Live Review: Fit For An Autopsy w/Venom Prison, Vulvodynia & Justice For The Damned @ Camden Underworld!

Tonight’s show at Camden Underworld is perhaps surprisingly sold out. A quartet of Metals heavier hitters will take the stage and turn the iconic venue into a sweatbox with a sea of moving bodies headbanging, circle pitting and even forming a wall of death before the close. Who could ask for more of a Friday night, than a few beers and some seriously sweet sounds to sooth the savage beast?

Justice For The Damned [8/10] are probably the least heavy band on the bill tonight but they are by no means weak. They bring Metallic Hardcore from Sydney Australia and get Camden Underworld moving from the very start. Their might be a bigger dude but he sure as hell can move, with constant headbanging, two steps and crowd participation encouragement. The appearance of guitarist and backing vocalist Nick Adams on the new Cursed Earth album is a moment of magic, especially seeing as it was released earlier today. Songs like “No Brother, No Friend” and “Please Don’t Leave Me” go down a storm but tonight the shining light is “It Will Always Be My Fault”.

South African Slamming Brutal Death Metallers Vulvodynia [8/10] have a solid bit of Groove Metal underpinning their sound and while those trademark Slam Squeals are in every track, there is plenty more going on to appreciate about their sound. Their upcoming album “Mob Justice” promises to open doors for them that the tattooed faces of their frontman Duncan Bentley and guitarist Luke Haarhoff may close and with the guitar interludes between each song played live there is going to be a very bright future for these heavy hitters. After this tour they will head over to the US in July!

It has been a year since we last saw Venom Prison [7/10] and in that time new album “Samsara” has appeared on the horizon. A lot of the crowd are here for the Welsh Death Metallers and they don’t disappoint, smashing out tunes at breakneck pace with verve and energy. The subject matter of the lyrics maybe as thought provoking as it gets and songs like “Uterine Industrialisation” and “Corrode the Black Sun” go down well. They leave no body unmoved and no brow short of sweat tonight and their sound is very much more suited to a smaller club venue than some of the shows they played with Trivium. There is something off about their sound tonight however and some of their nuances are lost in the mix.

Headliners Fit For An Autopsy [9/10] are a battering ram of a band. Slab after mortuary slab of brutal Metal riffs coupled with pick noises and reverse string sweeps build the foundation of a sound that never fails to get heads banging. Cuts like “Heads Will Hang”, “Iron Moon” and “Black Mammoth” never tire and when the set finishes the chants aren’t “one more song” but simply “Autopsy”. So much so that when the band return to the stage for the first song they wrote 12 years ago in 2007 “Chapel”, frontman Joe Balodato can’t start the song until they stop. And when they finally do, it’s a roar of “We love you!” that kicks things off. As hinted at by his pre-FFAA set microphone check, Vulvodynia vocalist Duncan Bentley joins in the fun, crowd surfing while screaming into a wireless mic. The mid set announcement that the band have signed for a new label and have a new album in the works before playing a bullet train of a new song is music to our collective ears. New Jersey’s finest just found a new home!