Photos by Zombitrol
Tuesday, September 17th – Lee’s Palace, Toronto
An appearance by New Orleans’ black death thrashers Goatwhore used to be a regular occurrence in Toronto, as they’ve toured hard throughout the last couple decades. But COVID times put a damper on that, and it’s taken a while for their touring machine to get back into full swing. For a band who lives over 2000km away, their recent headlining show at Lee’s Palace felt strangely like a homecoming.
Goatwhore
The evening began with Toronto’s hooded black metal menace Thantifaxath. Although a local add to this show, they already had a limited run on this tour, and thus fit in nicely with the rest of the bill. The band delivered another set of their unique brand of sonically varied raw black metal. Thantifaxath has become one of Toronto’s most internationally well-known underground metal bands, so their sound has obviously struck a chord with many around the world.
Necrofier
Houston’s Necrofier were by far the most atmospheric band of the evening. Their southern melodic black metal got a significant reaction from the crowd. Drummer Dobber Beverly’s machine-gun fills and intense double-bass enveloped the room, penetrated only by vocalist Bakka Larson’s vicious shrieks. Their short set was a mix of both their albums, leaning on 2023’s Burning Shadows in the Southern Night. It’s a captivating album with a sound that contrasts the aesthetics of Swedish black metal with a tinge of southern rock and blues. Show up early for this band.
Vitriol
Vitriol made a few metal headlines recently when the Portland outfit announced that they were down to a two-piece; vocalist/guitarist Kyle Rasmussen and drummer Matt Kilner. This occurred after bassist/vocalist Adam Roethlisberger quit the band mid-tour, with Rasmussen admitting that it was because of working friction between the two of them. Despite this setback both Rasmussen and Kilner poured everything they had into their set of frantic death metal. If this is making the best of a bad situation, they should both feel proud of themselves. Rasmussen seemed especially energized. Apparently, they were using some bass backing tracks, but it wasn’t very noticeable (that’s not a bass player joke btw). Like Necrofier they populated their short stage time with tracks from both their albums, favouring this year’s Suffer & Become.
Goatwhore
Goatwhore’s set mostly drew from their most recent album, 2022’s Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven. Standouts where the cutthroat riffs of “Death From Above” and the bass-heavy thrasher “Victory is the Lightning of Destruction.” The rest of their set were mostly hits from across their catalogue like “Alchemy of the Black Sun Cult,” “Apocalyptic Havoc,” “Carving Out The Eyes of God,” and of course, “F.B.S.” Vocalist Ben Falgoust dominated the stage and continuously whipped up the crowd with his infectiously positive attitude. Guitarist Sammy Duet and bassist Robert "TA" Coleman consistently traded positions, which gave everyone a good look at Duet’s amazing solos. Drummer Zack Simmons, looking more ripped than ever, is probably delivering the best performances of his career. Goatwhore is band that has paid their dues over the years and are now putting in top-notch shows as a headliner with quality new material, and an extensive and solid back catalogue. Let’s hope we see them back in Canada sooner than later, maybe with a new album in tow.
The North American Venonmous Evocation Tour continues through September 30th. You can purchase Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven here, or listen to it in full below.
Thank you to Season of Mist
Sunday, September 15th - Lee's Palace, Toronto
Seeing Deicide on a Sunday evening gave me a bit of a chuckle. What a perfect way to cap off the Lord’s Day. The Florida death metal icons returned to Toronto to promote their 13th album, Banished By Sin, and they brought along a surprisingly eclectic set of openers.
Deicide
Atlanta’s black/gothic metallers Cloak were up first with a short set primarily drawn from their latest album, Black Flame Eternal. Their atmospheric riffs weren’t without a few thrashy moments, and that made them a good lead-in band for the death metal to follow. These sudden flashes of ferocity gives the band a more unique signature than some of their gothic contemporaries. With a sound and stage presence that would equally appeal to fans of bands like Judas Priest or Celtic Frost, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them on more varied tours like this in the future.
Cloak
Up next were Nashville melodic death outfit Inferi. They are currently working on a new album, and they mixed a few new songs into their set, including recent singles “Tainted Pact,” and “Eyes of Boundless Black.” As the most modern sounding band on the bill, and without a new album in three years, you would think they would have the hardest time whipping up the crowd. But thanks mostly due to an excellent performance by vocalist Stevie Boiser, they managed to elicit the first mosh pits of the evening. Boiser’s unique stage poses and positive energy infected the crowd, who initially seemed skeptical about the band. This is perhaps because their more melodic moments have aspects in common with metalcore, which can be kryptonite to an extreme death metal crowd, but Inferi won them over rather quickly.
