Incite dust off some cobwebs in Manchester

Posted on 18 January 2020
By Frank Ralph
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The Star and Garter in Manchester hosted a beast of a line up specifically designed to blow cobwebs away. It’s mid January but this is one of the earliest opportunities to get out and see some great loud heavy music. The previous night had seen Slipknot and Behemoth slay the Arena but this was a much more up close and personal, sweat-stinking riff throw down.

Both Merseyside’s Deified and London’s Death Remains opened the show with some nasty in your face aggression and pure brutality. With a small but eager audience that was primed and ready to go they got the blood rushing instantly and between them raised the temperature in the famous venue. Of the two, Deified were my personal favourite and will be getting checked out further.

Sworn Amongst from Kingston on Hull had a slightly different vibe, still as heavy as a truck full of rhinos, but with a little extra something added. Technically excellent music delivered with passion and power, Daryl Jones’ bark cut through everything and made their set as memorable as their perfectly in synch head banging.

Incite, who are over here on a short 8-date trek in support of their latest album ‘Built to Destroy’ were up for a big one and never held back throughout the set. There’s no more you can ask of any band than to give it everything and leave it all out on the stage, and by the end of their set, a flat out Richie Cavalera had clearly done just that.

His pedigree is unquestionable, having Max Cavalera and associates to learn from; metal is something that’s truly engrained him. Beckoning the audience closer to the stage and giving them the crazy eyes, he got several circle pits going.

There was an air of LoG’s Randy about his stage presence, which is no bad thing at all, leaping off the speakers and drum riser like a mini tornado of hair and growls. With El on bass and Lennon Lopez on drums creating a crushing undercurrent, the sound was huge. It was left to members of Sworn Amongst to undertake the guitar work though, as Incite’s guitarist had been unable to get a work visa for the trip. It was a shame that the full band weren’t here but the stand-ins sounded incredibly well rehearsed.

It’s an absolute certainty that Incite will be destroying bigger venues than the Star and Garter in the future, so to have seen them in this setting was great. If you like your metal loud, aggressive and authentic then make sure you get to one of their shows.

For the full set of images from the show click here

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