The Guardian finally worked out that metal fans are not insane and don't eat babies by going along to Deathfest VII at The Underworld in Camden:
Headliners are Master, but there are also bands including Disavowed, Amputated, the Monolith Deathcult, Arsebreed, Infected Disarray, Bloodstream and Toxocara (itself a side project of Prostitute Disfigurement). This is extreme metal, this is death metal - a son of thrash metal and brother of black metal. This is as brutal and bloody as it gets. And having the baddest name is part of it. They are competing with names such as Anal Vomit of Peru, or Dying Fetus from Maryland, or Melbourne's finest, Disembowelment.
Baddest name? None of that strikes as much fear in the Londonist office as Coldplay. We now have an evacuation protocol in place in case any of their 'music' is accidentally triggered during the day. On Friday M@ was trapped behind a blast door and we had no choice, but to watch through the little porthole as he writhed around the floor in agony.
Speaking of Amputated, Mark Brown says:
Their sound is intense and animalistic. If scientists at Cern's particle accelerator were to shoot a pig rather than protons round their 27km facility it might sound like the Bristol band's lead singer.
But that it's all good harmless fun is the point of the article:
"in all the years we've been doing the shows we've never had any trouble, whereas you go to a trendy nightclub and there'll be fight after fight after fight. I think death metal has come under unfair criticism over the years."
Speaking of unfair criticism, the BBC have an interesting read about anti tattoo views in the workplace.
