GIG REVIEW: OBITUARY, CONJURER and CELESTIAL SANCTUARY Live at Electric Ballroom, London

Obituary needs no introduction. They stand among the most enduring and consistent heavy metal bands to be making music over the past three and half decades. Let’s not understate it – They are metal legends. Their top-floor reputation has made a ticket for tonight’s London gig a much sought-after commodity. Anyone following the event online will have noticed the low-ticket warnings that preceded the news of tonight’s show as a sell-out performance. It seems, despite being 35 years into their career, there is still a very healthy appetite for Obituary to deliver their well-established brand of loud, filthy, old-school death metal.

In part, this may be because the Floridian band has been absent from our shores for a number of years – a forced situation, due to the worldwide pandemic – but during this time, they have been anything but elusive. Instead, the band have used their time to maintain a presence among their fans, building a strong anticipation for their current activities. Since 2020 – in the absence of any touring – the band has broadcasted several “full-album” performances from their HQ/rehearsal space as pay-per-view events. These served as confirmation that Obituary were keeping their formidable skills sharpened. It also resulted in a pair of celebratory live recordings focussing on material from their classic, Slowly We Rot and Cause Of Death, albums. These served as a timely reminder of the band’s legacy just as they fired themselves into a renewed burst of activity. Following on from this, and perhaps most significant of all has been the January arrival of some brand-new (and well-received) music via the rather excellent, Dying of Everything album. It’s a great disc and there’s a lot to be excited about – and, fresh off the back of a U.S. tour with Black Label Society, Obituary are maintaining this momentum, touring further afield, roaming the UK and confidently – it seems – selling out venues again.

With all of the above being said, it’s clearly not ALL about the headliners tonight. The venue doors have yet to open, which means the queue running from the Electric Ballroom’s entrance, along Camden High Street and down Buck Street is a solid indication that folk want to get themselves inside with enough time to catch the other bands on tonight’s bill. And rightly so – with the addition of both Celestial Sanctuary and Conjurer into proceedings, the evening promises a very strong lineup of entertainment indeed.

First up – and barely visible through a drifting, dense fog that envelops the stage – comes the Cambridge band, Celestial Sanctuary. As a rousing cheer for their arrival goes up, I acknowledge how quickly the band’s star has risen since the release of their 2021 Soul Diminished album. Working hard to push that record into the ears and minds of the UK’s metalheads, the band have maintained a solid work ethic and secured a series of high-profile shows with touring bands such as Undead and Sanguisugabogg. Judging by their inclusion on tonight’s line-up, the result of that effort has been a very rewarding pay-off indeed – the enthusiasm they feel for sharing the Ballroom’s stage with some genuine death metal royalty is palpable as they tear into the opening track, Rid The Gormless. The crowd wastes no time in opening up a wide pit – Its gravitational pull drawing more and more people in as the burly riffs and blast beats take hold.

Celestial Sanctuary shares a similar instinct for the primal low end as the evening’s hosts. While the band are keen to be acknowledged as part of a new scene  (the New Wave Of British Death Metal), there’s no denying that the songs performed tonight, such as the title track of the Soul Diminished record and Suffer Your Sentience both have a familiar, crawling grind that connects everyone in the room to that classic, the late eighties/early nineties period of death metal – It a throw-back to a time when Black Sabbath was still a bigger influence on the music than the accelerated, technically progressive chops that crept into the scene later on. As the songs heave their weight around the room, moments of respite come from frontman Tom Cronin’s comparatively wholesome between-song banter. Cronin is upbeat and appears genuinely humbled by the size of the crowd and their response to what is turning out as an excellent set. He encourages the crowd to raise their arms and make some noise as he leads the band into another ripper, the absolutely brutal Trapped Within Your Rank Membranes (taken from the Absolute Convergence split ep). It’s a savage track that reminds me of how hard Morbid Angel banged heads back in the day. It’s HEAVY and it brings a successful set to a satisfying close.

Soon after; over at the bar, I am talking to two metalheads who have made the trip down from Birmingham to see their heroes. Spirits are high and we laugh together, acknowledging our good mood and swapping stories about various bands and shows we’ve witnessed over the years. They are both here to see Obituary, telling me they aren’t familiar with the upcoming band, Conjurer. It seems fitting that our banter is interrupted by the cacophonous blast of the West-Midlands four-piece launching into their set over in the main hall.

I move into a position where I can see the stage. The venue has filled considerably and there is barely enough space to raise a glass of beer to the lips. Even so, I take a deep glug, knowing a full glass will absolutely get spilled once the sizable crowd starts to jostle to the impending, doom-laden sludge. I take another swig and focus on the brawny music as it drops into our collective ears.

