Bodysnatcher / The Asylum / Birmingham

Back to one of my favourite venues, Asylum in Birmingham, home to some of the best alternative and metal shows you could hope to see. And tonight, Friday 13th (!) we’re looking forward to a stacked bill, as Bodysnatcher bring their “Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home” to town.

First up on stage are US hardcore band Big Ass Truck from San Bernardino, California. A band I’d not heard anything about, but boy, by the end of their short set – I was well aware of what they were ! As with most opening sets, it’s only a 30min sampler, but….. WOW ! Big Ass Truck, don’t mess about, this is just pure, straight up, no nonsense hardcore brutality. The Asylum was packed and the audience were fired up by their thick punishing riffs and powerful breakdowns. Made for mayhem, that’s exactly what the eager crowd got !

The energy just flowed through tracks like Beef and From the Grave and their most recent single Pushed Beyond the Brink got an airing too. By the time they ended their set with Big Ass Truck you’d have thought the headliners were about to finish up, the room was on fire. A real good opening to the night, more hardcore in style than perhaps the rest of the bill but there was some great groove riffs in there. A band well worth watching out for on these shores again sometime.

Setlist

Beef

From the Grave

Pushed Beyond The Brink

Big Ass Beer

Big Ass Dog

Big Ass Truck

No time to waste, a short break for fresh air and it’s time for some US spinkick deathcore, courtesy of Psycho-Frame. Their sound was much darker than Big Ass Truck and they utilised two singers, who constantly prowled the stage. One in a jacket, hood up hiding his face delivering some fantastic guttural roars, whilst the other more casually dressed, delivering the more rap element of the vocals. The contrast and connection between the two was fantastic, and on such a small stage space, they seemed almost uncannily aware of where each other were.

The set was pure chaos, at every chance they called for the pit to ramp it up, and spin faster, and the Brummy faithful certainly obliged.

This is largely due to their two vocalists constantly bouncing around the stage, swapping

The riffs are relentless and the breakdowns are hard backing up the energetic pair of Michael Colter.

Opening song Still Water Salvation set the scene, and the energy just didn’t dip once, the crowd responding to every drumskin smash and plucked note, and the circle pit was in full force, none more so that during the very impressive The Plot to Nuke the Midwest.

Psycho-Frame can be described in one word – relentless !

Setlist

Still Water Salvation

The Portal

The Plot To Nuke the Midwest

Blueprints for Idol Genocide

Dragged Nazarene

No Revives

I Won’t Be There to Watch You Go

24 Hours Left

Next up, were genuine deathcore headliners in their own right, Ingested. Formed in Manchester in 2006 they are Sean Hynes (guitar), Lyn Jeffs (drums), Thomas O'Malley (bass) and Andrew Virrueta (guitar). Following the sacking of former vocalist Josh Davies, vocal duties on this tour fall to Adam Mercer.

You know exactly what you’ll get from Ingested – raw energy, power and menace. Sean and Andrew were like demons on the guitar driving out frenzied riff after frenzied riff and the crowd lapped up every single note. The energy in the room was electric, and apart from the vast pit in the middle of the room, there wasn’t an inch to move ! But the pit wasn’t empty – oh no….. it swirled, and bounced and moved constantly as if it had a life of it’s own.

Adam (visually think of a young Magnum PI) did a fantastic job on vocals, and seemed a great fit with the band. (You’re going to make me feel real old now and ask ‘who’s Magnum PI ?  )A huge figure up on stage, with a commanding deep voice, he sounded perfect and visually gave the band a ferocious presence.

Pantheon was a real highlight, tight and brutal it wound the pit crowd up to another level all together. Rounding out the set with Invidious Ingested had the audience in the palm of their hand, and left them gasping for breathe, and in need of fresh air before Bodysnatcher arrived.

Setlist

Nefarious Tongues

Altar of Flesh

Merciless Reflection

Pantheon

Better Off Dead

Impending Dominance

Invidious

Bodysnatcher are an American deathcore band from Florida founded in 2014, and I was so looking forward to hearing some of the tracks from their new album “Hell is Here, hell is Home” live for the first time, which hits the shops on 10thApril 2026 (and you can order a copy from their website HERE). With a crowd already ready to explode Bodysnatcher stepped out in to the spotlights to roars and cheers. What followed was simply relentless. This was pure, unadulterated, brutal deathcore, delivered by one of the US’s finest exponents.

A few surfers braved the journey to the front, but with only a couple on security, the numbers remainded sensibly low….. but that didn’t stop the pit…. Oh no, it just compensated and ramped up the atmosphere even more. It was dripping wet, it was so hot in the asylum now, doors open to the smoking area outside, made .ittle difference.

Having opened the set with The Maker from the forthcoming album the tone had been set for a brutally heavy set. This continued with Wired for Destruction from 2022’s “Bleed Abide” with its fast double bass beats driving it along like a relentless run away train, with Kyle’s intense deep guttural vocals made the speakers vibrate.

A real highlight for me was Twelve/Seventeen taken from 2020’s “This Heavy Void” with its pulsing rhythm that just makes you move, it’s irresitable. Likewise Open Wounds 2018’s “Death of Me” delivers a sonic wall of sound that just crushes everything in it’s path, Kyle’s vocals screamed out into the void.

Two more tracks from the forthcoming album “Hell is Here Hell is Home” make a debut, in Violent Obsession and Blade Between the Teeth. The new material slots in perfectly with the older stuff, with Blade Between the Teeth in particular bringing a new even more intense, visceral edge to their sound.

The crowd are lovin’ it, and the pit doesn’t pause for a moment, bodies colliding and bouncing off each other as far as the eye can see.

They end the set with King of the Rats released as a single in 2021. A perfect set ender, taking the intensity to boss level, as it’s introduced to the crowd with the line “Whats up bitch, fuck you”…….

As the songs ends in reverb and distortion, the crowd breathe as one, trying to catch it’s collective breathe. What had I just witnessed ? When we were approved for this one, the PR company told us ‘it’s gonna be chaos’ They weren’t wrong……. In a very very good way.

The Birmingham crowd certainly know their stuff, and they revelled in the high quality hardcore / deathcore laid before them. The energy and engagement was unlike anything I’ve seen at a show for some time.

Big Ass Truck, Psycho-Frame, Ingested and Bodysnatcher were just made for each other, and as a quartet, they delivered a night the good folk of Birmingham will not be able to forget !

What’s that latin saying ? ‘veni vidi vici’….. Bodysnatcher could certainly adapt that to ‘venimus vidimus vicimus’ - We came, We saw, We conquered !

Setlist

The Maker

Wired For Destruction

Behind the Crowd

Black of My Eyes

Dead Rabbit

Infested

Blade Between the Teeth

Take Me To Hell

Violent Obsession

Murder8