Live Review: Ingested with PaRtY-CaNnOn & Celestial Sanctuary at O2 Academy2 Islington, London (22/12/22)

Seasons beatings, everyone!

It’s just a few days until Christmas and things are about to get extreme in London. Manchester’s death icons Ingested are in town, bringing a sack full of goodies, that include support from slam/brutal Scots PaRtY-CaNnOn and Cambridge’s Celestial Sanctuary.

It’s great to see so many people getting down early to the O2 Academy2 Islington. Opening band Celestial Sanctuary get a decent crowd and they pay that off with around half an hour of head-banging intense death metal. They’re a super-tight unit that quickly hit their stride and clearly grow in confidence as the crowd grows, and the heads bang. If anyone had any ideas about pacing themselves, saving some energy for the bands that follow, Celestial Sanctuary ruined that. In the best way possible.

We’re all expecting PaRtY-CaNnOn next but to that’s not who we get. No, instead we get a walking and talking present, Santa, the Grinch, an elf, and Jesus playing PaRtY-CaNnOn tracks!

Sike! It’s just PaRtY-CaNnOn in disguise! Blending their savage slam sound with festive frivolities and sending the crowd into throes of ecstasy. Beach balls, Circle pits, walls of death, an inflatable whale, crowd-surfing, whale surfing… it’s f**king wild and it’s immense. PaRtY-CaNnOn may not take themselves too seriously but they can play and they can deliver. Doing both tonight and putting the silliest of smiles on every face in the venue.

It looks like PaRtY-CaNnOn may have stolen the show but Ingested have seen the challenge laid out before them and are more than up to the task. Especially as the crowd are near-rabid for the slam kings.

The lights go out, and the sound of John Williams’ Christmas Star from the Home Alone films rings out. Yes, Ingested were serious when they gave these shows a festive spin. Greeted to the stage with a roar, what follows is simply a fantastic showcase of death metal performed by a band at their absolute best. The new tracks from their recently released album, Ashes Lie Still, are as brutal live as classic Ingested tracks.

Somehow, the crowd are even more alive and the number of bodies going over the barrier see nonchalant security suddenly forced into action. The pits are taking up most of the venue, yet no-one is having a bad time. Jason Evans is the ringmaster and we’re the animals performing to his, and the band’s, every whim.

It’s over far too quickly, which is testament to not just Ingested, but all the bands on the bill. That a night of extreme flew by in energetic and exciting fashion. There might be a few sores and bruises afterwards, but absolutely nobody is complaining.

Merry Christmas you filthy animals, and a happy new year.