Extreme Noise Terror, Desecration, Auralskit, Kryocell: Magnet, Liverpool

Extreme Noise Terror

A packed out night of Crust, Death and last minute line-up changes, Getintothis’ Mark Davies is at the Magnet to investigate.

So we return once more to what seems like the go-to venue for metal in Liverpool these days, down those steep wooden stairs and into that familiar deep-red interior, and this time around we are in for a night of crust punk and death metal in almost equal servings.

First on the bill were local death metal band Kryocell, who opened their set with the announcement that they had a fill-in vocalist for the night, none other than Novacrow’s Freddy Spera. These guys had enthusiasm in spades, and certainly didn’t take themselves too seriously, which allowed the crowd to warm up to them quite quickly.

Despite the last minute line-up change, Spera did well to feel like a part of the band, and gave a strong performance. A healthy serving of blast beats and grinding guitars put these guys in strong stead with the growing crowd, and though it took a couple of tracks to reach their stride, once they did it was worth the wait. Kryocell was one of our standout bands of the evening and we want to give a little nod to the bassist for being able to pull off that kilt.

Following them after a brief interval was resident crust punk outfit Auralskit, and if you enjoy a bit of the noisy, crusty, fuzzed-out atrociousness you won’t want to have missed this one. The band were as off-kilter as they were loud, with harsh vocal yelps and screeches, and that omnipresent grinding bass tone that essentially serves as the backbone to their entire sound

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The set included some stellar drunken crowd interaction, with the vocalist at one point skulking around the pit screaming his head off whilst the bassist provided backup howls and rest of the band continued at breakneck pace. We should also point out that if any of this sounds like your cup o’ juice, Auralskit are in the studio as we speak committing their particular brand of mayhem to compact disc, so we’ll keep you posted on that.

It was then time for Newport trio Desecration to take to the stage, in all of their welsh death metal bastard glory. The band has been going since the early 90s, and it really shone through their performance, they were incredibly tight, and insanely heavy. There was a solid mixture of material from their back catalog, though they must have been spoilt for choice with over two decades of releases to choose from. The vocal duties were split between guitarist Ollie and bassist Andi, and the pummeling riffs just kept on coming, fast and frantic. Desecration was another of our favourites of the night, no doubt.

After another brief interval, it was announcement time once again as Extreme Noise Terror began their set, and this time it was to point out the elephant in the room; the band’s only original member in this current line-up, Dean, had severely injured his back earlier that day and couldn’t attend the gig. This left the band with two options, either cancel the show, letting down the fans who came to have a good time and the promoters who paid for promotion, venue, and PA hire OR carry on regardless of the circumstances in true punk fashion.

The band went with the latter we are pleased to report, though this left them in the strange situation of having no original members up on stage. Essentially, the line up featured all three members of Desecration who had just left, and ENT’s second vocalist Ben McCrow. The band played valiantly despite the setbacks, with their pioneering crust-punk/grindcore sound, and along with an amazing guest vocal spot on vegetarian anthem Murder by Agz from Liverpool’s Skitvärld, delivered a blistering set that fans and the band themselves should be proud of.