Before Type O Negative, the late Peter Steele fronted Carnivore, a snarling, growling, unrefined beast of an ’80s crossover band, with songs covering a caustic and often controversial line of topics, including rape, religious guilt, racial hatred, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and the second coming of the Adolf Christ: in short, the fun things in life.
Naturally, I became a fan.
As such, when I heard that this homage act, approved, endorsed, and at times assisted by the surviving members of the original band, was hitting UK shores, I was eager to see how they held up, having never gotten the chance to check out the OGs. Thus, on the third Friday of July, I took my arse down to the New Cross Inn to satisfy my curiosity.
London support came in the form of Brighton skate-thrash troupe RAD and more local metalcore merchants Perpetual Paradox, whom I last saw supporting Crypta at the latter’s London debut last year. The former opened up proceedings with crowd-baiting vigour, frontman Andy Mansell goading the audience into participation to the point of jumping into the floor at certain points. Musically, the band played a pretty tight and potent setlist, with the likes of ‘Toxic Slime’, ‘Snake on the Tale’, and ‘Gaslighter’ hitting hard and heavy, getting the night started in a fitting fashion. Influences from Slayer, Sepultura, et al were prominent without making the band’s output come off as carbon copying.
Perpetual Paradox also made a point of intermittently taking to the floor for their brand of metalcore mauling, not just the vocalist, Adrian Caucelo, but also a guitarist, Jorge Nunes, too. The rest of the audience certainly seemed to dig their output, both established and upcoming, quite a bit. For me, it was somewhat hit and miss, though I certainly appreciated hearing ‘The Vice’, with its “THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!” refrain, again.
As for the main act—made up of Baron Misuraca on bass and box, Chuck Lenihan on guitars, and Joe Cangelosi on sticks—I thought they did a solid job of keeping the legacy of Steele and Keith Alexander alive. The likes of ‘Carnivore’, ‘Angry Neurotic Catholics’, and ‘Predator’ were hammered out with appropriate ferocity, and the tonal shifts in the epic ‘Male Supremacy’ were handled masterfully. It was also great to finally hear, and sing along to, longstanding favourites ‘Jesus Hitler’ and ‘Race War’ live, the latter preceded by an artfully lyric-evoking anti-racist preamble by Misuraca, and what nettteeThe Type O Negative snippets couched between the Carnivorousness didn’t hurt the audience either.
So, yes Anno Domini did good, despite the technical hiccups toward the end (guitar strings can be cunts at the most inopportune moments!). On top of the musical prowess, the trio strike me as a bunch of solid, amiable blokes, or swell guys as they no doubt say in Brooklyn, even if they have to work on their patter during extended moments of instrumental fuckery. Hope to see this new iteration of post-Armageddon neo-barbarians raiding these shores again in short order. Hell, maybe next time, they’ll heed my request to play my other favourite Carnivore cut, and personal anthem, ‘SMD‘ too.
~MRDA~
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