Summer Slaughter '09

Frank Mullen gets Wired

According to Suffocation frontman Frank Mullen, the Summer Slaughter tour was this year’s “death metal stimulus package.” 2009’s lineup featured around a dozen bands. On this first date of a two-night stand in New York City, the lineup slimmed down. The tour’s metalcore/deathcore bands, all with three-word names (Winds of Plague, Born of Osiris, Beneath the Massacre, After the Burial), were in Syracuse playing an off-date. I hardly minded, though I was mildly disappointed to miss the notorious Winds of Plague.

Suffocation – Blood Oath

Playing this night were Blackguard, Decrepit Birth, Origin, Darkest Hour, Ensiferum, Suffocation, and Necrophagist. I missed the first two. The other bands benefited from (1) great sound by the house (Irving Plaza), and (2) chops honed from a month and a half of touring. Even if bands didn’t appeal to me stylistically (Darkest Hour, Ensiferum), they played well and got good responses. Origin crushed even as a four-piece. Paul Ryan put on a six-string tour de force, and the band came off more ferociously than on record.

Suffocation made the most of their hometown heroes status. Energy was high on both sides of the stage barrier. Suffocation were the only band to generate a pit as wide as the venue. At one point, gym rat Mullen said, “I’m all amped up on my low-carb energy drink. I’m on cruise control. I’m on autopilot.” Indeed, the band moved as one. It played songs from Effigy of the Forgotten and Blood Oath — all the Suffocation one needs in a pinch. “Souls to Deny” or “Abomination Reborn” would have been nice to hear. But it was more than enough to hear songs from Effigy minus crappy production, plus 20 years of heavy lifting. Mullen’s syllables felt like projectiles.

Narcophagist

Necrophagist embodied German efficiency. They entered without fuss and started blasting, sweeping, soloing, and soloing some more. It was all smooth and clean. The band even looked German: Muhammed Suiçmez flanked by white men with shaved heads. Their performance was clinical and chilly, though air guitar was rife throughout the venue. (Necrophagist are the undisputed kings of YouTube fan guitar videos.) Even parts that swung were stiff.

If Summer Slaughter yielded any lesson, it was that death metal lives and dies by its drummers. Freed of recording constraints (most modern albums downplay cymbals for technical reasons), Origin’s John Longstreth displayed unexpected amounts of groove, even while blasting at warp speed. Suffocation’s Mike Smith drove his kit like a tank. Necrophagist’s Romain Goulon turned his into a clock. In this stimulus package, drummers undertook quantitative easing, injecting millions of blastbeats into the night.

– Cosmo Lee