Krisiun
It's difficult to write about Brazil’s Krisiun. I’ve seen them many times since the early 2000’s, and I mean this in the best possible way, not much has changed. But this is a good thing. I don’t like using “metal speak” too much in my reviews or interviews. Written down I think it looks kind of silly. Words like “brutal” and “crushing.” But what else can you do when it comes to a band like Krisiun? A band who for nearly 35 years has faithfully stuck to their story. You absolutely know what you’re going to get when you see a Krisiun show or listen to their albums. This is the meat and potatoes of extreme metal. Three massive, bearded brothers playing the most brutal death metal possible, with the most crushing riffs possible. I’m no scene guard, but I can easily say that Krisiun is metal that is not for posers. I hadn’t seen them in a few years, and they delivered nothing short of a perfect death metal set spanning their entire career, and the crowd was certainly appreciative. Krisiun has become the quintessential Brazilian death metal band.
Deicide
Deicide is arguably another band that hasn’t changed too much over the years. The main debate by fans has mostly been about the band before and after the departure of guitarists the Hoffman brothers in 2004. Although the quality of the band’s early albums can’t be denied, it also can’t be denied that the band has been far more consistent and increasingly heavier in their last two decades without them. Although it’s been a tall order to equal the sonic barrage of sound that was their last unquestioned classic, 2006’s The Stench of Redemption, each subsequent album has still had a sense of vitality and intensity that had been missing by the end of the Hoffman’s tenure in the band. Banished By Sin is an above-average outing, with songs like “Bury The Cross… With Your Christ,” and “Woke From God” fitting easily into the setlist next to songs from their early albums. Deicide 2024 is the ubiquitous vocalist/bassist Glen Benton and drummer Steve Asheim, along with guitarists Kevin Quirion and Taylor Nordberg. When it came to older songs, Nordberg was a particular standout, blazing through the subtler moments on tracks like “Sacrificial Suicide” with a focussed intensity that elicited mid-song bursts of applause from the crowd. Despite the first half of the set being slightly marred by sound mixing issues (Asheim’s drum volume both on and offstage remained an issue until Benton mildly dressed down his sound person), Deicide delivered a tight, upbeat performance, including powerful and on-point delivery from Benton. I spoke to a few people who said it was their first time seeing Deicide. This is definitely a great death metal tour for an introduction to the band, or for old school fans looking to hear some classics.
Deicide
The Banished By Sin North American Tour continues through October 11th. The album is available now on Reigning Phoenix Music. All three videos from the album could easily get you in trouble in the wrong place, but you can watch them here.
Thank you to Adrenaline PR
Thursday, July 4th - Lee's Palace, Toronto
Tomb Mold and Horrendous’ North American tour, entitled Enraptured By Fate’s Tangled Thread, kicked off on a steamy summer night at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. The evening began with a brief set of technical death metal from Toronto’s Gutvoid, featuring 2 former members of one of my favourite 00’s local bands, Adytum. They previewed the song “For We Are Many” from their upcoming EP Breathing Obelisk. But the standout was the progressive banger, “The One That Dwells Beyond Time,” from their 2022 full-length Durance of the Lightless Horizons, which provided a nice balance to the rest of their frenetic jazz-like songs.
Gutvoid
Philadelphia’s Horrendous were up next, playing songs from their latest Season of Mist album, 2023’s Ontological Mysterium. The band has been labelled as progressive death metal, and their live set certainly adds credence to that label. Each song is performed with a certain flair that slightly lengthens and sonically enhances them. Not in a jam band kind of way, but with a certain embellishment that brings the music to life in a way that is only possible in a live setting. The thrashy “Neon Leviathan” was particularly memorable, as well as the epic closer “The Death Knell Ringeth.”
Horrendous
For Tomb Mold, it would be hard to ask for a better start to a tour. A packed hometown show in one of Toronto’s most legendary venues. By the time they started their playthrough of their latest album, 2023’s The Enduring Spirit, the room had reached a near shoe-melting temperature. The vast majority of the crowd had been there since doors had opened, but the heat did not diminish their enthusiasm in the slightest.
