Live Review : Gatecreeper + Cryptic Shift + Celestial Sanctuary @ Rebellion, Manchester on July 9th 2022

It's officially the hottest nights of the year. The atmosphere is stifling, and you can feel the heat sizzle off the pavement. This is a night for smooth tunes and a gentle summer breeze. So where am I, I hear you cry? Well, I'm melting in a sweltering and heaving Rebellion to witness a trio of corrosive Death Metal bands, where else would I be? The fact that the place is so packed speaks volumes about a) how desperate we are to get back to live music (it still feels like a forbidden fruit that could be snatched from us at any given time) and b) the power of word-of-mouth.

You see Gatecreeper are no media darlings and have been a stranger to these shores for nearly 5 years. Yet purely on the strength of testimonies from those who caught them on their last trip over the pond, they have managed to pull a capacity crowd. For the first time in my life, I find myself seething that a band I care a lot about have been gifted with a more than healthy turnout, as it would be a great deal less humid in here if they attracted just a couple of guys and a dog called Gerald.

Celestial Sanctuary (ahhh the heavy metal band name generator, the gift that keeps on giving) hail from Cambridge and remarkably manage to pull everybody out of the merciful retreat that is Rebellion’s scenic open-air smoking area. Theirs is a heady mix of old skool Death Metal (they are named after a Bolthrower track, what else were you expecting?) and old skool Doom. In fact there is nothing new-fangled or state-of-the-art about what they are doing. This is metal taken to its root core and it is all the better for it. Heavy, pendulous and designed solely to make your fillings rattle, this is metal as your hellraising granny use to make it. Its beauty is in its simplicity, there is no fat here as everything has been cut to the bone. What is left is searing riffs and crushing intensity. 

For many Death Metal bands, it is all about crushing as many notes into a short a time period as possible. Celestial Sanctuary have realised it’s not about quantity, it's all about quality. Their refrains are sparing but insightfully powerful. Key is their highly efficient usage of Death Metal’s most potent ingredient, namely silence. There is nothing more deadly than that lethal lack of noise before the breakdown hits. Celestial Sanctuary have realised the potent energy of this and use it fantastically throughout their slot. It may be hotter than hell, but they manage to elicit a response that will make a headline band bush. Tonight, in their tight,  taut half an hour on stage they prove beyond doubt that you don't need finesse and you don't need bells and whistles. You just need a handful of cracking riffs, and the world is yours.

Cryptic Shift’s approach to Death Metal is the polar opposite to Celestial Sanctuary’s. They go down the much more complex and celebral route, full of dense time changes and shifting textures. It's fair to say that this style probably has more of a, shall we say, select appeal. The crowd has certainly thinned and there are many who decided that staying outside in the evening sun is probably a better option. Personally, I think all those who bailed for the smoking area have made very much the wrong choice as, whilst Cryptic Shifts’ brand of death metal may not be as immediately accessible, it presents layers of exquisite beauty. It is all about the contrasts, Xander Bradley’s vocals are harsh and caustic (he even stays in character for the between-song banter) and they strike an impressive juxtaposition with the fluctuating intricacy of their music. Styles and genres weave together in a sonic tapestry of ever-changing sound.

Death Metal has never been about length (ohh ehh Misses) and in this world, any track over four minutes is considered an epic. However Cryptic Shift wear their prog influences firmly on their sleeves and the duration of their songs proves that. Even though they have left the opening track of their debut album back at home (a hefty 25 minutes in length) they still only manage four tracks in their allotted half an hour. But each is multi-layered and divinely constructed. As I said this is a very different live experience to the meat and potato (but equally excellent) metal of Celestial Sanctuary. If I'm honest is probably more suited to being pondered over on a dark winter's night as opposed to a baking hot summer's evening where the audience simply wants to sink pints and scream “let's go fucking mental”. Absolutely stunning but perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Gatecreeper however give the (now thronging) crowd exactly what they desire. The title of opener ‘Sweltering Madness’ describes with pinpoint accuracy the coming fifty minutes. Temperatures soar as Rebellion becomes a melting pot of thrusting bodies and gnarly riffs. Gatecreeper may not have actually been around long (they only played their first show in 2015) but they have already carved themselves a place in the lexicon of modern death metal. This is because they seem to reject the current obsession with precision technicality and instead have gone back to what made Death Metal so exciting in the first place, namely its primordial energy. To these ears they seem to be taking the same approach to Death Metal that Power Trip did to thrash, namely, they are staying true to its core virtues but dragging its delivery kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Gatecreeper have realised that the performance is as important as what they are performing. They have the songs but more importantly, they know how to use them to whip up the crowd. You probably won't go home whistling any of their numbers, but what you will remember is the kinetic energy that was created. It is one of those shows where the fourth wall is well and truly broken and the line between band and audience is in tatters.  Rather than see this as a distraction, Gatecreeper positively encourages it. At times there is a queue to get on stage in order to fling yourself straight off and some of the backflips performed would have the GB diving team taking note. It's one of those evenings where the crowd applauds the bodies descending from the stage as much as they do the band, offering up oohs for impressive catches and heartfelt ahhhs for those unfortunate souls who clatter to the floor with a loud thump.

All stars seem to be aligned for Gatecreeper this evening. This is an audience who are up for good old-fashioned mayhem and are quite happy for it to be soundtracked by the band’s ferocious take on Death Metal. As I said they may not be top of the pile in the most likely to succeed stakes, but every bugger here tonight takes them to heart. When Hellahammer (Chase to his Nan) announces that there is one more song to go you can palatably taste the disappointment in the air. We get an encore and the fitting ‘Sick of Being Sober’ (by this point in the preceding those who are sober are in a very very small minority) and ‘Boiled Over’ provide a final opportunity for the pit to spin and the bodies to cascade. A stunning evening of good mind-numbing fun, what else do you need in these temperatures!!