Suffocation + Sanguisugabogg + Enterprise Earth + Organectomy
31 January 2024 (Barcelona)
Organised by: Madness Live
Venue: Salamandra
Writer: Oscar Saro (Sudando Rock)
Photography: Jordi Amela (@amela_photo_concert)
Descent into a metal hell where Satan only knows how to sing growled vocals
On a cold winter weekday evening, we chose to spend the last hours January had left watching a rumbling night of Death Metal. We knew for certain the plan meant descending into a metal hell, where the music is measured in tonnes, where the crowd moves in diabolical circles, and where Satan only knows how to sing growled vocals. Which is exactly why it felt more disconcerting than ever that the gates of the underworld — relocated on this occasion to Sala Salamandra in L’Hospitalet — opened at six in the evening, with daylight still out.
The early start is explained by the current trend of organising these metal tours in packages of three or four bands, offering a more attractive bill with greater drawing power. A strategy that has to start early enough to fit all the bands in, so the venue can kick us out promptly and turn itself back into a dance club.
Promoters Madness Live, perhaps the biggest metal drivers on the peninsula, true specialists in these package deals, this time brought us a bundle of four extreme metal bands, who took the stage in the following order:
- Organectomy
- Enterprise Earth
- Sanguisugabogg
- Suffocation
Before going through each band’s set, as a general summary written from a personal point of view, here’s what we can tell you…
…that all four bands make music designed above all to be consumed at brutal live shows, like the one we experienced tonight. Music we can hardly picture ourselves listening to with great dedication from the comfort of a chair at home. A wall of noise that, on its own, doesn’t have much musical appeal, nor many nuances to lose yourself in — but if you dive into it in the context of a demolishing live show, add in all the actions and reactions of a committed crowd, stage it with the dark presence of the musicians up there and all their swearing and banter, put the band’s huge extreme-metal logo up behind it, and above all let it soak into you through your skin, it ends up being a full-blown live rock experience.
…that the most-shouted phrase of the night was “Circle pit!!”, pushing the crowd to keep forming those diabolical circles that set the floor alight. Dances we never joined directly, but that we did experience front row, taking direct hits with a smile on our face.
… que aside from the headliner, the first three bands only used half the stage, since the other half was taken up by Suffocation’s speakers and drum kit. Subtract from that the space taken by their own shared secondary drum kit (the same one for all three support bands), and the actual room left for the musicians was pretty tight. Which is why we didn’t see any of them move around or jump much all night. The only ones who got animated and interacted with the crowd were the singers.
…that seeing the extreme metal band logos projected behind the stage, we realise they deserve a whole thesis of their own — which we won’t get into right now, limiting ourselves to sharing the four logos and inviting you to guess which is which.
… and that, in the end, we consider the descent into hell time well spent, because we made it out safe and sound, and because the experience was rewarding in many ways. As is almost always the case when we watch live rock being sweated out on stage.
ORGANECTOMY
Coming from Christchurch City (New Zealand), Organectomy were the first to take the stage, and they did it with barely any introduction. Even so, it took three songs to fire up the crowd and see the first pits start.
A Slamming Death Metal band formed in 2010, playing without their second guitarist, Matthew Bolch, who hadn’t been able to join the tour, as we were told afterwards at the merch stand.
On stage, the other four musicians:
- Levi Sheehan: Drums
- Sam MCRobert: Guitar
- Alex Paul: Vocals
- Tyler Jordan: Bass
Organectomy have released three albums so far, the most recent being “Nail Below Nail” out in 2022. Just days before the show they released their latest single, “Tracheal Hanging”, which they already played live.
This was their live setlist:
- Terror Form
- Unending regrowth
- Concrete
- Nail Below Nail
- The Third Mutation
- Tracheal Hanging
- Intracranial Incubation
To explain their sound, we’ll share their own clarifying words from their website: “Organectomy incorporates aspects of Old School Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, Atmospheric Death Metal, Technical Death Metal and Slam into a twisted amalgamation of pure, disgusting brutality.”
As we saw it: very heavy, repetitive riffs, no guitar solos (perhaps due to one member being out), the singer growling the whole time and possibly the most expressive performer of the night, with funny poses and faces, the drummer giving the band’s most interesting performance… and, overall, a fairly elemental proposal — and, to prove them right, twisted and disgusting.
ENTERPRISE EARTH
Enterprise Earth, hailing from Spokane, Washington (USA), had the second slot of the night.
