Dying Fetus, Sanguisugabogg, Crowbar, et Left To Suffer

Dying Fetus is quite evidently from the name, a death metal band from America. The group formed in 1991, when it was put together by guitar player/ vocalist, John Gallagher and their bass player, Jason Netherton. In 1996 they released their first album called 'Purification through Violence', again a very death metal sounding title. The group gained a lot of attention throughout their time playing gigs, collecting a lot of loyal death metal fans along the way, it also helped that Morbid Records gave them a lot of promotion in the death metal underground. Due to their growing success they went on their first US tour, which gained them the name - the 'Underground Terrorism' tour. The band struggled with seeing a few members leave the group for personal reasons and had to go about recruiting new members during their career, which could be fatal for a band, but it didn't seem to affect them as they went on to release their fourth album and started another tour. If you're a big metal fan then this group is probably right up your street. Although some of the death metal bands I have seen live have been head banging like there's no tomorrow, diving around the stage like they're in a fight with a huge crowd of invisible people and screaming their lungs out. A performance I saw that they did in 2013 saw them stand still for the majority of the performance, and when they did bound around the stage it wasn't with as much enthusiasm as I would have expected. I've never really understood this music scene because it's nearly impossible to understand what they are saying, but when you're in an audience watching this kind of gig, the need to dive around like a mad man is almost infectious. You can tell they are good at what they do, probably not a band for everyone but worth checking out.

I’ve been to many metal shows, and listen to a lot of music in the genre, but Crowbar are the only sludge metal band I follow, and I know that some people are put off the slow pace of some of the tracks, but the way that the band intertwine their sound with the fast paced hardcore punk sections keeps it fresh and exciting. When I saw Crowbar perform most recently, it was just after the addition of Jeff Golden on bass, and he totally rocked it, and the entire band looked like they’d been playing together since their beginnings in the early 90s.
One of the tings that stands out for me every time I see them perform live, is the way that they command the stage. Although they’re often facing away from the audience to play their music to each other, the way that they jump and throw themselves around the stage is electric and massively contagious, and had everyone dancing from start to finish.
They opened their set with Self-Inflicted, which had everyone singing along right away, and getting really into the music. They played a great combination of their old and newer material, catering for all the fans there. The show was nearly 2 hours long, and I don’t think the band stopped for a breather once, switching between epic solos and playing awesome tight sets together, but their energy didn’t drop once. For their finale, they played a mash up of some of their hits, and it was mind blowing. They were shouting out to us in the audience, and it was great to be so involved with the end of the show.