Millennium Of Blood – Actress & Bishop – Sunday November 22th 2009

MoB stalwarts Adust joined the lineup at short notice and got the evening off to a fine start. Aside from the health issues affecting Matt and Rob, Danny's destroyed snare didn't help - although Seregon quickly helped out. Adust provided as slick a set as ever with Rob in fine form as frontman.

Guest screams seemed to be the order of the day, with Chili Phil and James from Seregon contributing memorable vocal work. Other than that it was business as usual with “Prinzessin” being dedicated to Liz whose birthday had fallen a couple of days before the gig. The New Year should see Adust go on to receive the acclaim they deserve. Setlist: “Enmity”, “Fall Of Man”, “The Evil That Dwells Within”, “Prinzessin”, “Blinded By Ignorance”, “Forevermore”.

Flayed Disciple upped the brutality levels considerably and bludgeoned their way through a ferocious set. Currently looking to recruit a bass player they lined up with two guitarists, drummer and vocalist, and their overall sound didn't suffer much it has to be said. When they were joined by Seregon's bass player for one song the resultant dynamic was crushing. Hopefully their quest for a bassist will be swift.

The song titles give the game away, but I'll spell it out anyway as they unleashed half an hour or so of punishing death metal. In between hostilities the vocalist was entertaining with his crowd addresses and the band were confident enough to unveil two new songs. A furious Slayer cover was the icing on the cake of a superb display – this was their first appearance in Birmingham and hopefully they'll return soon. Setlist; “Torso Fucked”, “Dead Disfigured Babies”, “Drawn Viscera”, “Exodus”, “Ejaculate While Killing”, “Angel Of Death”.

Seregon weren't to be upstaged and combined the surgical precision of thrash with the brutality of death metal throughout their exhilarating display. The new EP/mini album featured prominently and they've clearly been in the rehearsal room for some time as this was as tight a set as you'd wish to see.

They too finished with a cover – in their case Sepultura – and their original material was superb. “The Removal Of The Spine” featured a truly massive opening riff, whilst “Fuck Shit Up” is anthemic to put it mildly and will start pits off all over the country I'm sure. Faultless musicianship combined with a committed and at times insane performance from frontman James to round off an entertaining evening in spectacular fashion. Setlist; “Disposable Suffering”, “The Removal Of The Spine”, “Denizens”, “Kingdom Of The Blind”, “Apocalyptic Visions”, “The Company”, “Fuck Shit Up”, “Cancer Race”, “Arise”.