Live Review And Photo Credit – Klaire Sherwood
When I heard that one of my favourite bands were back in town, Fit for Autopsy, I jumped at the chance to cover them yet again (3rd time for me). Day number 2 of the UK leg of the tour and one of the first gigs I’ve seen come up at The Mill for a while. One of my personal favourite venues in Birmingham UK.
With a very early start time of 5pm, the crowd was thin, unfortunately just a smattering of people for the first 2 bands.
Sentinels are a band I’ve not heard of before. Hailing from New Jersey, this was Sentinels first tour out of America. Warming up the crowd on this almost all-American line-up the slowly growing crowd seemed impressed. Dark and moody lighting setting the scene, almost making the band members blend into the shadows, a common setting for most metalcore bands these days. The vocalist loved his limbo stances, I’m amazed he didn’t put his back out! (I’m just jealous really, I’m not very bendy!). Everything they played tonight was from the latest album ‘Collapsed By Design,’ being their debut full length album, released in October 2021. Ending their set with ‘Albatros,’ followed by ‘Embers.’
Next up Great American Ghost. Another band I’d never heard of before, but was pleasantly surprised. The vocalist who’d clearly had one too many Red Bull’s was very engaging with the crowd, his extreme energy had him climbing onto monitors and the crowd barrier, making the crowd pumped creating the first circle pit of the night. Joined on stage by Patrick from Fit For An Autopsy for their last track of the set, Alter of Snakes.
The crowd seemed to suddenly double in size for the next band, Enterprise Earth. Now heading to more of a reasonable time for a Saturday night gig of around 7pm, Enterprise Earth coaxed the fans out of the pubs and along to the venue.
Enterprise Earth have a bit more subdued stage presence than Great American Ghost, but still just as exhilarating. Treating us to a new unreleased track only played live last on the 2 days of this tour, Psalm of Agony. Followed by sleep is for the dead and ending the set with The Failsafe Fallacy, during which the vocalist encouraged the crowd to do a wall of death, making this the first band of the evening to which the crowd went insane to at the end of their set.
Now the crowd were pumped and primed, the next band up, Manchester’s Ingested, immediately got the crowd into a wall of death. The self-proclaimed ‘Kings of UK death metal’ opened with a dark menacing intro. The vocalist with his hood pulled up and lights dimmed to near darkness setting the mood. A more traditional combination of black and death metal with the addition of bass drops, dampened the atmosphere a touch, creating a more subdued crowd. The set contained their latest single, Rebirth, which was released in January and the rest was majority from the album ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’ which was released in 2020.
Now it’s time for what we’ve been waiting for, tonight’s headliners, Fit For An Autopsy!
This is probably the 5th time I’ve seen them live and as per usual they were on form.
I’m glad the classics were part of the set, such as Absolute Hope, Heads Will Hang, Iron Moon and Black Mammoth, personally my favourites by Fit For An Autopsy. Obviously there were tracks from their latest 2022 release ‘Oh What The Future Holds’, such as Pandora and Two Towers. Unfortunately, the guitarists amp head died just as they came on for the encore, meaning the vocalist had to entertain the crowd for a good 5-10 mins. This meant a “who smells the best” competition and a sample of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’. Luckily, the head was swapped out just in time as the vocalist ran out of ideas to keep us entertained.
A thoroughly good night unfortunately had to come to an end, so it was time to battle my way through the gathering Digbeth revellers and attempt to find where I left my car.
