Whiplash Promotions presents Gorgasm, Defeated Sanity, Amagortis, Scatorgy

The Masque, Seel Street, Liverpool. Tuesday 13th September 2011

The latest in a seemingly endless line of Whiplash shows came in the form of death metal brutality, like being punched in the stomach repeatedly for three hours. Headlined by renowned Indiana veterans Gorgasm, the show was another success, although the crowd numbers were a tad lower than anticipated. Those who did attend had an absolute blast though, by all accounts.

Kicking off the show were the beautifully named Scatorgy. Forming in Hull in 2008, the band are certainly an established act on the UK live scene. However, this wasn’t quite their night. The songs themselves were enjoyable enough, along with the kind of dry humour you might expect from a Yorkshire outfit. But, due to bands arriving too late to soundcheck, there were initial sound problems, which unfortunately dogged Scatorgy’s set.

Thankfully, fortune was much more favourable to Swiss band Amagortis. Flavoured tastefully (for want of a better word) with a distinctive groove, their brand of brutality was not hampered with sound issues. Normal service had been resumed, and the full power of the band’s music could be heard. Utilising two vocalists, guitarist Daniel in particular was entertaining to behold, visibly into the music and loving every minute. The Masque crowd loved it too, and band and audience fed off eachother’s adrenalin.

Next came Germany’s Defeated Sanity, whose more straight forward approach to ‘brutal death metal’ prepared us well for the headliners. Relentless and crushing throughout, music really doesn’t come much more unfriendly than this. Not to say that their songs are without subtlety however; on close inspection, there are plenty of tempo changes and other points of interest to keep things from being too samey. However, to the untrained ear, this really is just noise.

Finally, Gorgasm took to the stage, and as expected, they were extremely powerful. An expertly executed blend of brutality, musicality and some fairly inventive guitar work, there music is at once destructively heavy and inspiringly engaging. Gorgasm were certainly very well received, and even treated the crowd to an extra song after a chant of “We want more!”. It was the best possible way to end yet another night of extreme metal brutality in Liverpool.

Photograph courtesy of Joe Speak