MORBID ANGEL, Necrophobic, Benighted,Nervecell @Slade Rooms Wolverhampton 20/11/11

Nervecell’s name might bring to mind some horrible nu-metal band from the late 90s, but their sound is anything but. The four-piece from – of all places – Dubai, deal in brutal, in your face, Death Metal. And boy, are they tight. New album “Psychogenocide” is about to get a UK release and it is very much worth checking out. The only downside is the show time, they get a mere 20 minutes to impress everybody and they are gone,

Next up are France’s Benighted, and they fare less well. Their sound is more derivative, and although they are onto the sixth album of their career they actually seem less assured than Nervecell, singer Julian Truchan has an impressive range, from guttural growls to King Diamond-type screaming, but they do less in their short set than you might have hoped.

Which leaves Sweden’s Necrophobic to take up the baton. Look past the corpse paint and they are the most “metal” band on the bill. And with emphasis less on death and more on black metal they are reminiscent of Iron Maiden in places, their songs tick all the usual boxes – there is one for example called “Revolution 666” – but a large part of the crowd remains indifferent to them throughout. Not their bill perhaps, but on another day they might shine.

And so it comes to pass that Morbid Angel are here to complete festivities. As singer Dave Vincent puts it, “if you aren’t ready for some brutal death metal you are in the wrong place.”

The Florida death metal legends are here for two reasons, first to plug new CD, the fantastic, “Illud Divinum Insanus” and second the twentieth anniversary of the masterpiece that is “Blessed are the Sick.” And they do both, amply, with the likes of newbies “Existo Vulgore” and “Nevermore” sitting side-by side with the old classics like “Fall From Grace” with ease.

But this isn’t about just two albums. This trawl through history. “Sworn to the Black” from “Covenant” (reputedly the biggest selling Black Metal album of all time) is menacing and crushing, while “Maze of Torment” from their debut album is arguably the song of the night.

There are a couple of problems. 70 minutes isn’t a long enough set, and the sound at the Slade Rooms is rather drenched in feedback, which means that Trey Azagthoth’s solos aren’t as clear as they might be, but overall the night is a fine one.

There’s no encore, no histrionics, just brutal metal. Blessed are the sick indeed.