South of Salem (supported by High Parasite/In Search of Sun) - The Cathouse, Glasgow Tuesday 1st April 2025
Photos by Mr Rockfiend
Bradford-formed High Parasite have been making quite a lot of noise (musically and otherwise) since announcing their presence to the world last year. Formed around the unique vocal talents of Aaron Stainthorpe, longstanding frontman of doom metal maestros My Dying Bride (as well as two faces well-known to the Rockfiend team on bass and guitar!), the band released debut album ‘Forever We Burn’ in September of last year. Arriving on stage, wearing a completely white suit, Stainthorpe was in stark contrast to the rest of the black clad band, which included a scary looking mask-wearing Tomb on bass. High Parasite presented a masterclass in Gothic death metal, with Stainthorpe’s wonderful baritone-cum-throaty vocals menacingly filling the room. It was a rip-roaring, hard and incredibly heavy romp through songs from the album, consisting of ‘Parasite’, ‘Concentric Nightmares’, Grave Intentions’, ‘Wasn’t Human’, Hate Springs Eternal’, the brilliant debut single ‘Let It Fail’ and the album title track ‘Forever We Burn’. High Parasite isn’t just a side project for Stainthorpe. It’s a working, recording, touring band and I look forward to them returning to Glasgow for a headline show, perhaps around Halloween! What a wonderfully frightening Gothic night of death metal that would be!
Stage changeovers were impressively fast, so it seemed no time at all before some foreboding sounding intro music welcomed South of Salem to the Cathouse stage. It’s a small stage and a structural supporting pillar that partially blocks the view is a pain in the backside… but that meant nothing to singer Joey Draper, guitarists Kodi Kasper and Denis Sheriff, bassist Dee Vower and drummer James Clarke, who made a huge noise in the small space with the menacing, heavy opener ‘Let Us Prey’ from 2020 debut album The Sinner Takes It All’, complete with bursts of smoke and big sparks at the front of the stage. A brand new track, a brilliantly dark and heavy reworking of Australian pop duo Savage Garden’s ‘To The Moon and Back’ followed, with a fantastic reception from the Glasgow audience before ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ acted as a reminder of South of Salem’s melodic sensibilities with its catchy, almost commercial-like chorus. What a start!
As previously mentioned, the band were playing the Death of the Party album in full from beginning to end, starting with the brutal one two of ‘Vultures’ and ‘Static’, allowing guitarists Kasper and Sheriff ample opportunity to showcase their phenomenal guitar skills and captivating stage presence. Draper is the perfect frontman, with his impressive voice, which never sounds strained, soaring across the venue on ‘Jet Black Eyes’ as the coffin backdrops flashed eerily behind him. If you were looking for a bit of respite from the heavy metal aural assault, you weren’t going to find it in the Cathouse, as the band continued on with the riff-filled ‘Stitch the Wound’ and the frantic ‘Left for Dead’, with the rhythm section of Dee Vower on bass and James Clarke on drums driving the tracks along with an intensity that was literally shaking the floor!
With more smoke, more sparks and some synchronised dancing in the background by Lolly Draper (wife of Joey) and Georgia Blehs, it was a visual feast and impressive stage show, considering the size of the stage. The brilliantly catchy ‘Hellbound Heart’, the kind of modern hard rock/metal song that would do well on commercial rock radio in the United States, led to the speaker bursting riff of ‘Bad Habits (Die Hard)’, with some vocal help from the Glasgow choir at the chorus. The title track of the album ‘Death of the Party’, another heavy yet melodic earworm, the moody ‘A Life Worth Dying For’ and ‘Villain’ brought the main set to a close before South of Salem returned to the stage for an encore of two songs from their debut album, the brooding, atmospheric ‘Demons Are Forever’ and fan favourite, the excellent hard rocker ‘Cold Day in Hell’.
As they posed at the front of the stage for a photo with metal horn raising fans in the background, South of Salem must’ve known that they had played a pretty perfect gig in Glasgow. It was a high energy show from beginning to end, showcasing everything that is special about the band. The music is often dark, moody and heavy, probably even more so in a live setting, yet each song also has a brilliantly melodic sensibility that will have you yearning for more. The band have honed their stagecraft to perfection, looking like experienced rock star as they prowl the stage, engaging the audience with every note played and every lyric sung. South of Salem won’t be playing smaller venues for much longer, as they are an arena-ready band destined for much bigger things. The South of Salem party certainly isn’t dead; it’s very much alive and kicking!
South of Salem’s Death of the Party Tour ends with a sold out show at the Underworld in London on Friday 4th April. Check out their music and merch online at www.southofsalem.com and stream on the usual streaming platforms.