A Deathcore band formed in 2014, made up of four members:
- Gabe Mangold: Guitar
- Brandon Zackey: Drums
- Travis Worland: Vocals
- Dakota Johnson: Bass
They explain the band’s name was an idea from their first vocalist, inspired by his research into the Illuminati and conspiracy theories
They currently have four studio albums, and just on 2 February (before the show and before writing this review) they released their fifth: “Death: An Anthology”, from which they played several tracks live.
Their setlist was as follows:
- Psalm of Agony
- Scars of the Past
- Reanimate // Disintegrate
- Death Magick
- A World Without…
- They Have No Honor
- You Couldn’t Save Me
With Enterprise Earth comes the point in the night where we hear a slightly different sound, with small, more melodic touches within the brutality. We get more guitar solos, and the vocals — growled almost throughout — come through cleaner in two softer, calmer moments. The only moments of respite all night.
In the hands of a heavily tattooed Mangold, perhaps the most interesting guitar work of all four bands, with distinctive riffs. He also handled cleaner backing vocals himself.
At times we thought we could hear a pre-recorded second guitar.
Worland called for a circle pit right from the start, and at one point put it like this: “Make an European fucking circle pit!” Yankee’s word.
SANGUISUGABOGG
From Columbus, Ohio (USA), Sanguisugabogg were the third band to set hell alight.
A Death Metal band formed in 2019, the youngest of the four, made up of:
- Devin Swank: Vocals
- Cody Davidson: Drums
- Ced Davis: Bass/Guitar
- Drew Arnold: Guitar/Bass
We read that the band’s name is a combination of “sanguisuga” (Latin for leech) and “bog” (British slang for toilet).
Sanguisugabogg have two studio albums, the most recent released in 2023, “Homicidal Ecstasy”. They picked a selection from both full-lengths for their set:
- Black Market Vasectomy
- Face Ripped Off
- Pissed
- A Lesson in Savagery
- Mortal Admonishment
- Necrosexual Deviant
- Dragged By a Truck
- Dead as Shit
With them we’re back to heavy, cavernous music, with moments that edge towards groove. No guitar solos, even though at times there were two live guitars and no bass. Fully growled vocals, shrill at times. A mid-tempo death metal without much depth.
In an attempt to bring some humour to some pretty dark music, Swank kept shouting edifying slogans in Spanish. “Me gusta la cocaína y la marihuana”, “me gustan las tetas” or “estoy loco”.
The wildest crowd moments of the night, with circle pits from minute zero, people up in the air and crowd-surfing overhead, and a few spontaneous stage invasions. One of them dived into an unprepared crowd and came within an inch of smashing into the Salamandra floor.
SUFFOCATION
And the last to take the stage were the much-anticipated Suffocation, in from New York (USA)
Legends of the New York Death Metal (NYDM) scene, formed in 1989. The only one of the four bands with roots in the last century, and in a completely different context.
With various line-up changes over the years, perhaps the most notable departure has been that of their iconic singer Frank Mullen.
On stage, the current line-up:
- Derek Boyer: Bass
- Terrance Hobbs: Guitar
- Ricky Myers: Vocals
- Eric Morotti: Drums
- Charles Errigo: Guitar
Among them, Terrance Hobbs stands out as the band’s only original member.
Suffocation recently released their ninth full-length, “Hymns from the Apocrypha” (2023), with Ricky Myers on vocals for the first time. Several tracks from this new album made the setlist:
- Seraphim Enslavement
- Cataclysmic Purification
- Breeding the Spawn
- Dim Veil of Obscurity
- Pierced From Within
- Funeral Inception (featuring Travis Worland of Enterprise Earth)
- Perpetual Deception
- Effigy of the Forgotten
- Catatonia
- Hymns From the Apocrypha
- Liege of Inveracity (featuring Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg)
- Infecting the Crypts
Encore:
- Clarity Through Deprivation
We read in a recent interview with Hobbs: “Playing aggressive music is in our blood. Being a live band with real recordings that go back to the roots of being an actual band, not a digital representation of the overproduced stuff overwhelming today’s music industry, shows who we are.”
Moving around a bigger stage, once the second drum kit had been cleared away and with no mic stand in sight, the band delivered the longest set of the night. Guitars with their trademark heavy riffs, alternating with the occasional solo that leaned more towards classic heavy metal. Thunderous drumming, with double bass drum, and a bassist playing low-slung with excellent finger technique. Fully growled vocals, mic pressed right against the mouth the whole time.
Worth noting: in the middle of the brutality of their songs, Suffocation have these micro-pause moments, with half a second of total silence — a technique that shows the absolute synchronisation in how all the instruments are played.
Among the crowd, plenty of band shirts and a shared urge to burn through the rest of the night.