When power violence grinders Burnt Body refer to themselves as North West Violência they aren’t adopting some form of hyperbole, rather offering a stark warning to all in the area that the next thirty-minutes is going to get vicious. From the screaming feedback to the punishing grind, there is nothing in Burnt Body’s set that isn’t meant to scare the brown stuff out of you, in a musical sense. With only a single EP, 2025’s excellent Queimadura, to draw from, the band perform a punishing show of rampant drums, darkly twisted guitars and Michael Ribeiro’s barked vocals combine perfectly for thirty-minutes of sheer aural brutality, unrelenting and uncompromising, it’s like being drawn into a bleak misanthropic vortex where nothing and no one can escape. There’s a big breakdown and some hardcore rhythms which has a couple of two-steppers showing their chops early, but nothing can distract from the pure punch in the face that was Burnt Body’s set. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a BB long-sleeve with my name on it.
Brummie goregrinding trio, Fetus Destruction, don’t go easy on Bolton, having their debut album, Biologic Organic Brutal, locked and loaded and ready to fire, they unleash a barrage of brutality featuring a huge low end, squeals and grunts and crushing breakdowns. Yet they also have catchy moments that slam and invoke Grind After Death’s first dance-a-thon. Early blasters Telefunken Magick Fjut, Frankenfetus and Kanada are chock full of dirty riffing and stomping rhythms; there’s even a dalliance with a clean vocal for a brief time. The Alma is filling up nicely and it’s already promising to be a great day as we move into the second half of the set: Butcher’s Yard seems to suit the environs, Beast War is a precursor to what’s to come.
The set is accompanied by a constant feedback loop of buzzing noise, giving the chuggy riffs an almost mean atmosphere. The BPM remains high and there is plenty of snare abuse, yet Bolton is here to party and to send the festival off on a high, filling the pit area with moving bodies for set closers, the grinding Half Three and the speedster Kōtō Concrete Mixer.