O2 Institue Birmingham, played host to a night of unadulterated brutality as it welcomed a quartet of Deathcore Metal bands who unleashed an auditory apocalypse upon the eager crowd. This night was an unforgettable descent into the abyss of extreme music.
Thy Art Is Murder – Whitechapel – Fit For An Autopsy – Spite
O2 Institute Birmingham – 24 October 2023
Words and Photography: Andy Shaw
Thy Art Is Murder
The crowd were more than ready for Aussie headliners. Deathcore powerhouse Thy Art Is Murder have Aversions Crown’s Tyler Miller as the replacement vocalist for CJ McMahon, who was fired two months ago from the band after his controversial anti-trans remarks on social media over the summer.
CJ McMahon’s vocals were also removed from their latest album, Godlike and replaced by Miller. With almost half of the tonghts set featuring tracks from Godlike, this gave Miller a chance to showcase the new songs.
Kicking off with a new song, Destroyer Of Dreams, this was a brutal version with Miller looking every inch the part as the new frontman for this iconic band. Guitarists Sean Delander and Andy Marsh were already in tandem as they went into Slaves Beyond Death from Dear Desolation, then Death Squad Anthem from Human Target.
Thy Art Is Murder unleashed a trio of songs from Godlike in Blood Throne, Join Me In Armageddon and Bermuda, showing Millers’ vocals in full force.
The crowd were loving every second with the constant streams of crowd surfers going over the top. We were then treated to the title tracks of the Human Target and Holy War albums. Three more from Godlike followed, starting with the title track, then Keres and Everything Unwanted. They came on for an encore of Reign of Darkness from Hate and Puppet Master from Dear Desolation.
As the night concluded, the audience was left exhilarated, exhausted and soaked in sweat. The night delivered an evening of sonic carnage that won’t soon be forgotten. For those who seek extreme music as an escape from the mundane, this event was a brutal, unapologetic journey to the very limits of sonic aggression.
Whitechapel
Earlier, the atmosphere in O2 Institue was electric, charged with the cathartic release that only an Extreme Metal gig can provide. Many of the crowd were here to see Whitechapel.
From Knoxville, Tennessee, the band has a reputation for their unrelenting performances, and tonight was no exception. Starting with a couple of tracks from their latest album, Kin – I Will Find You and A Bloodsoaked Symphony – vocalist Phil Bozeman was already showing his vocal dexterity with guttural growls and a stunning singing voice.
Next was The Saw Is The Law from Our Endless War, then the first of a trio of songs from their 2019 The Valley album, Black Bear. The sheer ferocity and precision of their performance was staggering, together with the lighting being gloomy and atmospheric with a display of reds and blacks.
Two more from The Valley in Doom Woods and We Are One were followed by a couple of older tracks – End Of Flesh from A New Era of Corruption and Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation from The Somatic Defilement.
This stunning set ended with This Is Exile, in a fantastic end to a stunning set. The crowd, now a sea of sweat and aggression, transformed the venue into a giant sauna.
Circle pits, walls of death, and crowd-surfing were all part of the evening’s chaos. It was evident that this gig was a cathartic release for fans who craved the intensity of Whitechapel’s Extreme Metal.
Fit For An Autopsy
Next up were Extreme Metal legends from New Jersey Fit For An Autopsy, who delivered a brilliant set made up of songs leaning heavily on their latest album, Oh What the Future Holds.
Kicking off with A Higher Level of Hate from that opus, they were then into Black Mammoth, followed by Savages. Each song was a visceral punch to the senses.
Fit For An Autopsy’s precision and unrelenting energy were remarkable, leaving the crowd in a state of frenzied euphoria. Joe Badolato’s guttural growls and blood-curdling shrieks seemed to emanate from the very depths of hell, creating an atmosphere of unrelenting chaos in the venue.
The set finished with Hellions, followed by two newer tracks, Pandora and Far From Heaven. All of this showcased their mastery of the Deathcore Metal genre.
Spite
The evening began with Spite, a deathcore unit based out of Southern California. They set the tone for the night with a relentless onslaught of raw aggression.
Frontman Darius Tehrani, resplendent in a black jumpsuit, was a ball of energy. The band’s crushing riffs and thunderous drumming created a sonic storm that left the audience in awe.
The guttural growls and primal energy of the Tehrani and the band ignited the mosh pit into a seething frenzy. A great start to the evening.