At this stage in their career, Conjurer present as slick and well-seasoned performers. A decade of touring activity has primed them for events like this, and their confidence shows, Although, they cut a much less personable presence than the band before them. Instead, their delivery is focused, intense, and brooding. Even with the reassuringly consistent bounce of bass player, Conor Marshall, in his central position, windmilling his long hair to tracks as It Dwells, and Rot, there is an aloofness to Conjurer that holds their performance in a stark place. Not that that doesn’t work for them. It suits the depth and complexity of their metal. In contrast to their bass player, guitarists Dan Nightingale and Brady Deeprose opt to remain fixed to the extremes of stage left and stage right, peeling out visceral misery – both bellowing and howling their words into the Ballroom’s large hall. The crowd is transfixed. Necks snap as each riff comes crashing home – punctuated by the newest member of the band – the impressively dexterous drummer, Noah See.

Conjurer hold us down for 40 minutes. It’s a potent and powerful set that has altered the night’s atmosphere in a tangible way. There’s a sense of needing the dust to settle as people regain their footing and reel from the aural punch that has just been administered. Conversations begin to strike up and fill the void. As voices accelerate into excited chatter, it becomes clear people are recalling there is one more colossal act yet to come.

Obituary announce their arrival by playing Pat Travers at volume through the P.A. Interestingly, the electrified blues of Snorting Whiskey counters the tone one might associate with death metal. There is no hellish soundscape or spooky atmospherics. No green-tinged, vampiric lighting or screaming sound effects. Instead, the band emerge from the wings, smiling along to the seventies hard rock soundtrack, waving to the crowd, and looking casual as they strap on their guitars and take up their positions. Anyone who has seen the band before will have a strong idea of how the upcoming set is likely to start. From my vantage point, I hold my breath and wait for THAT riff.

Sure enough, Redneck Stomp hits true – vibrating through the venue as it anchors everything down. It’s the heavy metal equivalent of a muscle car revving its engine before it roars forward. Taking that metaphor further, we ALL feel the acceleration as Obituary hits the gas and opens everything up for the supercharged propulsion of Sentence Day.  It’s a strong move. For many, that 2017 self-titled record is the benchmark against which the band’s latter output is measured and everybody in the room, it seems, responds with thunderous enthusiasm – this is boosted as people realize it’s a double punch – A Lesson in Vengeance providing the subsequent, stinging right-hook as a follow-up.

Visions In My Head momentarily rewinds the timeline, but it’s not long before we are treated to something I’m sure most of the crowd have been anticipating since the January release of Dying of Everything. It’s a credit to the strength of the material on the new record that when Barely Alive drops, it is received as if it’s already a classic, Obituary favorite. The song’s driving riff is tailor-made for some rowdy, enthusiastic headbanging, and hearing it live for the first time is a joy – it absolutely SMASHES. The same can be said for The Wrong Time, which cuts through Donald Tardy’s rattling tempos with a solid, heavy, hard-rock crunch.

I mention Donald Tardy, so it is only fitting that I focus on his sibling too, and not without good reason – because for the duration of the set, John Tardy sounds phenomenal. Full-throated and visceral, he snarls and chews on the words in his inimitable way. Dying and I Don’t Care both sound monstrous thanks to his almighty bellow. Each track reminds the crowd of the band’s formidable nineties output. An era that gave us the band’s Celtic Frost cover, Circle of the Tyrants – which also gets an airing tonight.

Throwing a cover into the set emphasizes the casual nature of the performance. Obituary are having FUN, and it shows. As each track is pounded out, founding member Trevor Peres looks like he absolutely has the best job in the world. Across the stage, Ken Andrews positively BEAMS as his dexterity flies on the fretboard, while the low end is maintained by the quietly cool, much esteemed, Terry Butler – his presence felt as each riff connects with the churning pit in front of the stage. Another reason for the band to look upbeat is the unwavering reception to their new material. New songs, My Will To Live and Dying of Everything carry just as much damage potential as their strongest material – The band prove this by positioning both tracks in the climactic moments of the set, lining them up next to the much-loved, I’m In Pain from The End Complete. It’s one final hammering before they draw the set to a close and leave us for dust.

However, this is rock and roll and everyone is having a great time and making a lot of noise, so Obituary return and take up their instruments to demonstrate some further, justifiable pride in their new LP. The band kicks off their encore with the slab of aural concrete that is, War. A barnstormer of a track that stands as a particularly robust highlight from Dying Of Everything.

What follows is a masterclass in giving the people what they want. Obituary pulls out the big guns. Chopped in Half cuts through (pun intended!) with maximum weight and power. The band segued this into Turned Inside Out before hitting us with the gory and gloriously heavy, Slowly We Rot. To this day, its opening riff resembles the lurch of the undead so perfectly, I imagine a zombie hoard as they lumber toward their inevitable prey. It never gets old. It never gets boring, and when the song explodes into its rapid-fire verses, the mosh pit flips into a frenzy of hair and limbs. The energy levels are pushed along by the rolling double bass drums of the song’s climactic moments, ultimately bringing what has been an excellent and memorable performance to a close.

It has been a night of strong performances, but Obituary has completely owned it tonight. Not only are they still on point, delivering a tight performance with an obvious camaraderie, but there are no signs of them slowing down. Their new album is a belter and tonight they have demonstrated they can effortlessly match its ferocity onstage. Without a doubt – gig of the year, so far!