Christopher Nosnibor
It’s very early doors this evening, even considering there’s a club night starting at 10:30. I arrive at 6:05 to find a substantial queue of goths who are clearly keen. When they open up at 6:15, I enter the venue to the full-length version of ‘This Corrosion’, followed by ‘Play For Today’ by The Cure. Welcome to Leeds, goth city. Making a brief jaunt around the UK in support of new album Liminal, Corpus Delicti couldn’t have chosen a better city, or a more fitting venue to stop by. It’s well-timed, too: the album’s been out long enough to have bedded in with those who’ve heard it (which it seems is a fair portion of the audience), meaning that they’re not all waiting for the older material, and are every bit as enthusiastic for the new songs.
They’re also pretty enthusiastic for support act Auger. For me, they’re rather harder to take to, but nod due to lack of assessable material. Quite the opposite, in fact. Auger are very much from the lighter, poppies end of the goth spectrum, with some anthemic moments and at times inviting comparisons to Depeche Mode. The live drums add significantly to the dynamic. The live guitar less so, as it’s not particularly easy to pick out in the mix, and it’s the programmed bass on the backing which really fills out the sound. With synths, additional percussion, and – possibly – backing vocals all coming from the laptop, there’s an element of feeling like the pair are only doing a third of the work. The sound is, as one would expect, pretty slick. Singer Kyle Blaqk emotes, clutches his breast, and bounces around, and at times they come across more like a goth Erasure than anything else.
Auger
Corpus Delicti really are a cut above in every way. Sonically, they’re outstanding, and so, so tight. They have their sound absolutely nailed, from the meaty bass grooves and powerhouse tribal percussion to the brittle, chorus-heavy guitar sound, which rings out crisp and clear. And they give it all to the performance – not in a cheesy way, they don’t try for audience participation, but exude presence and radiate electricity. They seem to enjoy themselves, too: guitarist Franck is positively smiley throughout, and even when he experiences a minor issue with his pedals, he shrugs it off and is back in the mix in moments, still smiling and pacing about the stage with a restless energy. He and bassist Chrys are equally lively, swapping positions and constantly on the move. The whole band is very much stage forward, presenting what you might call an attacking field in football, bringing the show to the audience.
Corpus Delicti
Liminal, their first in almost thirty years, is a corker, and just as it begins with the high-impact, drama-filled ‘Crash’, so they open the set. They attack it with a rare intensity, and an energy they sustain for the duration of the set. Said set draws substantially on the new album, but equally pulls from all corners of their extensive catalogue, with ‘Appealing Skies’ and ‘Motherland’ land back-to-back representing 1995’s Obsessions fairly early, and landing ‘Lorelei’ and ‘Chaos’ in the second half of the set. Singer Sébastien is a strong presence, by turns menacing and stoic, impassive: he’s got moves and shapes and at times, he looks at an individual audience member in a way that’s capable of penetrating the soul. I certainly felt it.
Corpus Delicti
After closing the main set with the slower title track from the new album, they don’t take too much coaxing to return to the stage to deliver a triple-whammy of back-catalogue classics, with a bruising ‘Noxious’, followed by ‘Saraband’ and ‘Broken’.
They thank us for a great night, and say they’ve enjoyed themselves. So have we, very much indeed.
Aural Aggravation 