[More pics of both bands in the following Flickr sets: Triptycon and Cannibal Corpse]
This was a 4-band show with Job For A Cowboy and Enslaved making up the “Destroyers of the Faith”. However, with a 6:30 door opening and (unbeknownst to us) a bloody club night on, it meant a really early start for the first couple of bands and – I reckon – a shortened set list for each. As a result, we arrived just after 8pm to see Triptykon already on stage. I can only assume they somehow managed to cram the other two bands in as their t-shirts were on sale.
Triptycon certainly know their stuff – not surprising with Celtic Frost founder Thomas Gabriel Fischer fronting them – and their material has quite a variety to it. Very heavy for sure, with some particularly slow segments but also some thrashier moments. I couldn’t name a single song by them – they only have one album and an EP out – but what I heard impressed me (and Debbie, and Jon).
Good value and worth keeping an eye out for in future.
The crowd, though, were here to see the biggest-selling death metal band of all time. Quite a crowd, too. Not exactly crammed into the venue, but it was certainly busy enough that it took a while to get served at the bar! The set change wasn’t too long and shortly before 9pm the lights went down and Buffalo’s Cannibal Corpse took to the stage.
The sound wasn’t bad, though Jon reckoned it was missing a bit of bass, but this didn’t bother the crowd. The moment the first chords were struck, the mosh pit opened, and I swear I saw someone crowd-surfing by the time the third snare drum had been hammered.
Now, the music was good. Unfortunately the amount of it wasn’t. First off, the band stopped between almost every song for the first five or six numbers, for no seemingly obvious reason. They simply stopped and wandered around for 1-2 minutes before playing the next one. “Corpsegrinder” did, at one point, mention some kind of technical issue but with no further details. Frustrating.
What we got, though, was superb. If I had to pick personal highlights they’d be “I Cum Blood”, “I Will Kill You” and of course “Hammer Smashed Face” which always sounds better live than the tinny quality of the original recording.
In addition to the delays, the band finished just after 10pm. This is an incredibly short set, barely an hour in length. I can only guess that it was due to the aforementioned club night. Staff were sweeping empty plastic tumblers off the floor within minutes of the gig ending.
What I’d like to know is how long they played for at other dates on the tour. Did anyone else barely get an hour of an otherwise fine death metal performance? Or were Glasgow fans ripped off?
