Live Review: Cannibal Corpse, Disentomb, Entrails Eradicated

If the death metal genre ever spawned royalty, it could be no one else but Cannibal Corpse. With the right mix of controversy and chops, the Florida-by-the-way-of-Buffalo five-piece have reigned over the genre like de facto kings. And, as it would be for a visit from a monarch, The Hi-Fi tonight is packed out early with the crazies and loyalists jockeying to get in the best position to watch the procession. Perth crew Entrails Eradicated do a solid job in front of the big crowd. Playing through a hyper-speed tempest of technical riffs and blast beats, the five-piece whip the nascent pit into activity with a handful of numbers from their debut Viralocity EP.

With brawny riffs and a barrage of modern slam riffs, Brisbane's Disentomb come on tonight sounding like the Australian death metal scene's answer to Dying Fetus. Teasing the audience with tastes of new material like Forced Adornment Of The Funerary Crown and offering up choice cuts – like Subterranean Burial – from their 2010 long-player Sunken Chambers Of Nephilim, Disentomb's skillful interpretation of modern death metal has the crowd psyched for tonight's main attraction.

When the curtain draws back, Cannibal Corpse are ready and waiting. Frontman George 'Corpsegrinder' Fischer launches into his unmatchable headbang and from this point on, everyone in the crowd is just trying to keep up. What's incredible about Cannibal Corpse is that they're one of the rare bands who've consistently gotten incrementally better, which each release, and this year's Torture record is testament to this. Some of the night's finest material is taken from the new record; the pit-friendly thrasher Demented Aggression is everything you could want from a set opener. The smoldering mid-tempo Scourge Of Iron showcases the unparalleled tightness of the Alex Webster/Paul Mazurkiewicz rhythm section and As Deep As The Knife Will Go captures the virtuosic abilities of axemen Pat O'Brien and Rob Barrett. Of course, as phenomenal as their latter-day material sounds screaming through The Hi-Fi's PA, there's still a visceral thrill to be had when some of the Chris Barnes-era classics are unleashed. As soon as the bass intro to Hammer Smashed Face drops out, necks throughout the venue snap and distend in apparent glee. This reaction is again elicited by garishly-titled staples like I Cum Blood, Fucked With A Knife and Born In A Casket.

In mixing the old with the new, Cannibal Corpse play a set that is mammoth. The band touches on every one of their 12 studio albums to the delight of the packed room. By the time the quintet close out proceedings with a virulent rendition of Stripped, Raped And Strangled there's not an iota of doubt in the venue that Cannibal Corpse are, truly, death metal kings.