The Rotted / Desecration / The Fading
9 December 2010
The Unicorn, London
Another new venue for Rockers Digest, The Unicorn is a Greene King Pub on the Camden Road in London which was “metalized” a while back and now presents free, yes free, live music.
Having missed openers Kemakil, our first entertainment came from The Fading. The Israeli band are conducting a gig exchange which will see tonight’s headliners The Rotted travel to Israel.
Anyone expecting Orphaned Land style traditional influences would have been in for a surprise as the biggest influence here is Sweden. The band won the 2008 Wacken Metal Battle with the prize a record deal. Heading to Sweden, the album In Sin We’ll Find Salvation was produced by Scar Symmetry’s Jonas Kjellgren. It’s an impressive collection of melodic death metal, following a cuckoo like trend of nesting in a Swedish sound similar to the path taken by American band’s like Black Dhalia Murder.
Whilst the PA struggled with the intricacies of The Fading’s style, the band obviously excited to be playing in London put in a storming effort with synchronised windmill headbanging, attempts to get the crowd making some noise and frontman Ilia Badrov heading off into the crowd during Destination, Life.
When a reoccurring feedback wasn’t audible, Arie Aranovich and Paul Mitiyanine’s guitar work shone through. Whilst the soloing, such as the tapping during My Lost Serenity impressed, it’s when the two combine with different but complementary guitar lines, such as the main riff to stand out track The Sin Collector. A new song showed there’s more in The Fading’s cannon and I look forward to catching them again.
The Fading setlist:
Failure Proven / One Step To Drama / My Lost Serenity / Confront Myself / Destination, Life / New Song / The Sin Collector / Age Of Phobia
 
Whilst latest album Forensix has its moments, I must confess that Desecration’s brand of brutal death metal is a little beyond me.The sound tonight did few favours in deciphering differences in a lot of the material, leaving me with very little to comment on and quite a lot of time spent at the bar. Ollie Jones and Andi Morris were two mops of hair either side of shaven headed drummer Mic Hourihan who as usual was wearing sunglasses but, thankfully, also some clothes on this occasion.
Visiting albums right back to their Gore & Perversion debut, which Ollie Jones conceded “are absolutely f**king disgusting even these days”, Desecration delivered in terms of pleasing their followers, but it was only the more “catchy” Bonesaw and Aim, Fire, Kill at the end that really caught my attention.
Desecration setlist:
Insane Savagery / Sadosexual Suicide / Overdose / When The Heart Stops Beating / None Of Us Are Saints / Bacterial Breakdown / Fontanelle Fornication / Obscene Publication / Bonesaw / Aim, Kill, Fire
 
“Evenin’ all. We are The Rotted and we play D-Beat death f**king metal” declared Ben McCrow as the Londoners took to the stage and blasted off with Drink Myself To Death. With a few bevies having been sunk that felt apt and probably provided the best background to The Rotted, who have taken their old Gorerotted pure death metal and infused it with a punk edge.
Like a caged animal, McCrow paced around the stage as the band swept through choice cuts from their Get Dead Or Die Trying album, plus the two original compositions on their new Anarchogram EP. McCrow at times appeared to be conducting the crowd, as to his right the dreads of Tim Carley flailed, whilst the guitarist rocked backwards and forwards.
McCrow tells us that The Rotted are working on a new album, but for now it was time to visit their past with Gorerotted fan favourite Only Tools & Corpses before going all the way back to that incarnation’s first demo with Stab Me ‘Till I Cum.
Last time I caught The Rotted they were the support act in a sparsely attended Underworld and the lack of bodies seemed to hinder their sound. Here the smaller PA struggling to cope actually worked in their favour and with plenty of drunken fans staggering into each other The Rotted delivered.
The Rotted setlist:
Drink Myself To Death / The Howling / A Return To Insolence / Dawn Of A New Error / Angel Of Meth / The Body Tree / Only Tools & Corpses / Stab Me Till I Cum / Fear & Loathing In Old London Town / Nothin’ But A Nosebleed
 
LINKS:
www.myspace.com/therotted
www.desecration.co.uk
www.myspace.com/thefading
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