The Church of Pungent Stench, Inveracity, Wreckage, Bio-Cancer, Ixpapalotl // Kuttaro Club, Athens, Greece // 01.03.2014
Another Saturday night leads us to the metal nights of Athens. One of the most anticipated live shows of 2014, Pungent Stench with the 2 out of 3 members of the original line up as The Church Of Pungent Stench. Along with them, Inveracity (Brutal Death legends), Wreckage, Bio-Cancer and Ixpapalotl. I have to say I noticed the same Greek bad habit of leaving the room in front of the stage empty and seeing them crowded in the back (up until Inveracity came out). Why? Come closer no band will bite you, and they’ll be able to perform a lot better than in this silly distance (and I’m not referring to the guys in the back at the bar having a drink).
Ixpapalotl hit the stage at about 8 o’ clock and took everybody by storm with their material off the album “Corpse Republic” given free in their merch (one could also see the guys from Pungent Stench there for their own merch). Got to respect them for that move. Their style is a Death/Grind mixture of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and a bit of Vader just for the Thrashing speed of the whole material. People enjoyed their show and cheered them as much as possible after they were done!
Coming up next we have the soon-to-be-established Death/Thrashers Bio-Cancer. Imagine a lethal mixture of classic Kreator and Destruction with Morbid Saint and Hypnosia. They mostly played material from their amazing debut album “Ear Piercing Thrash” (“Backstabbed Again”, “Ear Piercing Thrash”, “Spread The Cancer”, “Killing Habit”, “Your Punisher”) as well as 3 new songs off the upcoming “Tormenting The Innocent” record (“Tormenting The Innocent”, “Obligated To Incest”, “Pure Hate”) which were even better than the debut material, reminding the writer even a bit of Sadus (remember “Chemical Exposure” and “Swallowed In Black”?). They’ve been really energetic, it was just that the crowd wasn’t in for Thrash metal that night.
Wreckage started bringing the crowd a bit closer with their 90s Swedish Death metal sound and their amazing frontman (one of the craziest guys I’ve ever seen on stage cheers man!!). Those guys from Salonica are usually great (remember Head Cleaner for instance). Also covered “Crawl” by Entombed and brought a lot of feelgood attitude to the show.
Next we have the legendary Inveracity. A Brutal death metal band in the vein of Suffocation and more, hit the stage with power ready to kick lots of asses. In comes the band with “Unconscious” and the first small mosh pits start to happen. We heard songs off “Circle Of Perversion” (“Ejaculation Over Mutilation”, “Multiple Homicide”, “Repulsed By Vaginal Reek”, “Savagely Beaten”, “Blood Of Impurity”, “She Died In My Arms”) “Extermination Of Millions” (“Visions Of Coming Apocalypse”, “Forced Prostitution”, “Extermination Of Millions”) and 3 new tracks off their upcoming album. Every track was built to destroy the place and the pits were small yet deadly. I can just wait for the new one after this crushing performance!
Then the most perverted old school Deathsters known to the scene: Pungent Stench. After the whole talk about the name of Pungent Stench between Rector Stench and Martin “El Cochino” Schirenc, one thing there can’t be stopped: rock n roll (in the words of the guys themselves in the merchandise bench, really cool guys cheers!). On topic the band hit the stage without further ado with their self titled track off the “For God Your Soul…For Me Your Flesh” record and the crowd headbanged like crazy. We heard stuff from “Been Caught Buttering” (“And Only Hunger Remains”, “Happy Re-birthday”, “Shrunken and Mummified Bitch”, “Sick Bizarre Defaced Creation”, “Splatterday Night Fever”) “For God Your Soul…For Me Your Flesh” (the title track, “Blood, Pus and Gastric Juice”, “Bonesawer”, “Just Let Me Rot”, “Suspended Animation”) “Club Mondo Bizarre” for Members Only” (“Fuck Bizarre”, “Klyster Boogie”, “True Life”) “Extreme Deformity” EP (“Extreme Deformity”, “Mucous Secretion”) “Split w/ Disharmonic Orchestra” (“Dead Body Love”, “Rip You Without Care”) “Dirty Rhymes and Psychotronic Beats” EP (“Viva La Muerte” the show closer and their most rocking track). Every single member enjoyed playing for all of us and rocking out to the old school Pungent Stench material. After the closing of “Viva La Muerte” everybody was with a smile on their faces having watched a legendary Death metal band performing in front of them. May not have been the original line up but we had one hell of a headbanging time that night!
Thanks to every band that made this event possible and of course the venue owners and let’s hope that not only will we see more of that in the future, but also that the local bands will get more support from the whole of the Greek metal scene. Those bands deserve it to the last bit.
Report: John Savvidis