Whelan’s main room is legendary, but it feels particularly dangerous (in the best way) when deathcore bands like Bodysnatcher and Ingested take the stage. Because the venue is relatively intimate, the barrier between the band and the crowd was non-existent.
Big Ass Truck and Psycho-Frame set a high bar early on. Psycho-Frame in particular has been a massive talking point of this tour, and their Dublin set proved they are one of the most exciting names in the scene right now.
Ingested, the “Slam Kings” from Manchester didn’t disappoint either. Their set was a masterclass in technical brutality. They have a way of making Whelan’s feel like a stadium while keeping the grit of a basement show. Their newer material blended seamlessly with the classics, and the crowd response during the “slam” sections was predictably chaotic. The fact that their singer declared that he was flown in with just 9 days notice to learn the songs and perform was astonishing, as it felt like he had been performing with the band for years.
Coming off the hype of their upcoming album Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home (set for release next month), Bodysnatcher were clinical. Kyle Medina’s vocals are even more punishing live than on record. The “King of the Rats” breakdown was, as expected, the moment the room turned into a full-scale war zone, which was helped by him pacing the stage with the kind of energy that was infectious. He controlled the pit like some kind of mad conductor throughout the gig, and “King of the Rats” was his crescendo. By the end of their set it was absolute carnage, with crowd surfing and stage diving into and out of the spinning vortex of the crowd like some infernal machine.
Whelan’s sound engineers deserve a nod here too—often with bands this heavy, the low end can turn into a muddy mess, but the mix stayed sharp enough to hear the nuances in the riffs.
This was a rare occurrence in Whelans where you have 4 bands who are at the very top of their game in their respective genres, and I suspect the longer they tour the more noise they will be making off the stage, just like on it.
Psycho-Frame photos:
Ingested photos:
Bodysnatcher photos & set-list:
Set-list:
The Maker
Wired For Destruction
Behind the Crowd
Black of My Eyes
Dead Rabbit
Infested
Blade Between the Teeth
Take Me To Hell
Violent Obsession
Murder8
Twelve/Seventeen
Open Wounds
King of the Rats
Photos & Words – David McEneaney @experimentzero