Tomb Mold
The obvious standout of a Tomb Mold performance is drummer/vocalist Max Klebanoff. Watching Klebanoff seamlessly transition in and out of blastbeats while performing vocals is worthy of the ticket price alone. Guitarist Derrick Vella also stood out with his short-shorts, fretless guitar, and constant movement. Tomb Mold’s music could be considered technical death metal, with riffs that remind me of Quebec’s Martyr. But there is a more avant-garde aspect to the sound that evokes thoughts of 00s mathcore artists like Psyopus. It makes sense that they’ve got such a wide appeal among extreme metal fans. After the album playthrough they briefly exited the stage before returning for a 2-song encore. The hot and smelly crowd then promptly filed out of the building with visible grins on their faces. For death metalheads, it was an evening of pure bliss.
You can listen to both Tomb Mold’s The Enduring Spirt and Horrendous’ Ontological Mysterium below. Check out "For We Are Many" from Gutvoid’s upcoming EP, Breathing Obelisk, which comes out on August 30th.
Thank you to Season of Mist
Saturday, March 16th - History, Toronto
It was a nostalgic sight for a Saturday evening in Toronto, as goths, rivetheads, metallers, and 90s alt rockers of all ages converged at Drake’s venue History, for a sold-out industrial extravaganza from Ministry, Gary Numan, and Front Line Assembly. It’s a lineup that had teased Canada with multiple U.S. runs, and tickets were snapped up fast.
Front Line Assembly were shrouded in darkness as they ran through a brief set made up of mostly classic songs like “Plasticity” and “Mind Phaser.” Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber’s act hasn’t changed that much since the late 80s, and frankly it’s a good thing. It was a bit odd seeing them as an opening act, and the short set definitely left you wanting more. It was also nice to hear tracks from 2013’s Echogenetic, one of FLA’s more underappreciated albums.
Gary Numan has spent the last 25 years gigging hard and building up an impressive modern catalogue. It’s no secret that Numan doesn’t really enjoy playing his 80s material so much. He’ll do one-off concerts where he runs through the old albums, but he views them as a concession to a specific segment of his audience. Since his 2000 album Pure, he’s been steadily releasing his own brand of industrial hard rock, and it’s re-energized both his songwriting and live shows. Only “Metal” and “Cars” represented his older work, with the hyped-up version of the former working very well alongside his newer songs. I personally could have done without hearing “Cars” again. It was obvious that Numan himself can barely stand it, not to mention that no matter how much you modernize it, the song is not a good fit for his current setlist. I think it’s reached the point where he could get away with it, and I genuinely think most people would prefer to hear “Down In The Park.” He and his band concluded with the double shot of “My Name Is Ruin,” which went a bit viral after inexplicably appearing in a 2022 episode of South Park, and “A Prayer for the Unborn” from Pure, Numan’s personal favourite of his songs.
About halfway through Ministry’s set, frontman Al Jourgensen thanked the audience for their patience as the band had opened with a handful of songs from their most recent albums, HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES (2024) and Moral Hygiene (2021). Thing is, their new songs are pretty great, and only helped serve to get the crowd hyped up for the more well-known material that followed. Standouts from the first half were the back-to-back pair from HOPIUM, “Goddamn White Trash,” and “Aryan Embarrassment.” I’ve seen Ministry here and there over the years, and this was easily the most energetic and crisp performance I that I can remember from them. Jourgensen himself was lively and chatty, mostly about Canada’s legal weed. The second half of the set was entirely made up of Ministry classics, with 3 songs coming off of 1992’s Psalm 69. But the biggest response came from the song “Thieves” from The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste (1989), with the crowd hilariously singing along with samples in the chorus. A key ingredient here is Ministry’s current lineup, this time featuring guitarist Monte Pittman, formerly of Prong and Madonna’s band, as well as former Tool bassist Paul D’Amour who’s been with the band since 2019. At age 65, Jourgensen is releasing some of the best music of his career, and playing with one of the best lineups that Ministry’s ever had.
Ministry is on tour with Gary Numan and Front Line Assembly in the U.S. through April 5th. Then Ministry heads out on another American tour supporting Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. Check out the video for “Goddamn White Trash” below.
Thank you to FR PR.