The guitarist was a highlight of their set, constantly shouting and screaming at the crowd to get them going.
The set for this band felt really short, maybe 4 or 5 songs. Towards the ending of their set the vocalist encouraged a wall of death, though I’m unsure if this was followed through as the crowd was so packed my vision was obscured from the centre of the pit! But with how hot it was I can’t blame them for not wanting to crash against equally sweaty bodies.
During the last song the singer joined the crowd at the barrier, letting out some of those deep chords he can do so well. Just as he left to go back to the stage, the guitarist himself (who I will assume is a proud Rotherham resident with his “Slowly We Rotherham” shirt) joined the crowd, scaling over the barrier just as the set came to end.
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Pest Control are on a bit of a high at the moment, and I’ve heard their name buzzing about a lot. They’re a modern/crossover thrash act whose rapid guitar riffery brings Anthrax to mind. Of course, Anthrax don’t come from Leeds and dont have Leah Massey-Hay on vocals. Her harsh vocal style works well with the more hardcore ends of their repertoire, but I’m just an old-fashioned sod who’d prefer some clean vox to partner them.
The crowd loved them, going mental to each track. They were certainly getting warmed up for the headline act with plenty of moshing and an impressive number of crowd surfers for a support act.
Like Sacrificial Burial before them, I felt there was something missing from their set – but I put this down to the cramped conditions on the stage as they were shoved to the front, making way for the headliner’s kit. Certainly Leah was sweating buckets by the time they were onto their third song, putting everything into her performance. I feel they’d be explosive on a larger stage, tonight they were just lighting the blue touch paper.
Fairly early due to the usual 10pm curfew at The Garage, Obituary wandered on stage as the lighting went all green and red. They opened with “Redneck Stomp”, a song I keep thinking is recent but which was actually released in 2005! Mind, it’s been roughly thirty years (!) since I first saw then play live, I think on the World Demise tour at Bradford Rios (Nov 24th, 1994).
The set was heavy on newer material, about half it from the current release Dying of Everything, alongside 2017’s Obituary. The fact that this sat alongside older numbers like “Chopped in Half / Turned Inside Out”, “I’m In Pain” and “Slowly We Rot” (when they eventually arrived in the set) says a lot about how Obituary have defined their sound. Their music is generally quite slow and heavy with the occasional fast flurry, but the crowd could have been at a Sepultura gig for the speed they were thrashing at. The pit was violent, and the security staff earned their money dealing with surfer after surfer – as busy as I’ve seen them at The Garage in some time.
What did strike me as odd was the way the set was very stop/start. Much as each song was great, there was quite a delay between each one, with little to no audience interaction filling the void. The band would just turn to Donald Tardy’s drums and stand there for a bit before launching into the next song. After a while, the annoyingly long-haired (I’m a jealous baldy) John Tardy did start to engage with the crowd a little more. Not that they seemed to mind, busy as they were bouncing off each other.
The older material didn’t appear until the encore, which was both a surprise and a shame. With the lengthy gaps between songs I feel that another track or two could have been squeezed into the set, but I guess Obituary’s style doesn’t lend itself to rushing about. However, given the strength of their more recent album there can be no complaints about the quality of the songs we did get.
It’s impressive to see anyone hold down the same job for over thirty years, even with a sabbatical in the middle, but Obituary continue to crush despite being well into their thrd decade.
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Pics by Jayne Slater
