Welcome to Bristol; where gigs are held on boats and you might accidentally end up drinking someone else’s piss (not speaking from experience…).

Despite whether or not you have a massive fear of being on a floating pile of metal (haha…), wood and more sweat than you’d probably care to think about, you get to see some pretty awesome bands in the process.

Born in October 2015, hailing from the second largest city in Denmark, first support Baest opened the show with a full-on smack to the face. Their name, translating into ‘Beast’ or ‘Brute’ in their native language, fitting perfectly with the band’s vicious sound. With tracks spanning across two albums and several EPss (some personal favourites being Crosswhore and Danse Macabre), they are an excellent choice to be opening for the likes of Decapitated.

A little closer to home (if you can count Horsham close to Bristol), Decapitated sought support from UK-based Dyscarnate. Having long flown the flag of UK death metal, they’ve toured all over the world while taking their reign of brutality with them. There was not a single person aboard Thekla that wasn’t having a great time, which really says something because a lot of the time metalheads like to pretend they couldn’t care less about the band they have paid good money to see. Opening their set a fan favourite; ‘Kingdom of the Blind’, they proceeded to thrash their way through the next 45 minutes, showing everyone in the place just how well they do brutal.

Ścięty is how you say their name in their native language but as I have no idea how to pronounce that we’ll just call them Decapitated. Having flown over from Krosno in Poland to once again shower us with a onslaught of blast beasts, some of the heaviest riffs this side of Poznan and dreads that would envy many (legitimately they were the longest dreads I have ever seen). Heavy as fuck with the right amount of breakdowns, they give you all you want and more. The pit was everything you could want from a death metal gig, with just the right amount of brutality as well as just an all round a fantastic atmosphere. All in all, a fantastic show — 10/10 would thrash again.