Bodysnatcher Bring Deathcore Mayhem to London Garage [Show Review]

I think it either speaks to the strength of tonight’s line-up OR someone has made a bit of a mistake, when the best thing to come out of The Inland Empire since Gene Hackman and Helicopter Rotor Blades, metalcore beatdown barbarians BIG-ASS-TRUCK I.E are opening up tonight’s mammoth show. What is particularly impressive about Big Ass Truck is that, despite having a handful of singles and no full-length album to date, they are easily one of the biggest pulls for this crowd tonight, as is evident by the thirty-minute warzone that erupts on the floor and the well-anticipated call and response for absolutely every single song.

Big Ass Truck appeals to the metalcore neanderthal in all of us, creating uniquely distinct, smash-’em-in-the-mouth, basement fight songs that make you want to start a party and set fire to the house simultaneously. Built on a foundation of thick melodies, horrifying vocals, and the occasional well-timed truck-based audio sample, they absolutely level the garage and actually prove to be the perfect choice of party starters after all.

Florida-based deathcore unit Psycho-Frame come into this tour off the back of a hugely successful 2025. Only really taking any time away from an unrelenting touring schedule for the release of their debut record Salvation Laughs In The Face Of A Grieving Mother they have found themselves on some pretty formidable line-ups since and seem poised for a staring role on a UK tour at some point in the not to distant future. What sets Psycho-Frame apart from the rest of this evening’s bands is the aggressive amount of groove they manage to incorporate into their music.

Yes, they sound like they are bringing forth the rapture, and the twin vocal assault is absolutely horrifyingly heavy at points, but they have these incredible bass line hooks and nu-metal fills that have you caught between banging your head and swinging for the fences. There is something extremely captivating and dangerous about Psycho-Frame in the live arena, and they do have a certain amount of nostalgic aura around them, a band that, in my opinion, would have easily fit in amongst the new wave of deathcore in the early 2000s. Ludicrously complex build-ups, Insanely heavy breakdowns… What more do you need?

Ok, so I will start this with an admittance and end it with an apology… Ingested are a band that had never clicked with me personally. Far before the unpleasantness they recently had to endure with their previous lead singer and prior to ever listening to them on record, I saw them perform in a really unfavourable support slot that left me cold on ever spending much more time with them. So hearing that they had recruited former A Wake In Providence and current Death Stroke singer Adam Mercer, my curiosity was piqued. It is not often that a crowd reaction genuinely surprises at this point, but if I tell you that the Garage went absolutely nuclear for Ingested, that would be an understatement.

The wall to wall chaos and breaching of the front barrier was absolutely relentless, and I learnt my lesson about the fragility of age fairly early when I got bodied into the concrete during one of the opening songs. Dead arm and damaged ribs aside, Ingested put on one of the best sets I’ve seen this year. Playing without taking a breath, boot firmly on the neck for the entire duration they are on stage, they terrorise and torment this crowd into a frenzy. They maintain an unfathomable technicality, and the scale and weight of the riffs can be breathtakingly punishing.

A massive shout-out has to go to Adam Mercer for learning these songs on a matter of weeks’ notice for this tour and absolutely nailing his part to a T. There is a very real and palpable violence and anger in this performance that spews out of the stage. With every concrete growl and every tsunami of riffs, it feels like they grow fiercer and are met in intensity by a crowd hanging on every breakdown. It’s unclear who will be taking the full-time job as vocalist of Ingested after this tour, but they appear to be stepping straight into a fantastic situation with a promising future.

Tonight’s headliners are Florida deathcore heavyweights Bodysnatcher, who have been pretty frequent visitors to these shores over the past couple of years and judging by the ovation and violent hysteria on the floor, they have clearly amounted quite the following. Bodysnatcher brings a different flavour to the rest of the bands on tonight’s line-up, maybe not in manic intensity or the horrifying nature of the lyrical content, but definitely in the structure and blunt force trauma in the delivery of their music. There’s a real Cannibal Corpse style, first gear slow and methodical, followed by a sledgehammer to the head and roaring shift to second, where they use slam style breakdowns with minimal build-ups and dish out these insanely hefty riffs with equally as heavy hooks.

They also boast one of the most unknowingly compelling frontmen in Kyle Medina. He walks a line of looking like an excited fan who’s snatched the mic and sounding like a marauding maniac, but he does it in such a laid-back and composed manner that it can be mesmerising given the chaos around him. The set contains the three newly released tracks from the forthcoming album Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home. All three sound just as bile-inducing as they do on record, but noticeable stand out for me is “Violent Obsession” a three and a half minute tangle of technical guitar flurries, machine gun drums and literal murderous howls that speak of ending someone with Butane and Hammers, it’s the complete Bodysnatcher experience in one big slap.

They tear their way through the hour with a stream of floorboard breakers from across their now fairly extensive ten-year, four-album catalogue. “Black Of My Eyes” and “Behind The Crowd” in particular seem to whip up a frenzy of violence on the dance floor, whilst “Murder8” serves as a touching moment for singer Kyle Medina to use his platform and speak out against the dangers of Fentanyl abuse and the devastating effect its had on his family. Capping off their biggest and most successful London show to date with 2021 standalone single “King Of The Rats”, the crowd summon up the energy for one last rampage and sings along to see them home. Bodysnatcher are a devastating band, but their brand of deathcore has so many unique hooks and grooves, and the band themselves have such likeable and entertaining personalities, in the 2026 live arena, they are undoubtedly in the upper tier amongst their class.